Be a Lamp unto Yourself

You come to this life alone and leave alone. There is nothing to hold on to in this world except your own being.

At least once a day, drop everything on your mind- your worries, projects, tasks, aspirations for some time and just be – be yourself. . Relish that pure joy of being and perfect peace. Commune with the light within you. To be alive, to experience I-ness, to breathe, to experience being – in itself a miracle. Revel in the light of your own being.

Whenever you’re all by yourself, try to watch your thoughts instead of getting lost in your thoughts. As long as you identify with the mind, you cannot be contented. We keep moving from one job to another, one relationship to another, one ideology to another- all out of discontentment, thinking change will bring happiness, bring contentment.

We are all victims of a machine that produces thoughts continuously, said Paul Brunton and ‘meditation is the process of regaining control over this machine.

Learn from yourself, understand, and watch yourself- the light is in you. No one else can do this on your behalf. It’s your journey, and you walk alone. There is no need to seek it outside in a deity, in a Guru, in Books, in places of Pilgrimages: Ishwara is already in you. The more you seek it outside, the more elusive it becomes. The kingdom of God is within you. Search within.

Buddha’s final message to his pupils was to Be a light unto yourself. Krishna also said Atman Atmani uddharet. Lift yourself by yourself. Make that effort. Jesus said in Luke, ‘Be careful, then, that the light within you is not darkness.’ We need to discover the light of god, the essence of being in ourselves.