Consciousness – The light of the life

 

For a biologist consciousness generally means being awake having ability to perceive sensations from the surroundings and within the body. In spiritual dimension consciousness means something beyond this.

 

Once there was a father and a son. One day they went to the fields during the night. The father gave a lantern to his son and he took another one for himself. They both went in two different directions. By the time they returned, the father’s lantern was still bright but the son’s lantern was dull . The son put all the efforts to keep his lantern bright ,but no use. This repeated daily. Then the son asked the father “Why is this daily happening to me? What needs to be done?

Then the father gave five tips  for better illumination of the lamp.

1 Put quality oil in the lamp – the quality of the oil decides the quality of flame.

2 If the glass is left loose , it will be smoked

3 Be vigilant about what you use to shine the glass, it may cause scratches and make it opaque.

4 Clean the inside of the glass regularly, to clear the smoke on the glass.

5 Don’t use a colored glass, it may be attractive for a while but it cuts down the illumination.

Here the flame can be equated to the consciousness. The glass around the light can be equated to the mind. Swami Vivekananda says the light of the consciousness is equal in each of us. There is no difference in the consciousness of a criminal and a saint.  Manifesting out the consciousness is the one which makes all the difference.

1.          Quality oil gives a bright flame, Quality knowledge and thoughts brightens up the consciousness.
2.         Smoke on the lamp glass is like ignorance to the mind
3.         Beware of what touches your mind. Some experiences and beliefs become scars ,,of the mind which obstruct the manifestation of our consciousness.
4.           A smoked glass should cleaned from inside. In the same way insight can only      get rid of the ignorance.
5.         Emotions in the mind are like a tint or color to the glass. Seeing the world through the emotions like fear, sadness, greed gives fallacious view of the world. A mind in peace is like a clear glass which manifests out the true beauty of the consciousness.

Biological consciousness:

 There is any area called reticular activating system in the human brain which is the source for the consciousness. Any disturbance to this area by any means can cause coma like states or death. This biological consciousness is the basis for physical survival of human being.

Spiritual consciousness: A person may be fully conscious biologically but the manifestation of  his consciousness  is decided by his beliefs, thoughts, emotions. Most of the biologically conscious people are spiritually unconscious. Depression, unforgiving, laziness, procrastination, guilt, greed, cravings, vengeance etc lead to spiritual unconsciousness. These attitudes are just like the smoke to the glass which won’t let the light of the lamp come out. True ignorance is because of lack of insight. A person is spiritually conscious if he can live completely in the present moment and has complete control over his thoughts and emotions.

(spiritual)  consciousness which manifests out-------(Biological) Consciousness at source

 

On the other-hand experience of the flame  is as follows:

The lantern flame was travelling with the son daily. It illuminated the place where ever it went. The flame started enjoying the world which came into its focus. It came across green fields, roads, and flowers and it was happy. As the days passed it became sad because it had to see garbage and cow dung instead of the green fields (after harvestation). The world became gloomy and dull. It did not realize that less light around was due to dullness of the glass around it. It said to itself “this dull world is not worth watching but I don’t have any choice”.

 When the flame heard the words of the father it came to a realization

1. This world is like this even before I came here
2.    I am seeing the reflection of myself in this world
3.     The truth of the world I see depends upon the light which reaches out and it is decided by this glass. So, it is important to make sure my glass is clean before I judge the world. 

This flame is like our consciousness. In Yoga this is called as “Purusha”. The mind, the world, the thoughts , the judgement,  the emotions experienced are called as “prakriti” (Nature).   The sufferings of the consciousness continue till it looks outside for its fulfillment. Patanjali says suffering happens when the purusha confuses itself with prakriti. “Vairagya” or renunciation makes the mind clear for consciousness. The realization that “the world is reflection of the light of our consciousness passing through our mind” is the gate way to our liberation.