Become the Source of Light
“You don’t have to pretend that you are small because you actually are a miniscule element. If you stop all your pretension, you are available to Grace.”
—Sadhguru
How to touch Grace? Sadhguru explains, as gravity is always pulling you down, Grace is constantly urging you to expand. If, even for a moment, you see that you are filled with light, that you are the source of light, then Grace has touched you.
Q: They say Grace can be a way to Self-realization. Could you say something about what Grace actually means?
Sadhguru: There are no two ways, Grace is the only way. Isaac Newton put it like this – it is just a metaphoric way of expression: He saw an apple falling down from a tree and he propounded a whole theory on how everything falls down. Yes, it is true, an apple falls down, but the entire tree is growing up. Gravity is that which pulls you down and holds you – survival! Grace is constantly pulling you up in a different direction.
There are two major aspects in you – one is the instinct of survival which is always holding you down, another is your longing to become boundless. That which is keeping this longing going is Grace. That which is constantly telling you, “That’s not safe, let’s do the safe thing,” is survival. Why we say a certain space has more possibility of touching you in terms of Grace is because the physical is a limited entity. Whether it is your body, the planet, the solar system or the whole cosmos, the physical is always a limited entity. Physicality always has a defined boundary, but what holds the physical is boundless non-existence, boundless nothingness. That which is, is creation. This boundless nothingness, that which is not, is Shiva.
Falling Back Into Grace
When we say “Shiva,” we are referring to that aspect which is constantly trying to suck you into that nothingness. The aspect of you which wants to exist is on as well, but your existence is only for a limited span of time. Whether it is you, the planet, the solar system or the whole galaxy, the existence is for a limited span of time. Everything springs from that Grace and falls back into that Grace. So, what you are referring to as nothingness is Grace. What you are referring to as Shiva is Grace. What we are referring to as Grace is that same Grace.
Now the question is, “How do I touch it?” Walk around, realizing the smallness of who you are – small is not nothing, but small is near enough. You don’t have to pretend that you are small because you actually are a miniscule element. You are just pretending to be big. If you stop all your pretension, you are available to Grace.
If Thine Eye Be Single
You know, Jesus said, “If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” The two physical eyes are discriminatory. They tell you what is high, what is low, what is man, what is woman, what is this, what is that. These two eyes are instruments of survival. “If thine eye be single,” does not mean you close one eye. “If thine eye be single…” means that you are no longer discriminatory. You see everything as one, as the same. If you become like this, your body shall be filled with light, and that is Grace.
Grace means that the source of your existence, that which is larger than creation, is no longer outside of you, it is within you. You are no longer looking for an outside source of light – you have become the source of light. Once you become that even for a moment, your life will never be the same. We are doing so many things in Isha to somehow make you experience this at least for a moment. You may not be experiencing it all the time, but if at least for a moment you see that you are filled with light, that means Grace has touched you.
If it touched you once and let us say it never came back to you again, still your life would never be the same. You can hang on to that one moment and live life very differently from anybody else around you. If it is with you all the time, then it is indescribable.
Editor’s Note: Find more of Sadhguru’s insights in the ebook “From Creation to Creator”, available at Isha Downloads. Pay what you wish and download it. Enter “0” or click “Claim for free” for a free download.
A version of this article was originally published in Isha Forest Flower November 2009.
