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"The only wisdom we can hope
to acquire
Is the Wisdom of HUMILITY"
T. S. Eliot.
"The light of a Master Mason is
darkness visible". So says the ritual of the charge
after raising.
It was very pertinently observed by
a great scholar that "Those great moments when
you realise how little you know are the very moments
when you are on the threshold of great knowledge".
Though he was never initiated into our fraternity he
is a real Mason at heart.
'Darkness visible' is a symbol of humility
which indeed is a very noble trait. 'Amanithvam (humility)
is the very first in the list of twenty four moral and
ethical qualities enumerated in the Bhagavadgita (Chapter
XIII)
Imagine a small lighted candle in the
middle of a big dense forest on a new moon night. That
little candle light cannot illuminate the whole forest
but can only throw a small circle of light surrounded
by a vast area of pitch darkness. But by the presence
of that small light one should be able to perceive or
make visible the encircling darkness.
Newton-that world famous scientist
- is said to have once remarked - "I do not know
what people think of me, but as far as I am concerned.
I feel, I am a small child playing on the Sunday beach,
while the great ocean of learning is spread before me.
Perhaps I am luckier than others in laying my hands
on a smoother pebble or a brighter shell" This
is humility born out of real knowledge.
Let us now view the subject from a
spiritual angle. From the man of the world. TRUTH (the
knowledge of yourself) is veiled by a thick dark curtain
of spiritual darkness (Maya-ignorance) on account of
which he cannot perceive the LIGHT (true knowledge).
But as Master masons, who are expected to be enlightened
personalities far from the madding crowd' - we should
be able to make a chink here and a chink there in that
dark curtain and get at least a momentary glimpses of
Truth visible through that veil of darkness. To the
true seeker of Light, this is an encouraging thought
for even those transitory glimpses have a cumulative
effect and will some day lead to an absolute and total
self realisation.
As masons with an unflinching faith
in the Godhead, we are always urged to continue our
search after Truth which is a series of steps each having
a glimmer of Light and if we truly and unceasingly move
on and on, the previous step receives greater illumination.
With the desire to rise higher and
higher on the ladder of spiritual ascendence, we must
naturally loose our attachment to things mandane and
begin to wrok inwards but there is the great danger
that we might take a little knowledge as all knowledge.
This is a well known trap in spiritual progress called
'spiritual pride' or egotism. We receive a revelation
and instead of seeking further by the light of that
is all. If we make an attempt to advance, the first
revelation seems to dim slightly and we are likely to
retrace our steps to the point we have gained and cling
to it. This is indeed a tragedy in the path of spiritual
evolution of many a seeker. They however receive certain
supernatural powers as a result of their efforts. While
some keep silent, a few begin to cash on the gulibility
and credulity of the common man: yet some others begin
to make comparision between what they know and superior
to others. What they learn they keep for themseves;
what they have, they are not irclined to part with.
It is the absence of love which crates such a superiority
complex. If they have true love they do not set themselves
apart from or above all.
The G.A.O.T.U. taught us Love and by
the light of that love, our darkness becomes VISIBLE
and having perceived our darkness, we can strive to
lighten it.
S.M.I.B.
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