Darkness tempts us by saying, "What I have is very sweet, very nice and most fascinating. I have come to offer it to you." Then we ask to try it and we see it, feel it and taste it. Then we are caught and we are doomed.
When light stands in front of us it says, "We are one. You and I are one. What I have inside me, you also have." Light says that it has Peace, Bliss, Delight and Power and tells us that if we look inside ourselves, then we will also find the same Peace, Bliss, Delight and Power. We are one. But our mind which lives in the limited consciousness would rather try to possess something outside of itself. It feels, "What is the use of having something I already possess?" So when darkness offers it something outside of itself in the form of temptation, it tries to grab it. It makes no difference whether it is good or bad. Just because it doesn’t have it, it wants it. That is why we are always fond of ignorance.
Why do we cherish ignorance? First of all, we cherish a thing because we feel that it is something which another person has and for this reason we want it. When we see someone is very rich, we immediately want to become rich too. When someone is happy, immediately we want to be happy. We are always looking around at what others are doing and then trying to imitate them. We feel that if we don’t have the thing that others have, then we are fools. Everybody has ignorance. We also have ignorance, but we think that if we do not have a large enough quantity of ignorance then we are inferior.
A child has a balloon. He feels that his balloon is the best thing on earth. But he does not want to remember that a balloon is always very short-lived and will soon burst. He only wants to remember that it is his possession and he does not want to part with it. Ignorance is like a balloon. We feel that if this little toy is taken away from us, then we will be totally lost and have nothing. But when we consciously enter into the spiritual life, we feel that ignorance is constantly tempting us and never fulfilling us. We feel that the more we play with the balloon the more we are being frustrated and destroyed. We have to know what we want: temptation or fulfilment. If fulfilment is our choice, then temptation has to be discarded from our life of aspiration.
In our ordinary day-to-day life ignorance is like a camel: while a camel is eating thorns its mouth bleeds, but it continues to eat thorns because it has formed the habit of eating thorns. When we are eight or nine years old, ignorance starts entering into us most powerfully. Before that time, ignorance knows that we are helpless and that at any moment it can attack us. But again, the power of the soul is very strong. When the soul enters into the body, for one, two, three, four, five or six years, it remains absolutely powerful because it has the capacity to remain in the fore. But gradually the child starts learning many wrong things from his parents, neighbours, friends and the outer atmosphere, and ignorance enters. When the child is growing up, he sees many shortcomings in his parents but he does not know that these are shortcomings. He thinks that these are things that he needs. He thinks that he needs them to stay on earth and to prove that he is also a real human being. So in this way he starts cherishing in his mind, vital or physical these ideas that come from the physical senses. When he starts using his physical senses without being inspired from the heart, darkness enters into his eyes and blinds them and falsehood enters into his ears and poisons them. All the undivine qualities enter into him as his life-boat sails.
There is nobody on earth from the age of thirteen on who can say that he or she does not know what ignorance is. Before that, when one is a child, one cannot differentiate light from ignorance. He can’t be blamed. But after the age of thirteen, our conscience tells us whether we are doing the right thing or not. Our conscience starts functioning even at the age of three or four or five, but at that time our conscience does not have enough power to regulate our life. When a child does something wrong he may be scolded and threatened, but he does not actually understand that his action is something that is going to create a dark spot in his own life. He does not realise that there is a tablet in his heart and if he does anything wrong that tablet will be full of spots. He feels that if he has done something wrong and his mother or father has scolded him, then it is over. But when we are thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, or sixteen years old, we know that whenever we make a mistake we have to pay the penalty.
How can we overcome ignorance? In this world we know only two things: I want or I don’t want. We either accept or reject. In God’s cosmic Game there are only two things: Ignorance and knowledge. So we have to say, "I want knowledge, divine wisdom, and I don’t want ignorance."
When we enter deeply into the spiritual life we feel that ignorance is something that has to be overcome. It is binding us and is constantly offering us frustration. At that time we say, "I don’t want ignorance, I want light." At every moment one has to practise acceptance and rejection. Every thought is either composed of ignorance or of wisdom, of darkness or of light. There is nothing in between. Either darkness is filling the vessel or light is filling the vessel. This is why we have to allow the light to enter into the vessel. If we don’t allow light in, then naturally darkness will come and fill up the vessel.
As there is no limit to darkness, so also there is no limit to light. Now it is up to us to choose. We can live in darkness and ignorance or we can live in light. Today it is difficult for a human being to live in light. It is easier for him to live in darkness. But tomorrow that particular seeker will find it really difficult, extremely difficult to live in ignorance and darkness because he has begun to live in light.
What to accept? Light. Why to accept? Because it is in the light that we have the message of fulfilment and perfection. It is in the light that we see reality and divinity. Why do we reject darkness and ignorance? Because inside ignorance we are constantly seeing the game of temptation and frustration, and we do not want to take part in the game. But even if we just become observers we will be affected. People who have entered into the spiritual life and do not take a conscious part in ignorance may observe at a distance, but I wish to say that even at a distance they are bound to be affected. The best thing is to be freed totally from the game of temptation and frustration. It is easy. First we won’t observe the game in ourselves; then we won’t observe it in others. We then have to feel in ourselves another game. And this is the game of aspiration and illumination. Let us become united with aspiration and illumination. If we play with them, then ignorance can easily be overcome.From:Sri Chinmoy,The illumination of life-clouds, part 1, Agni Press, 1974
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