Our scriptures tell us that we are living in darkness. Scriptures come from those who were enlightened and told us about the light that was what they were known of. Scriptures are attempts to say what cannot be said. Scriptures attempted to weave in words that cannot be tied in words. To say anything words are needed. But truth cannot be said in words. Merged in words it gets submerged to become a lie. Truth uses the language of silence.
Truth is one. Experience of truth is one. That one thing has been attempted to be said for thousands of years. We do not know how to decrypt the truth that is encrypted in words. But we continue to read encrypted scriptures. We continue to lend our own definitions to the truth of scriptures, ascribing our own meanings to them. We have turned scriptures into reflections of our dreams.
We are living in darkness. We live in darkness by choice. In the darkness, we grope. We love to grope. We are neither able to see nor wake up. We need eyes and for eyes to see we need light. Scriptures do not have any light so they don’t throw any light. Scripture tells us about light, what light is all about, and how it would be lit when there is light — they tell us about that state in words. We love to sing songs of light inscribed in scriptures to dispel the darkness but we never understand that darkness is an absence of light. We keep praying ‘Tamso Maa Jyotirgamaya (O Mother take us from darkness to light). Simply to say, we have corrupted the words of scriptures and have made them into objects of knowledge.
Buddha did not grope in the dark, he moved towards the light. Buddha says Appo Deepo Bhava (Be a light unto yourself). You have to be the light unto yourself because you are the light. You have to be lit up in your own light. Buddha’s words are clear milestones that set you for your journey. Unless you find light, you will keep on groping in the darkness of life. When you find light you will be able to see because you already have eyes. But we keep repeating the words of Buddha to create darkness and ignorance from hints about light. Buddha began his journey by denial of the existence of God and attained Godhood. There is no God but there is godliness and one can attain it.
No scriptures can help you. People go on reading scriptures every day because reading the same scriptures repeatedly many times every day becomes a ‘mantra’. It works as an intoxicating tranquilliser to a gyrating mind. But it is in no way untying what is bundled into them. Repeating words breeds monotony, sleep, and darkness.
When we go on repeating written words believing them as the truth said by God, we make them untrue. Truth is truth when we seek it. But it never becomes our deep seeking. All prayers and scriptures are seeking of the seekers. Not repetitions of mere borrowed words will switch on the light to get you out of the darkness.
You have to become the seeker not just of Sunday prayers-type or daily-temple-going-type to offer the same prayers in exchange for your demand list. You have to become the prayer. Your whole being has to become the prayer. Prayerfulness has to become every moment part of you like your breath.
Your being is the prayer. But your darkness does not let you be that part of you. God has overwhelmed you from all sides. From all directions, you are lulled in the godliness from everywhere. Be it from within and from without. You think you have to do prayers. That is darkness. You have to be the prayer that will make you take some steps within to walk those unknown ways to reach those uncharted lands that you have never walked.
You think you have to do something. You think you have to follow some rituals or some type of religious symbols that you are conditioned into. It’s not true.
You don’t have to do anything. You don’t have to offer flowers or break coconut shell. But you have to offer your own flower and your own head not that coconut to camouflage your head. You are the flower of existence and you have to offer your own flower in prayers.
You don’t have to go anywhere, not to any church, temple, or mosque. You just have to be in prayerfulness. Doing something will take time but sitting prayerful does not take time. Closing your eyes prayerfully just being there, remaining within, remaining with yourself, and remaining with the facts of your prayers make it happen.
You be the prayers. You simply be yourself in your being, prayer will happen. You are the prayer. In prayer, the only offering that we make is ourselves.
Prayer will take you from darkness to light. Prayer knows no bounds. In prayer, your heart is full of prayerfulness which is rejoicing in the joy of your being.
When you let the existence or That-Which-Is enter you, and you be one with it and you feel that joyfulness of being in the prayerfulness, prayer happens. In prayer, you feel being in the womb of existence and you being in the joy of being. In prayer, you exist in the existence and the existence exists in you.
Prayer is not presenting a demand petition to God asking God to do some monetary barter in exchange for the fulfilment of your wish. Prayers are not bartering or digging gold out of God.
You have to peel yourself layer by layer. It does not matter you die as poor or rich, it does not matter you read scriptures or thrillers. All that matters is whether you found the right path that took you from sleep to consciousness. Prayer is the right step.
You have to be the prayer not to do prayer. Hindus are very primitive, they use scriptures for all occasions. That is what it means when Krishna says in the Gita, “Karmanye Vadhikaraste, Ma Phaleshu Kadachana (You have right to your actions but cannot expect fruits thereof).
Prayerfulness is being in the existence every moment, every hour, and every day. It is not karma. When you be prayerful, meanings of scriptures will shower upon you. You would understand that scriptures are indications of the prayers.
Scriptures ask you to write your own scriptures. Or to read the Holy Book that you are carrying within yourself and if you are courageous enough to read it and you read it right.
Sufis have a Holy Book. They have their own scripture and that is very beautiful. If you turn page after page you get a meaningful understanding of That-Which-Is. It can transform your life. Don’t be surprised. The entire book is empty, all pages are empty. Not a word is imprinted on them. But it is very amazing if you learn to read it. It changes you completely. In the silence, That-Which-Is is known.
Do not hanker afterwards. Actual understanding is in the silence that birth words. Scriptures are hints and hints alone won’t take you from darkness to light. Life is a mystery, don’t spend a lifetime understanding or trying to demystify it but you can live the mystery and rejoice in its unfathomable depth and unattainable height.
The author is a spiritual teacher, and advisor on policy, governance and leadership. He can be contacted at arunavlokitta@gmail.com