Luminousness – In Gita Verse 14.8 O son of Bharata, know that the mode of darkness, born of ignorance, is the delusion of all embodied living entities. The results of this mode are madness, indolence and sleep, which bind the conditioned soul.
Krishna teaches us that we fail to understand our darkness, which is born of ignorance. This lack of understanding binds the conditioned soul.
Darkness Has Its Own Joy: Often in life, we experience a peculiar sensation. Amidst our bustling activities – running, talking, laughing, working, reading, writing, and cleaning – when we finally close the door, fall silent, and shut our eyes, we encounter darkness.
Regardless of our thoughts or feelings, whether it’s morning or night, a look inward reveals darkness. The ‘I’, the ego, is this darkness; when you seek the looker within, you find darkness. The very act of looking presupposes a division: the looker and the looked-upon. This division, this duality, is darkness. In oneness, there is light; in twoness, there is darkness.
Initially, for the meditator, this internal darkness is terrifying. Who would willingly enter into it? But as one persists, without yearning for light – simply accepting the darkness – it becomes bright with its radiance.
Accept the darkness. Love it. Embrace it. Feel at one with it. When there is no division between the observer and the observed, light illuminates the expanse of your being—a light that needs no fuel, a light that is eternal.
So, rather than seeking light, love your darkness. Dissolve into it. Therein lies the path to understanding. Darkness is silence, stillness, and infinity – qualities that light can never possess. Krishna himself is depicted as dark – Shyam – to symbolise this profound depth.
The darkness I speak of is fertile with potential, alive with the thrill of the unknown. When you learn to love darkness, you earn the right to true illumination – the light that transcends opposition to darkness and embraces both. It is a splendid convergence where dualities dissolve into a transcendent unity.
Discard your preconceived notions of light and darkness. Dancing with darkness, you come into harmony with existence. And in this harmony, you discover a light that combines the essence of both, eclipsing their sum.
Krishna advises us to love the darkness – it is divine. Be grateful for the stillness, the silence, and the vast velvet expanse of your inner darkness. As you surrender to it, the division between you and the darkness dissolves. From this union emerges luminousness that springs not from sun, moon, or electricity, but the very source of all light and darkness, yet unlike either.
Embrace the darkness within as an act of love, and therein you will glimpse your soul, a presence too profound for words. This encounter with the soul, ineffable and boundless, isn’t born from struggle but from a heartfelt embracing of all that exists – every gleam of light, every trace of shadow.
Your soul embodies both the seen and unseen, light and dark, not as contradictions but as a dance of complementary forces. In loving the fullness of your inner world, an inner illumination emerges, not to vanquish the dark, but to reveal the soul’s radiant truth – a harmony of all contrasts.
Thus, by loving the darkness, we come to know the soul’s transcendent light – a light made richer by the depths from which it springs.
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