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Divya Jyoti—The Divine Light
Verse 1 of Jyota se Jyota Jagao

Sung by the music ensemble in Gurudev Siddha Peeth.
© Ⓟ 2008 SYDA Foundation®. All rights reserved.
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As I contemplated the deep meaning of the prayer Jyota se Jyota Jagao, I came to understand how essential it is for me to focus on my heart with the help of the breath and the mantra, while also keeping an awareness of the Guru’s form and wisdom.

I feel that through sadhana I build a bed of embers with the inner fire of pure love that the Guru’s grace has kindled in me. This fire of love is more powerful than anything the outside world has to offer me.
 

Rodez, France

For the past few days I have been reflecting about what Jyota se Jyota Jagao means to me and how I experience it when my Guru “lights my lamp” from hers.

When I received shaktipat diksha, or initiation, my Guru lit a tremendous light within me. This light slowly and gradually began to illuminate my beliefs, inner attitudes, thoughts, feelings—everything in me and my life. I was invited to work on one issue after another until I was able to find inner peace with it. This did not happen without crises and working on myself. But after each crisis I felt lighter and freer and my life became easier and more pleasant.

In that sense, it seems to me that my lamp was not lit all at once; for me the unfolding of the gift of shaktipat is a constant process that only works when I actively participate in it and open myself to the grace of my beloved Guru.
 

Unterlangenegg, Switzerland

This morning I prayed that anything blocking my experience of the divine would be removed. Then in meditation I had an inner vision of Gurumayi and felt her shakti pour through me. A series of challenging memories played before me, and I experienced my fears dissolving in the Guru’s love. I was left with deep physical and emotional relief.

Then I had a vision of Baba, and a cobalt blue space opened up and drew me in. This deep blue light was mesmerizing and enchanting. Immersed in this celestial light, Baba and I laughed together. My laughter felt belly-deep and free.

When I visited the Siddha Yoga path website, I saw that today is Baba’s lunar birthday. What a divine gift Baba has been to me personally, and to the world! How can I thank such a one who can remove our burdens with so much love? O Sadguru, you have lit my lamp from your lamp.
 

Illinois, United States

These last few weeks I have been feeling alone and unsure of my purpose. On the night of Baba’s lunar birthday I found myself guided to the Siddha Yoga path website. I sang along with the Divya Jyoti recordings and afterwards felt a quiet, calming, commanding stillness.

Then I prepared to go to bed. As I turned the lights off around the house and it became darker, I noticed a bright light shining from my meditation room. What could it be? As I entered the room, a beam of bright, silver-white light was shining across the room from the window. The clouds had parted, and Baba’s moon had risen above the trees. The moon shone with a radiance I had never experienced before. Light streamed in like a river; it flowed across the room, stopping only when it reached a photo of Baba. I looked back and forth from the moon to Baba. Baba’s smile beamed at me, and I felt his presence embracing me from within. I realized that I’m not alone at all.
 

Melbourne, Australia

Yesterday I visited a beautiful monastery church and was drawn to light a candle and offer a prayer. I lit my tapered candle from the central one and set it in place.

As I looked at the flame, set among the other candles there, my mind became very still. I felt that this flame represented my own inner light, kindled by the Guru’s grace. Great love filled my heart, and I prayed to be able to offer my very best to the world.

I have sung Jyota se Jyota Jagao many times. In this precious moment, the words of the refrain came strongly alive for me: “Light my lamp from your lamp, O Sadguru; light my lamp from your lamp. Remove the darkness covering my heart.”
 

Havant, United Kingdom

Verse 2 in the prayer Jyota se Jyota Jagao says: “We, your children, have come to your door. Show us your auspicious form.” I have been reflecting on what this means to me.
 
For me, the Guru’s form is auspicious because it evokes love in me. It reminds me of my own divinity and helps me focus on my path. In lonely times, the form of my Guru is my anchor and greatest reassurance. In happy times, it is the object of my gratitude. 
 
The more I reflect on the form of my Guru, the more I find it in everything around me and in myself. Truly, contemplating the form of my Guru is in itself auspicious.
 

Unterlangenegg, Switzerland

Many years ago, I was invited by a friend to attend “An Introduction to Siddha Yoga.” As I biked to the event, an unexplained excitement began to build inside me.
 
When I arrived, we all sat cross-legged on the floor of an old church. The satsang began with the singing of Jyota se Jyota Jagao. As the music rang out, a force pushed my head to the floor, where it remained for almost the whole event. Just once, I looked up briefly, and noticed a woman swinging something around her head. The next minute a drop of perfume hit me square in the forehead. As this intoxicating perfume reached my nose, my mind stopped and I was filled with an incredible sense of bliss. Then my head went back on the floor and I remained like that for the rest of the satsang.
 
Afterwards, I could feel that something was different inside of me. When I looked at the people around me, they felt like members of my own family and I realized that in some way that I couldn’t yet understand, I had found my home. 
 

Vancouver, Canada

Yesterday I had a direct experience of divya jyoti, the divine light.
 
I was enjoying the sunny atmosphere of the marketplace with its profusion of spring fruits and vegetables when the inner light of the Self began to shine in my eyes. At the same time, my body was filling with prana-shakti and my mind became focused on repeating the mantra Om Namah Shivaya. I felt I was bathing in the divine light, a light much brighter than the light of the sun, and the spectacle of the world around me became insignificant in comparison to the inner world I was savoring. It was like I was visiting Earth with the eyes of God.
 
While I was shopping, I saw myself smiling naturally in my conversations and sharing good humor with everyone around me. I viewed the mango I had just bought as one that Baba had transformed into an inner mango with immeasurable delights, while my soul was illuminated by divya jyoti, the divine light.
 

Rodez, France

Upon reading about the divine light that is evoked in Jyota se Jyota Jagao, my breathing immediately released; I closed my eyes and experienced the light that fills my whole body. In an instant I went from inner tension to inner bliss. 
 
How great is this path of the Siddhas! I am so grateful to Gurumayi for showing me the way, again and again.
 

California, United States

A few years ago, as part of the Siddha Yoga Prison Project, we held satsangs at several prisons for the very first time. During one such satsang, we met an elderly man who shared that he had received shaktipat from Baba Muktananda forty years earlier. This took place in prison, while this man listened to a news report about Baba’s visit to Los Angeles. For months after this experience, he told us, he walked around experiencing great bliss.  

We had not planned to sing Jyota se Jyota Jagao in the satsang that day. However, toward the end of the satsang, the man leaned over and quietly asked if we could do so. We did.  

As the sound of this sacred hymn rang out throughout the prison hall, his gratitude seemed palpable. Indeed, a little later, when I saw the man coming for darshan, he was visibly moved. 
 

Washington, United States

As I listened to Jyota se Jyota Jagao, my mind became very quiet. After a while, I felt as though my heart had become a flame. I experienced that this light of my heart was on an arati tray that I was waving to the Guru.

For some time now, I have been trying not to worry about a specific challenge in my life. Yet, after this experience, I feel a new sense of calm and stillness. I'm so grateful for this.
 

Christchurch, New Zealand

When I received shaktipat from Gurumayi, I experienced that the shakti that had been awakened in me was actually immense love, and that the entire universe was made from this love. As I meditated and experienced this love, it felt like many lifetimes of darkness melted away.
 
I realized that when I had drawn near to the Guru’s light, it had lit my own flame of love. So how could I not love this refrain—and this hymn? I find it supremely fitting to remember and honor this truth in every satsang when we sing Jyota se Jyota Jagao with so much joy.
 

Washington, United States

Once, in the 1970s, my father was passing through a street when all of sudden he heard the sound of the most melodious prayer he had ever heard, coming out of a house which was then a Siddha Yoga meditation center. For a while he listened to it and remained awestruck. The magnetic power of the prayer pulled him inside to inquire about what was taking place. So he visited the Center and thus found the path to the heart—the Siddha Yoga path.
 
This prayer has truly opened the doors to liberation for my family.
 

Sydney, Australia

Today, as I opened the Siddha Yoga path website, I found myself in front of this powerful prayer, which I love. It took me immediately back to the first Siddha Yoga Shaktipat Intensive with Gurumayi that I had the honor to participate in, in August 1996. During those two days I experienced several emotions and didn’t know exactly what was going on inside myself. I felt my heart moving!
 
The precious gift arrived at the end of the Intensive, as one of the Swamis invited all of us to stand up to sing Jyota se Jyota Jagao, which I had never heard before. As soon as the singing began, my heart exploded, as I wept with profound joy and deep love. 
 

Vicenza, Italy

Whenever I would hear Jyota se Jyota Jagao, the sweet prayer we would sing at the end of satsangs and Siddha Yoga Shaktipat Intensives, I would feel all darkness, fears, and worries disappear from my heart as we all sang in unison. My heart would be filled with joy, hope, and love.
 

Ville St. Laurent, Canada

On the Siddha Yoga path, my experience is that, when I sing the prayers or hymns or aratis like Jyota se Jyota Jagao, it is God who listens to it with rapt attention. Each prayer, hymn, and arati enables me to recognize my own inner divinity. They are the sacred river which purifies my speech, actions, mind, heart, and whole being.
 

Sydney, Australia

Every time I hear or sing Jyota se Jyota Jagao, it brings me into the inner temple—opening my heart to the never-ending grace of the Siddhas.
 

Hørsholm, Denmark

I still remember how the refrain of this beautifully worded arati had instantly touched my heart, spreading warmth and love in my being, when I first sang it at my very first satsang at the local Siddha Yoga meditation center. This feeling always arises and connects me to myself every time I sing it—for now and forever.
 

Nairobi, Kenya

As I listened to the refrain of Jyota se Jyota Jagao this morning, I paid more heed than usual to the translation. One part of this refrain, which I have been singing for years, means “Light my lamp from your lamp, O Sadguru.” How beautiful to keep this meaning in mind as I sing this arati to the Guru! Now my mind is aware of what my heart feels, and my devotion when I sing this prayer has been strengthened.
 

Thornbury, Australia