When you are going through a dark phase in Life, be the ‘light’ yourself!

This is what the ‘light’ of Diwali truly is.

We met a young man at the mall yesterday. He follows my daily posts on my App (“AVIS Viswanathan” – available for free download on Google Play and the App Store). He walked up to us, introduced himself and said, “This is the darkest Diwali of my Life. I have no work. And I have no money. I have no one in this world that I can relate to. I am not sure where my Life is headed.” Holding back his tears, he then asked, “Can you tell me what I must do?”

I gave him a hug and told him this: “Trust the process of Life!”

Vaani and I have been where this young man is. In several contexts, we are still where he is. We don’t necessarily know what to do in Life – not when whatever we do often comes unstuck; not when some of the problems we are faced with defy a logical solution! But what we have learnt absolutely well to do is to trust the process of Life.

This means, metaphorically, when you are going through a dark tunnel and when you don’t see any light at the end of it, you become the light yourself. Now, how do you become the light? Simple: know that since you have been created – not because you asked to be created, but because Creation willed it – you will also be looked after, provided for and cared for. Even in the darkness that engulfs you, keep taking one step at a time. And do that with total faith in Life. That faith within you is your light. You see, faith and fear are mutually exclusive. Faith is like light and fear is like darkness. They both can’t co-exist. You can bring light into a dark room. But you can’t drive away light by bringing darkness. So, when you have faith in Life, you will not be in fear. And, conversely, if you are cowering in fear, it means that you don’t have faith! When I say that you become the light, it really means that you drop all fear and embrace your Life for what it is – despite the circumstances, inspite of the darkness – trusting Life completely to show you the way.

I have recounted numerous anecdotes on this Blog, in my Book and in all my Talks of how Life has shown us the way, how doors have miraculously opened for us, every time we have come to, what we perceived as, the end of the road – enduring as we are, a bankruptcy (read more here: Fall Like A Rose Petal) I believe that when you don’t know what to do, you must simply surrender to Life and offer yourself to be led. When you trust Life, you may not necessarily be able to see the entire road ahead of you – the darkness in the tunnel may not really vanish, but you will find enough light in you and immediately around you. That light will show you just enough of the way for you to inch forward. And that’s how you claw your way onward through a dark, difficult phase in Life – one step, one day, at a time.

So, when you don’t know what to do in Life, be the light yourself. In every sense, this light in you, this faith in the Master Plan, this trusting the process of Life – this is what the ‘light’ of Diwali truly is.