05.16 – The inner light reveals not just the worst within but also the best within

We like to think that we are better than what we actually are.

Surprisingly, Gita wisdom agrees: we are, in fact, better that what we are. But not in the way we think. We are souls, parts of the all-pure Krishna. So, at our core we all are pure and godly.

However, we want to think of ourselves as good as we presently are – while we misidentify ourselves with our material bodies. Such a good self-perception depends on enormous self-denial. Though we know our many failings and failures, we downplay them as ‘no big deal.’

That’s why we feel uncomfortable around anything that forces us to shine the light within. And because scripture offers the brightest such light, we often fear that light.

However, our fear is unwarranted and unfortunate; the inner light is meant to reveal not the dirt within, but the divinity within. Tragically, due to our dread of discovering the dirt within, we end up never discovering the divinity within.

Gita wisdom makes it easy for us to gain all that we have been missing. The Bhagavad-gita (05.16) indicates that the light of spiritual wisdom illumines the inner world just as the sun illumines the outer world. This illumination does force us to see the worst within – all the contaminations that we had stuffed away in the darkest closets of our heart. But that illumination also reveals something more. It shows the best within – Krishna and our dormant love for him.

By practicing devotional service according to this light, we gain inner strength and wealth: strength by becoming aware of Krishna’s empowering presence and wealth by accessing Krishna’s enriching grace.

Living thus in the light of Krishna’s love is life at its best – exciting, fulfilling and ever-lasting.

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When, however, one is enlightened with the knowledge by which nescience is destroyed, then his knowledge reveals everything, as the sun lights up everything in the daytime.