The Long Walk From Darkness To Light

I recall hearing a saying many years ago that stuck in my mind and heart and resonated within my soul. It goes like this “Spirit sleeps in the mineral, dreams in the plant, walks in the animal and thinks in man”. It has a deep metaphysical meaning that goes beyond the words strung together on a piece of paper just as we human beings are much more than the trillions of atoms formed together to make these human bodies.

Many religions and over a billion plus people believe in Karma and Reincarnation as a means for each soul to evolve as they traverse a path over many, many lifetimes from a simple form of creation such as the mineral or plant to an animal and eventually that of a human. If this is the case, one can see how it could take many lifetimes for a soul to evolve back to its awakened perfection and freedom in God. Also, if we look at our own state of consciousness and that of the collective consciousness of the planet, which is currently in a sorry state of affairs, it’s both powerful and humbling to consider.

As a great Indian saint said “Saints are sinners who never gave up”. If one looks backward in history, one can surely see that man has been evolving over many tens of thousands of years from the Cro-Magnon man to modern man. If we go back even further to Neanderthal man, we can clearly see his way of life and belief system was even simpler than that of the average man during the Dark Ages. If you look at an average human life from birth to death, one can clearly see that each person typically evolves to a certain degree based on various factors such as parents, schooling, society, mental habits and willingness to grow and change. The changes may seem small for some people but they are still advancing from darkness to light as we all are. Also, each person tends to grow and evolve at a different rate of speed than the next person as each seems to have their own unique karmic path of evolution.

In truth, no person is better than the next as we all have the divine spark of God’s perfection within us. In some people with severe emotional cases of greed, anger, dishonesty or other strong tendencies that may appear violent or even evil in nature, it may not seem the case but the divine spark is there just waiting to awaken under the right circumstances. If we are honest with ourselves, we all have some sort of prison bars of ego, bad habit or darkness that we are trying to break free of. To struggle against this darkness or limitation is our divine birthright as our souls are constantly pushing us to awaken from the dreams of limitation, bad habits and despair. Make no mistake; everyone is struggling in some way and everyone wants to be happy, free and at peace within. One of my favorite sayings from the movie Dune is “The sleeper must awaken”. In essence, the divine God spark within wants nothing more for us than to awaken to our divine birthright of happiness, freedom and joy.

Isn’t that a beautiful thought to know that God has encoded within us His DNA of perfection? So, how do we go about this transformation to uncover our sleeping perfection? As the Chinese proverb says "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step". Since our atoms and cells are always in a state of motion, we may as well help them by taking conscious steps in the right direction from our current state of darkness “which may take many different forms” to the light of God’s love, truth and inner freedom. Since this is our divine birthright, we should do everything we can to take advantage of our time left on this planet to cultivate it.

To forge ahead by living a God-filled life is like investing money each day as a child to an adult and realizing later in life that your investment paid off with a large sum to make your future more secure and bright. The main difference is that we can’t take money or anything material with us when it’s time to leave these bodies, but the investment we make into our spiritual and mental health go with us from this life to the next, helping to shape a much better life for the future.

So, whether you’re a believer of one life or multiple lives such as in reincarnation, it matters not. Either way, if you make the spiritual effort to change today, you’ll become a much happier person and will be pleasing to God as a channel for his goodness. As a great yogi-saint said “It’s all about God’s Grace”. If we are sincere in our daily effort to improve both spiritually and mentally and to help others in need along the way, we make ourselves open to receive His glorious grace. God’s grace can move mountains and destroy any darkness, bad karma and disease from our minds and hearts so that we can flow with His love. His grace can speed up our evolution and help us to become the true sons and daughters of spirit.

So, how do we go about this? We start today by asking God for divine aid and guidance in all our affairs and trying to live as the great saints do by daily prayer, meditation, right thinking, healthy living and mutual respect for all forms of life knowing they too are on the long march from darkness to light. Getting acquainted with yoga and meditation by reading a book or going to a class can be a great start to the spiritual path as it feeds the spirit, mind and body and promotes peaceful living.

Yoga is not just about breathing and stretching, it’s an age old science that brings with it positive transformational change to each person who sincerely follows its path. There are quite a few different types of yoga to choose from these days to serve all walks of life. For myself, I was guided at a young age to the book “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramahansa Yogananda. This book profoundly changed the course of my life. After reading it, I sought out the teachings of Self Realization Fellowship, which was founded by Paramahansa Yogananda in 1920. Paramahansa was one of the first Yogi’s to come to America from India. Steve Jobs who Co-founded Apple was a big admirer of this book and Paramahansa Yogananda. This path changed my life at an early age from suffering and despair to that of happiness and freedom.

So, whatever path you feel guided to follow this life, know that God is behind all true paths that eventually merge back into Him. Always remember that happiness and freedom is not just a destination, it’s in our DNA. Be in that joy now!

Steven Boyd is a yogi and writer. He has been practicing yoga and meditation daily for over 30 years. He follows the spiritual path of Self Realization Fellowship that was founded by the great Yogi-Guru Paramahansa Yogananda in 1920.