All-Pervading Light
Mr. T.P. Ramachandra Aiyar asked Bhagavan about the meaning of ‘all-pervading light’ in the first stanza of ‘Forty Verses on Reality’.
Bhagavan: ‘All-pervading Light’ means the ‘Light that fills up everything’. It refers to that light of the mind (manas) in which we see all the world, both the known and the unknown of the world.
There is first the white light, so to call it, of the Self, which transcends both light and darkness. In it, no object can be seen. There is neither seer nor seen.
Then there is total darkness or ignorance (avidya), in which also no objects are seen.
But from the Self proceeds a reflected light, the light of pure mind (manas), and it is this light which gives room for the existence of all the film of the world which is seen neither in total light nor in total darkness, but only in the subdued or reflected light. It is this light which is referred to in the stanza (in Forty Verses on Reality).
Day by Day with Bhagavan
March 17, 1945
