Indiatimes.com
November 2001
Don’t search for any light outside. The last words of Buddha were ‘Be a light unto yourself. Be a lamp unto yourself.’ Don’t search for light anywhere else; the light is already there, the fire is already there. Just probe a little deeper into your being, enquire. Maybe much ash has gathered around the fire… Just probe deep inside, and you will find the spark again. And once you have found a single spark inside you, you will become a flame soon, you will be a fire – a fire that purifies, a fire that transforms, a fire that gives you a new birth and a new being.
Dipam means a light, a lamp. Be a lamp unto yourself. Those are the last words of Gautama, the Buddha, but they contain the whole message of all the masters. Listen, learn, watch …
Learn from each and everything: from trees, from birds, animals, rivers, mountains. Learn from everywhere, keep yourself open to all the dimensions of life. Let existence pour its wisdom into you, from every nook and corner. That is the message in this simple word ‘dipam’: be a light unto yourself.
If you don’t take the lamp of awareness with you, you are going to create a hell around you. Light your lamp wherever you go. Wherever you go, whatsoever you do, always do it in the inner light, with awareness. Good follows your inner light just like a shadow. You take care of the inner light. That’s what meditation is all about – to become more alert. Live the same life, just change your alertness – make it more intense.
One has to discover one’s own light, one’s own being, one’s own self-nature. The moment one discovers one’s inner being, all darkness starts disappearing, because at the very centre of your being is nothing but pure light. But it has to be discovered. Love is the quality of enlightenment. It is the light that comes out of that inner lamp, that inner lamp of enlightenment. When that flame is burning inside, then the light flows outside. Wherever it falls, it is love.
Love is such a light that the darkness of the ego cannot exist in it at all. If you love others, if your love is focused on others, you will live in darkness. Turn your light towards yourself first, become a light unto yourself first. Let the light dispel your inner darkness, your inner weakness. Let love make you a tremendous power, a spiritual force. And once your soul is powerful you know you are not going to die, you are immortal, you are eternal. Love gives you the first insight into eternity; love is the only experience that transcends time.
If your inner being changes, your whole outer life will be totally different. It will have a different fragrance, a different beauty, a different grace. And when your inner being is changed and becomes a flame of light, you will become a light unto others too. You will become a beckoning light, a great herald of a new dawn. Your very presence will trigger revolutions in other people’s lives.
Feel yourself as a flame, live as if you are an inner burning light, move with the inner flame. Do whatsoever you do, but always feel yourself as if you are made out of light. And by and by you will see a luminousness arising around you.
Compiled by: Swami Chaitanya Keerti
Osho Rajyoga Meditation Centre
