ARANI SERIES
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Spark 29
BE THE FLAME WITHOUT SMOKE
“Discover that ‘light within you,’ that is a flame without smoke!” Kathopanishad1 urges us to do so.
In the simplest language, we are that bright flame when ‘selfish motives’ leave us. Egoism and the numerous selfish aspirations that arise from it are the smoke that make the light dim.
Wherever we go, we find that there are varieties of misunderstanding in relationships. Many a time, it is because each side clings to its own perception of the situation. Each side believes it is seeing the matter rightly. We must introspect. We must re-examine the stand we have taken. We must be ready to change, if we find that we have been wrong.
This honesty is the way to free the ‘flame of our awareness’ of the ‘smoke of error in perception. Alertness is the royal way to alertness. All other practices are stepping stones at best.
Pride, false prestige, foolish attachments and, above all, certain baseless sense of insecurity obstruct honest living. Living in fear, we postpone the cleansing of the ‘flame’.
Some teachers realize our limitations and sympathize. If alertness, the direct approach, is hard, we may go for some practices, they say. They are not wrong. We need to arrive at a degree of inner order or balance.
Bhaja Govindam has a verse:
Stay devoted to the lotus feet of your Guru; restrain your senses; control your emotions; follow healthy rules of right living; you will soon get freed from the worldly bondages; you will see the Self, shining in your own heart!
Swami Chidananda
Notes:
1 jyotir-iva adhoomakah – Kathopanishad 2.1.14
2 | guru-charanāmbuja-nirbhara-bhaktah
| samsārād-achirād bhava muktah |
| sendriya-mānasa-niyamād-evam
| drakshyasi nija-hridayastham devam ||