Of lamps & lights

Lighting the lamp as a symbolic gesture is a part of every conceivable Indian festival or prayer routine. Every time I gaze at this innocuous corner of my house, many useful insights develop. The comparisons run deep between this seemingly mundane act & evolutionary progress.

A lit lamp is like a liberated person. The lamp can light other lamps - the enlightened one can guide others!

It doesn't matter how bright the lamp shines - as long as it's lit. The brighter it shines, the farther the light can be seen. Similarly, some liberated individuals shine bright enough for their fame to spread across continents & gather many disciples. On the other hand, some are so dimly lit that not even their neighbours or family are aware of their status! Never the less, they're all the same - dispellers of ignorance (darkness).

The oil used to feed the light is like karma or un-fulfilled desires. It has to get exhausted. Sometimes, before the entire oil is exhausted, the light gets extinguished & has to be re-kindled. Similarly, if a person dies with desires unsatiated, he'll be reborn again & again till there is none left.

The wick that bears the fire is like the body-mind complex. Only when suitably conditioned can it light up. When the winds of ignorance or the dirt of desires clouds the wick, darkness again engulfs the lamp! For a jeevan-mukta, the wick burns to ashes, emptying the oil at the end of life.

Perhaps a poem would've done justice to this, but I don't feel like being a poet now :). Though this analogy holds on many aspects as above, any sampling of the infinite is bound to be finite & incomplete.