This House of Light

There are unforgettable moments in which we feel the powerful presence of a greater life. It may be in a sacred place, in the vista from a high mountain, in the dynamic silence of a cave, in the presence of a wise teacher, or on a surfboard floating in the immensity of the ocean. In such moments we experience the vibrant unseen aliveness that pervades the visible world. We also sense the unique auric presence of the place that drew forth the experience. We are pervaded with that presence, and, in exchange, we radiate our responsive recognition. When we leave, we carry within us the impact of the presence and our realisation of it – we are changed and refined by it. This refining process has been called radiatory substitution or energising at-one-ment.  The poet, William Wordsworth, must have experienced something of this when he composed “Upon Westminster Bridge”:

Earth has not any thing to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne’er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!

As the awakening of human consciousness accelerates, it brings the realisation that we share one Home – a beautiful planet that floats in the universe like a precious blue gem. Our home has presence and place amongst the stars and radiates its unique contribution through the greater home of the Cosmos. Like all heavenly bodies its presence influences and makes a progressive difference to the greater Life of which it is an active and integral part.

This mighty macrocosm reflects through its microcosmic parts – whether stone, plant, place, animal or person. And each part is a radiantly active point of force enlivened by the one great life that flows through and sustains all. By resonant sensitivity we become aware of and open to that life in those moments of transcendent experience – moments which eventually merge into a steady flow of knowing.  A commentary on one of the yoga sutras of Patanjali reminds us that:

Every form in manifestation is the result of God’s thought; every objective vehicle through which the life impulses of the universe flow is produced and kept in objective manifestation through the steady flow of thought currents emanating from one stupendous cosmic thinker.  His mysterious ways, His secret hidden plan, the great purpose towards which He is working in this solar system, is as yet not apparent to man.  However, as man’s capacity to think in large terms, as his power to visualize the past as a whole, and to unify what knowledge he has of the life of God as it works through the kingdoms of nature, and as his understanding of the nature of consciousness grows, the will of God (based on loving activity) will become apparent.
The clue to the how and the why lies in man’s comprehension of his own mental activities.  An appreciation of God’s great thought form, a solar system and its maintenance, will grow as man comprehends his own thought forms and the way he builds and creates his own environment and colours his own life.  He constructs his own worlds by the power of his mental processes and the modifications of that fragment of the universal thinking principle which he has appropriated for his own use.
The solar Logos, God, let it be remembered, is the sum total of every state of consciousness or awareness.  Man,—humanity as a whole, or an individual unit—is part of that total. .”   [The Light of the Soul, page 406-7]

Within our world, the One Home we share, there are many homes within homes. Individual homes within communities, within states, within nations. When an animating presence moves into a form, or a house, it transforms an empty shell into a radiant home. As we move into a house in the outer world, we bring the radiance from our true home, a more glorious sphere to which we return when our worldly task is done.  The Master, Jesus, reminded us that “In my Father’s house are many mansions” and “I go to prepare a place for you.” [John 14:2]

As we become aware of the greater Life, we are drawn towards that finer realm and participate in the building of a new world, a new home of finer substance. The Agni Yoga teachings urge us to begin construction:

The Teacher has joined in an eternal oath about establishment of the New World, so follow Him with your every effort. Humanity needs to purify its existence, so reconstruction must begin from the hearth, from everyday life. You should not wait for whole nations to start moving; on the contrary, the life principle will undergo a worldwide reformation on a personal basis, quite apart from nationality. So you should first of all remember that it is not the narrow old boundaries that will partition the world. The foundation of psychic energy is not limiting itself to a specific nation, but will discover a completely different world pattern. [Heart 173]

Let our thinking move with the divine thought currents flowing towards the new world through the all-inclusive heart which is the hearth of our new home:

…Just as the sun is the heart of the system, the human heart is the sun of the organism. There are many sun-hearts, and the Universe represents a system of hearts; that is why the cult of Light is the cult of the heart… You can look upon the rhythm of the heart as the rhythm of life. … the warmth of the heart speeds as swiftly as a sunbeam. Everyone has felt astonishment at how a ray of the rising sun can instantly insulate everything from the cold. The heart can do the very same thing!
I am speaking of the warmth of the heart now that it is especially necessary. A thought surging forth in aspiration sets space on fire, while the warmth of the heart is a constant hearth. Courage dwells in the warmth of the heart—remember this!… [Heart 62]