Let the Seven Veils Fall…
Let the Inner Light Shine!
It is often said on the spiritual path
“When the seven veils are lifted, the spiritual light becomes visible.”
Where are these seven veils?
Are they inside the sanctum of a temple?
Are they hanging in front of a lamp?
Or are they hidden somewhere inside a mountain cave?
No.
They are within us.
They are veils that our eyes cannot see.
They are veils that our minds know are there, yet we often do not want to acknowledge them.
They do not hide the outside world from us.
They hide the light that already exists within us.
We go to temples in search of God.
We travel to distant holy places.
We bathe in sacred rivers.
We observe fasts.
We chant mantras.
We meditate.
All these are good practices.
But if the veils hanging within us do not move aside, no matter how many lamps we light outside, the darkness within will not disappear.
A small lamp can illuminate a dark room.
But before lighting that lamp, we do not necessarily have to open every window.
The light is there.
The problem is the veil that covers our eyes.
Our life is much the same.
Within us already exist peace, love, compassion, wisdom and a sense of the Divine.
If we slowly remove the seven veils that hide them, we will be able to see that inner light for ourselves.
Let us look at these seven veils in relation to our everyday lives.
The First Veil — “I”
The word human beings love most is “I.”
My house.
My money.
My family.
My position.
My reputation.
My knowledge.
My opinion.
My success.
My failure.
We keep putting the word “my” before everything.
When we were born, what did we have that belonged to us?
Nothing.
When we came into this world, we had no bank account.
No property.
No position.
No reputation.
Nobody called us a great person.
But as we grew, we began to think of the body as “I.”
We began to think of possessions as “mine.”
We began to think of our opinions as “my truth.”
That is where many of our problems begin.
There is nothing wrong with having a sense of “I.”
But “I alone” can become dangerous.
“I am right; everyone else is wrong.”
“I know; he does not know.”
“I deserve respect.”
“No one should criticise me.”
“No one should ignore me.”
And so the “I” becomes bigger and bigger.
What happens when this veil of “I” begins to move aside?
We begin to see the truth:
“I too am only a small part of this vast world.”
When that truth arises, humility is born.
And where humility arises, peace begins to appear.
The Second Veil — Desire
“I want more” is another veil of the human mind.
We often look at what we do not have rather than appreciating what we already have.
If we have two rooms, we want three.
If we have one car, we want another.
If we have money, we want more money.
If we have recognition, we want greater recognition.
If we have a position, we want a higher position.
Even on the final day of life, human desire does not easily come to an end.
Yet life keeps teaching us a strange lesson:
The stomach needs only a little.
The mind wants without limit.
Once the stomach is full, it does not ask for more food.
But when the mind seeks satisfaction, even if the whole world were given to it, it might still say, “Not enough.”
Desire itself is not wrong.
Desire is also what moves life forward.
But when desire begins to rule us, it becomes a veil.
One day, we must stop and ask ourselves:
“Is what I already have not enough?”
The day that question arises, a small tear appears in the veil of desire.
Through that opening, the light of contentment begins to enter.
The Third Veil — Fear
One of the greatest veils that prevents human beings from truly living is fear.
“What if I fail?”
“What will others say?”
“What if I cannot do it?”
“What will happen tomorrow?”
“What might happen to me?”
Thinking this way, many people lose the life they could live today because they are constantly worrying about tomorrow.
When we are born, we do not know fear in the way adults do.
A child falls.
It gets up.
It walks again.
It falls again.
It does not think, “I have failed.”
Only after becoming adults do we begin giving names to our falls.
Falling in life is not failure.
Remaining where we have fallen is what becomes failure.
When fear moves aside, courage is born.
And when courage comes, life begins to change.
That is why spirituality is not about running away in fear.
Looking directly at the fear within us and saying,
“You are not the one who should rule me,”
is also a form of spirituality.
The Fourth Veil — Anger
When anger arises, wisdom often closes its door.
A word spoken in a moment of anger may remain unforgettable even after forty years.
When we are angry, we do not see the person standing before us.
We see only our anger.
Many times, anger punishes us rather than the person we are angry with.
We become angry with someone.
They eat and sleep peacefully.
We are the ones lying awake all night!
Then who suffers the loss caused by anger?
We do.
It is impossible for a human being to live without ever becoming angry.
But it is possible to become a person who knows how to observe anger when it arises.
When anger comes, sometimes it is enough to remain silent for a minute.
At times, choosing not to say a word is itself a great form of wisdom.
When the veil of anger moves aside, the face of compassion becomes visible.
The Fifth Veil — Attachment
Love and attachment are not the same.
Love says:
“Be happy.”
Attachment says:
“You must live according to my wishes.”
That is the difference.
We love our children.
But sometimes we try to shape their entire lives according to our desires.
We love our life partners.
But sometimes we try to make every one of their thoughts conform to our own.
We love our friends.
But if they become close to someone else, we may feel jealous.
That is attachment.
Love gives freedom.
Attachment creates chains.
It is natural to want the people we love to remain close to us.
But life follows a different law.
Those who come into our lives will one day have to leave.
And one day, we too must leave.
When the heart learns to accept this, attachment slowly transforms into love.
When the veil of “this is mine” moves aside, we begin to understand:
“Everything is a gift of life.”
The Sixth Veil — Ignorance
Sometimes, thinking “I know” is itself our greatest ignorance.
The world we see is not the whole world.
The truth we know is not necessarily the whole truth.
We look at a person and quickly form an opinion about them.
They are smiling — so we assume they are happy.
They are quiet — so we assume they are arrogant.
They do not speak — so we assume they are angry.
But we do not know what is happening inside them.
That is why refusing to make quick judgments is also a spiritual practice.
When we can say,
“Perhaps I do not know,”
the door to wisdom begins to open.
The person who listens learns.
The person who believes they know everything eventually stops learning.
When the veil of ignorance moves aside, the humility to seek truth is born.
The Seventh Veil — Ego
This is perhaps the veil above all the others.
“I did it.”
“It happened because of me.”
“Without me, this family would not exist.”
“Without me, this world would not function.”
A mind that thinks this way slowly imprisons itself.
How many things in our lives have we truly done entirely by ourselves?
We had parents who raised us.
Teachers who educated us.
People who helped us along the way.
People who loved us.
People who lifted us when we fell.
People who gave us hope when we failed.
People who did good things for us without our even knowing.
Standing on the shoulders of so many people and saying,
“I did everything myself,”
how can that really be the truth?
That is why, as we grow older, one of the greatest lessons we need to understand is this:
“I am not the one who is controlling life; life is also carrying me along.”
When this understanding arises, the veil of ego slowly begins to disappear.
Then there is a quietness within.
A light.
An indescribable peace.
Some call that the spiritual light.
Where is that light?
For so many years, we have been searching for it outside ourselves.
But one day, when we look within, we may suddenly understand:
“Ah!
What I was searching for
was never separate from me.”
The sun does not need a lamp to see itself.
In the same way, external light alone is not enough to see the light within.
The veils covering the heart must be lifted.
All seven veils will not disappear in a single day.
They will move aside slowly.
Today, our anger may decrease a little.
Tomorrow, our desires may become a little less demanding.
Another day, the feeling of “I” may become a little smaller.
One day, we may learn to forgive others.
Another day, we may learn to admit our own mistakes.
On yet another day, we may learn to be grateful for what we have received.
In this way, every experience in life becomes a hand that helps remove one of our veils.
That is why we need not hate the difficulties that come into our lives.
Some difficulties do not come to break us.
They come to tear away the veils that cover us.
When someone we love leaves us, we learn about the impermanence of life.
When failure comes, we discover the weakness of ego.
When money becomes scarce, we learn what we truly need.
When our plans do not work out, we learn patience.
When loneliness comes, we meet ourselves.
When we grow older, we begin searching for the meaning of life.
Then we understand:
Every experience life gives us is a teacher.
Every person is a lesson.
Every suffering is a mirror.
Every joy is a gift.
Every separation is a reminder.
Every day is an opportunity.
When we light a lamp in a temple, we may pray:
“God, please bring light into my life.”
That is a beautiful prayer.
But there may be an even deeper prayer:
“God, give me the wisdom to remove the veils that hide the light already present within me.”
Then life begins to change.
Our problems may not disappear.
But the way we see our problems changes.
People may not change.
But our ability to understand them changes.
Life may not always go according to our wishes.
But our maturity in accepting life grows.
That is spiritual growth.
Spirituality is not merely searching for some light somewhere in the sky.
Spirituality is when love enters our words.
Spirituality is when self-control enters our anger.
Spirituality is when sharing enters our wealth.
Spirituality is when humility enters our knowledge.
Spirituality is when understanding enters our relationships.
Spirituality is when peace enters our solitude.
Spirituality is learning to live without fear even while knowing that one day our life will come to an end.
In the end, there is one thing we need to understand.
The seven veils are not outside us.
They hang within the seven chambers of our own minds.
The veil of “I.”
The veil of “I want more.”
The veil of “I am afraid.”
The veil of “I am angry.”
The veil of “This is mine.”
The veil of “I know.”
The veil of “Everything happens because of me.”
Let each one of them slowly move aside.
We are not going to gain something completely new.
We are going to see what was already within us.
That is the spiritual light.
It is not merely the light of a lamp.
It is not a light that exists only in one particular place.
It is the light of awareness that has been quietly shining within us all along.
May the veils be lifted.
May the mind become clear.
May love grow.
May ego diminish.
May life become simpler.
Then, one day, our own inner being may quietly say to us:
“The light you were searching for
was never outside you…
It was within you all along,
hidden by the very veils
you had placed over it.”
Let us all walk towards that day.
You can do it.
With love,
Sakthi Sakthithasan
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