The Light That Ignites By Swapnil Pandey

Light Will Guide You Home
For Femina’s 62nd anniversary, we got some of our favourite authors and poets to share their interpretation of light.

The Light That Ignites
By Swapnil Pandey

Swapnil Pandey

Swapnil Pandey is a popular author with a wide audience base. She loves to compile stories about life in the Indian Army. Her latest book Force Behind The Forces released this month and is a collection of seven true stories of eternal love, courage and sacrifice based on the lives of veer naris whose husbands have lost their lives for the nation.

Light; the refulgence that surrounds us every day is so granted to us, the homo-sapiens, that we often forget that Light is the source of life. All life originates with light and ends in light. The innate fear of darkness that lurks right behind human instincts to cope with the environmental contingencies pushes us to keep ourselves close to the light. We start our day as the divine source of light, the mighty Sun, goes high in the sky but as soon as the natural light fades away in the vastness of ever spreading ever ready darkness we rush to illuminate every single source of artificial light; candles, bulbs, LEDs because the darkness is never pleasing, it brings out the evil in us, the sins, the pains, the deep-rooted insecurities or even the hard-pressed memories supposed to be buried deep within come out in the dark. No wonder everything pleasing, comforting or pretty that man has ever created has some form of light in it; backlit advertising boards and digital advertising screens, storefronts, car lights, blue light emanating from mobile and laptop screens or even the mischievous twinkling of flirty fairy lights – these all are simply the subconscious of a human mind to create a world suiting man’s palate of style, sophistication, comfort and security amidst all the hideous creatures found in the mystical nature.

The shopping arcades, malls, hospitals, public spaces, even the roads with street lights on, all heavily depend on the power of light to engage and attract people or to soothe human senses during the most difficult times. Even the divinity that lives behind the deep dark veil of darkness reveals itself through the twinkling of stars, the warmth of the beloved moon, bioluminescence of sea creatures and the fireflies or through the northern lights at the farthest coldest darkest corners of the planet. It tells us that even during the darkest hours we must never lose faith in divinity because the light is omnipresent. It is not for nothing that spirituality relies heavily on the presence of light for generating deep faith, providing hope and instigating courage in humankind necessary for the survival of the human race.

Diwali, meaning row of lights, is the biggest Hindu festival that celebrates the holy existence of light in our circadian rhythm. The tiny diyas gleaming against the darkness remind us of the victory of light over darkness in every era. Buddhism talks about numerous Buddhas of light, Ayat an-Nur or the Verse of Light (Q24:35) mentioned in the mystical Sura 24 of the Quran reads, “God is the light of the heavens and the earth.” The theme of light plays an important role in the Christian scriptures emphasising the importance of light, which is the symbol of faith, belief, truth, knowledge and power of goodness. Even Manichaeism, the most popular western religion before Christianity, based itself on the belief that God is literally light. Even the dark world of the paranormal which many people believe in uses sources of light or candles as a tool in an attempt to communicate with spirits which are unanimously shown as a gleam of light in every religion as against the guardian angels who would always be surrounded with blinding lights underlining the fact that the sole source of everything dark, grim, bright, warm emotion eventually ends in the bigger source of light which is the ultimate God. That is one true end; the Nirvana!

This is the power of light that we so conveniently ignore in our mundane lives. As the new dawn sets in with descent of the gloomy pandemic we want to tell you: believe in light to give yourself hope, surround yourself with light to sparkle, watch out for light emanating from people to set the pace of your relationships, and work hard to create more space for light in your own life, rejecting the sadness and stress.

We wish you a life full of light!

Also read: Some Lights By Tanaz Bhatena

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