10/24/2025
The Mirrored Light of Brahman
Ramana Maharshi once said, “In the waking and dream states the Self has forgotten itself.” This statement is not literal but points to a profound truth. Brahman never truly forgets, yet within the play of consciousness, its own light becomes reflected and conditioned through the field of mind. This reflected light is Atman, the divine spark that enters the vessel of creation and takes on its attributes until the vessel becomes purified and transparent once more. This apparent forgetfulness is adhyasa, the superimposition of the unreal upon the real, the veiling of the pure Self within its own projection.
Imagine a man who built a mirrored box capable of trapping light. The light, though never truly imprisoned, appeared to move endlessly within itself, reflecting from surface to surface. In the same way, the light of Brahman, when reflected within the mirrored field of mind, seems to become entrapped as Atman within the vessel. It is not truly bound, yet it appears to be until the vessel is purified through knowledge and surrender. Then the reflections cease to distort the source light, and the vessel reveals itself as transparent being, no longer an obstruction but a temple of illumination.
This principle can be pictured through the symbol of two triangles forming the six-pointed star. The upper triangle represents Brahman, the unmanifest source, pure consciousness without form. The lower triangle, inverted, represents Shakti, the manifest field, the living vessel through which the unmanifest expresses. When these two meet point to point, heaven and earth unite and the living temple is formed. Within this enclosure, the light of Atman reflects upon the mirrored surfaces of mind and matter, appearing as countless rays of individuality. Yet all are but one beam of the same divine light.
As the vessel matures and is cleansed of ignorance, it no longer refracts light through distortion. It becomes a clear crystal, transparent to the Source. The light that seemed imprisoned is seen to have never been bound at all. This is the inner fulfilment of the saying, “The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.” The darkness is simply the mirrored surface of mind, the reflected light is Atman, and the source light is Brahman itself. When the mirrors of the mind become clear, Brahman and Atman are known as one, and the play of reflection is seen for what it is, the Infinite knowing itself in form.
In truth, there was never a fall, only reflection, never bo***ge, only the appearance of limitation. When the heart becomes still, the star within shines as one light. Brahman, Atman, and Shakti are realized as a single continuum, the unmanifest, the manifest, and the mirror between them. The temple is illumined from within, and the light once thought to be trapped is seen as the very radiance of God fulfilling itself through the vessel it created for its own revelation.
Love Tracy
