The Light Within By Rajni Sekhri Sibal

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 Within
By Rajni Sekhri Sibal

Rajni Sekhri Sibal

Rajni Sekhri Sibal is a writer and an IAS officer of the Haryana cadre. She is the recipient of the Indian of the Year Award in the category ‘Unsung Hero’ for her ‘courage and commitment’. Sibal has authored several books and writes both prose and poetry. Her next book, Women of Influence: Ten Extraordinary IAS Careers releases this month. It is a collection of remarkable stories of 10 civil servants and their experiences across different generations and in different geographies – 10 outstanding women who have walked that extra mile and made a difference.

A word can evoke a whole vista of images and bring back the whiff of a memory – the aura of an exquisite experience. The word ‘light’ transports me to a hilltop on a balmy blue dawn and brings with it an invigorating sense of being truly alive.

Light to me is the glow that surrounds me at dawn – within and without – as the sky begins to turn from an inky ashes-of-roses to a translucent rose-tinged amber, just a moment before the sun rises behind snow-peaked mountains…

I am a morning person, and my soul lies somewhere in the Himalayas. Each time I close my eyes and look deep within, I find myself in a zone where the air is crisp and the rays of the sun touch me gently through a lattice of leaves. As I go back to a timeless moment in time, I become engulfed in a warm glow of light and an aroma of pine trees. Poetry fills the air with the words of a universal song – a timeless ode to the ultimate source of light in the world, by the world:

The Universe is illumined and you are the light
Your light radiates and kindles all I can see
As the sun comes up, a light glows within me
Like a parched song-bird I yearn for thee
I offer all I have – and what I have you gave me…
O Luminous One! O Radiant Sun!

Your name is the light – that illumines the world
Your name is exquisite – and brings succour to all
Your name is the light – that dispels the dark
Your name is the grandeur of the celestial stars
I venerate the magnificence of the cosmic lights…
O Luminous One! O Radiant Sun!

The sun, the provider of light and the dispeller of darkness, has been celebrated for thousands of years – by poets and scientists and in scripture. The Upanishads, ancient and rational scriptures of the East, provide an exquisite description of the light of the sun, and I quote:

“When she shines, everything shines after her; by her light, all this is lighted;
The world proceeds as a mirage from the rays of the morning sun…”

– Mundaka Upanishad II Mundaka II Khanda II 11

Also read: The Paradox Of Light And Dark By Namita Gokhale

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