The Importance of Darkness

Saints of the mystic path tell us that in order to see the Light, one has to embrace the darkness. Sardar Bahadur Jagat Singh explains:

Keep your attention between the eyes and do simran: do not try to listen to the Sound. As far as possible, do not let your attention stray away from the point between the eyes. If you cannot see the Light, go on looking into the darkness. This seeing is called Nirat, the soul’s faculty of seeing, the exercise of which is indeed a difficult thing.
_{With the Three Masters, Vol. III}

In their answers, the spiritual Masters almost always say two things in combination when talking about doing simran. They say “Keep your attention between the eyes, at the eye focus, in the forehead, and do simran.” They rarely just say, “Do simran” but we usually ignore the first instruction and only hear the second part. Hence, sometimes we just ‘do simran’ without paying attention. However, in order to achieve concentration, it is necessary to pin down the seeing or visualizing faculty as well as the thinking faculty. Both need to be engaged. If we cannot do dhyan (which the Masters say we cannot do) and we do not see inner light, then we are not ‘off the hook’. Instead, we must actively ‘see’ the darkness within and holding on to that, do simran.

When you close your eyes, you are here in the centre of the darkness in the forehead, and being there, you do the simran. You also feel that your Master is there and that you are there in that darkness and you are doing simran in the presence of the Master, if you can’t visualize his form. So be there and also feel your Master is there, and that will hold your attention there in the darkness.

You close your eyes; you see nothing but darkness. Be there and do simran. Being in the darkness, do simran. That is what I mean by looking at the darkness.

Doing simran is an effort you are putting forth, for when we do simran, we have to forget the whole world. We are concerned only with the darkness in our forehead. We close our eyes and we see nothing but darkness, and when you close your eyes, you are there where you should be. Keeping your mind in that darkness, do simran.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh, Die to Live}

If we allow our imagination to combine with our memory and create scenes which play on the inner screen of our minds, then we are not focused on the darkness. Rather, we have allowed our simran to become a background voice-over to our own personal slide show. This kind of simran does not deliver concentration.

You be at the eye focus, which means to be in that darkness. When you close the eyes, you are there where you should be. Being there, you should do simran.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh, Die to Live}

The advice from the Masters means that we need to put in double the effort to do effective simran – to see both the darkness and repeat the simran, two things together, not just one thing. We are trying to hold two faculties in check, not just one.

As long as your attention is there in the darkness, you are there, but when you start thinking about all the problems of the world, you are not there, whether you see the darkness or something else. When your attention is there, you are there. If your attention is not there, you are not there.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh, Die to Live}

Effective meditation means that we need to approach meditation like the words from the famous song The Sound of Silence written by Paul Simon: “Hello Darkness my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again…”