The Earthen Lamps

CHAPTER 1

I also wanted to hear that music. Therefore, I went in search of that sea. After several years of
wandering, at last I did reach that sea-shore. But, behold what was there was the loud tumult of the
sea. The strokes waves, after striking on the rocks, were resounding manifold in that lonely place.
Neither was there any music nor were the ringing bells of the temples. I kept listening intently on the
But there on the shore was nothing, the sound of breaking waves.

Even so I waited there. In fact, I had forgotten the way back. Now that unknown, uninhabited
sea-shore itself was going to be my grave.

And then, even the thought of listening to the bells gradually disappeared. I settled down on the
shore of that sea.

Then one night, suddenly I found the bells of submerged temples ringing; and their sweet music
started filling my life with joy.

On hearing that music I got out of my sleep and since then I have not been able to sleep again. Now
somebody is constantly awake within me. Sleep has vanished for ever.

And life has been filled with light; because where there is no sleep, there is no darkness.

And I am happy. Nay, I have myself become the happiness incarnate; because how could sadness
exist where there was the music of God’s temple?

Do you also want to go near that sea shore? Do you also want to hear the music of the submerged
temples of God?

Let us then go. Let us move within ourselves. One’s heart itself is that sea; and in its depth is the
town of the submerged temples of God.
But only those who are, in all respects, calm and concentrated are able to hear the music of those
temples.

How could this music be heard where there is the loud conflict of thought and desire? Even the
desire to find it becomes an obstacle in finding.

2.
In one dark night, I was looking at the stars in the sky. The whole town was asleep. I was feeling
very compassionate towards those sleeping men. After a day’s hard work, poor chaps must have
been dreaming about fulfillment of their unfulfilled desires. In dreams they live and in dreams they
sleep. They see neither the sun nor the moon nor the stars. In fact, the eyes that see the dreams
cannot see that which is there. It is absolutely essential that the dust of dreams should disappear
before you can see the truth.

As the night was advancing towards darkness, stars in the sky were increasing. Slowly, the entire
sky got glittered on account of them. And not only the sky, I myself got filled up with their silent
beauty. Does not the sky of the soul get filled up with the stars on seeing the stars in the sky? In
reality, man gets filled up with what he sees. He who sees the small, gets filled up with the small; he
who sees the large, gets filled up with the large. Eyes are the entrance to the soul. Sitting against
a tree, I was just lost in the sky, when from behind someone placed his cold and dead hand on my
shoulder. The sounds of his feet were also heard by me. They were also not like the sounds of a
living being, and his hand was so lifeless that even in the darkness it took me no time to understand
the thoughts in his eyes. The contact of his body had brought even the winds of his mind up to me.
The person was living and young. But his life had taken leave of him long ago; and the youth of life
had perhaps never come his way.

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