The Harried Mystic

In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna says to Arjuna ( Verses 10 & 11):

To those steadfast in love and devotion I give spiritual wisdom, so that they may come to me. Out of compassion, I destroy the darkness of their ignorance. From within them I light the lamp of wisdom and dispel all darkness from their lives.

In the Gospel of John 8:12, Jesus says:

I am the Light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.

Twenty-five hundred years before Christ, the message of the divine light was equated with the divine splendor. This universal teaching refers to an inner work whose aim is to release the light that surely burns naturally and brightly in us all. So, what gets in the way?

Sri Krishna sums it up. It is ignorance. It is our illusions, allusions, and delusions. It is the opaque screen of egoistic motive, and preoccupation with our own sense of purpose and design that blocks the otherwise steady stream of divine light.

A soul in deep distress can be as a “black hole” from which Light cannot escape. It consumes itself and all around it. It is the task of a soul to bring forth her Light; to illuminate the whole world, to be a Christic, a Bodhisattva, and to work to dispel ignorance.

The work, like charity, begins inside, within the self. We must remove the shields, the screens, the walls and boundaries and find the source.

It is the journey of our lives to uncover and recover what we have always been: to be as we truly are, once all the mist and fog of doubt and worry and plots and subplots are cleared away.

Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!

Oh, come, our Dayspring from on high,
And cheer us by your drawing nigh,
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!

© Brother Anton and The Harried Mystic, 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.