Guiding Light: The seven qualities; VIBGYOR of spirituality

What does it take to walk the path of spirituality? How can we bear witness to the truth of the atman in deeds of daily living?

In simple terms, it means imbibing and internalising certain qualities associated with spirituality, and putting them into practice to the extent possible in our everyday lives. I refer to these qualities as the VIBGYOR of Spirituality – for they are seven in number, even as the colours of the rainbow are seven in number. They are:

1. Truth

2. Purity

3. Humility

4. Child-like trust

5. Selfless service

6. Practice of daily silence

7. Love

Have you seen and marvelled at the magnificent beauty of a rainbow? It arches across the horizon when raindrops refract the sunlight and remind us that the universe operates according to God’s well laid out principles which are also scientific and systematic! Before Newton discovered it, people did not know that visible light was made up of seven distinct bands of colours. It was Newton who taught us that the raindrops, acting like a prism, refract or bend the light, so that the colours separate and show up as seven different bands – violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red.

Newton used a prism to show that the different bands of visible light actually split up into rainbow colours; he projected the resultant rainbow onto a wall. This brought a further query: Was it the prism that was colouring visible light? To prove this point, he then used another prism to refract or bend the bands back together again. This caused all the colours to merge together into what we call visible or white light.

The VIBGYOR of the rainbow are the colours of light made visible to us through the marvel of the universe! They symbolise the spiritual truth, that we must not merely absorb, but reflect and transmit God’s divine qualities through deeds of daily living. Indeed, the rainbow symbolises enlightenment in a celestial phenomenon of visible beauty that is a joy to behold! It reflects the inner awakening of enlightenment caused by the radiant light inherent in truth and wisdom – an inner light that can dispel the darkness of doubt and despair.

(Dada J.P. Vaswani is a humanitarian, philosopher, educator, acclaimed writer, powerful orator, messiah of ahimsa, and non-sectarian spiritual leader.)

Published on: Tuesday, May 17, 2022, 07:00 AM IST