Let It Shine

Today is our last day in the Ananda community near Assisi. In a few days we’ll be flying to India to greet friends whom we haven’t seen for three years and to experience the expansion of Ananda’s work there. Our time in Assisi has been filled with blessings as we’ve shared together with our gurubhais the joy of a life in God.

It’s especially heartening to see the dedicated young people and families who are moving here. There seems to be a new generation of spiritually advanced souls being born who aren’t impressed with the razzle-dazzle of the world, but are seeking higher values.

A friend of ours was telling us about a group of children whose families have recently moved to Assisi and who have asked him to teach them meditation. One twelve-year-old girl told him that she’d been reading Swami Kriyananda’s Art and Science of Raja Yoga, and had written a school paper on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.

“I’m very interested in the yamas and niyamas,” the girl told our friend, “and especially in the principle of non-lying. Before we moved here, when I was with my friends at school, I would pretend to be interested in clothes so that they would accept me. Now I realize after coming to Ananda that I was lying to myself, because that isn’t really who I am.” What a profound insight, something that most people never realize!

Hearing this story reminded me of an experience I myself had had shortly after coming to Ananda Village in 1969. In the first days after arriving, I felt a great sense of freedom that I didn’t quite understand. Then one day the words clarified in my mind: “I don’t have to play games anymore.”

I understood that I could be myself without trying to impress others according to their standards—ones that I didn’t share.

This is a gift of the spiritual path: to discover and accept our own uniqueness, and let it determine the course of our life.

This is a gift of the spiritual path: to discover and accept our own uniqueness, and let it determine the course of our life. As the young girl who was exploring non-lying discovered, self-honesty requires courage, but only then are we able to live our life with authenticity.

We were speaking with another friend at Assisi, and told her about the man at Frankfurt airport that I wrote about in an earlier blog. He had looked very penetratingly at Jyotish and me and said, “You have to accept your own light so that other people have the courage to accept theirs.”

After hearing this story, Sahaja got a surprised look in her eyes, and got up and left the room. She soon returned holding a small carved wooden angel that she’d had on her altar for many years. It contained an excerpt from the writings of Marianne Williamson:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Finally, remember that it isn’t for our own aggrandizement that we accept the divine light within us. As Christ told his followers: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

When we can stand in humility, bathed in God’s light within and without, then we experience the truth of who we really are.

Wishing you the joy of Self-discovery,

Nayaswami Devi