Holy Daze

The Holy Days are here again. We hear so many complaints from people during this season of Christmas and Hannukah about disappointments, longing, nostalgia, anger at the lack of true feeling or connection from family members, hypocrisy, empty formality and ritual, the utter meaninglessness of all the commotion. So perhaps it is useful to make a few points regarding the real significance of these holy days, from the perspective of Sat Yoga.



All religious holidays were originally intended as metaphors. Esoterically, they point not to events that happened to some historical ancestors two millenia in the past, but to something that is going on now, at this moment, within yourself. They point to a sacred act of passage that must inevitably occur in the heart of each human being. It is not an act that happens once a year, but a potential that is always present, and that continues to unfold at ever higher levels of Self-awareness, endlessly, into the realms of trans-infinity.



Once we learn to understand the meaning of these holy days as pertaining to our own psyche, our own Atman, we can focus within, instead of on the shortcomings of other people. Hanukkah points to the imperative of lighting the inner light of the spirit, becoming fully aware of the luminous energy of consciousness that burns within, as the eternal light—it never goes out, but it can get so veiled by illusion and egoic diversion that it gets pretty dark in the inner reaches of the soul. The miracle to be celebrated is that of discovering the holy oil that keeps the light lit. The oil is the practice of meditation, of turning within toward the Source of the flame, the Shamash, and to the complete surrender to authentic God-consciousness that purifies the mind and makes us fit vessels for divine inspiration and for the work of restoring the blessings of spiritual nobility and truth to this fallen world.



Of course Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ-consciousness within you. This refers to the full embodiment and manifestation of unconditional love for all beings. It requires the transcendence of all limited forms of affiliation. Once realized, one no longer considers oneself a Christian or a Jew or a Buddhist, nor any other identification, not with nationality or race or any other limiting signifier. In fact, the full realization of Christ-consciousness entails letting go of human-centricity also. We are all—including the rocks, the clouds, the sunbeams, the quantum waves, even the zero-point field—simply pure manifestations of the Absolute, in every possible permutation of form, but ever remaining empty of ego.



The realization of our true nature is the significance of these holy days, and we can realize this through the sacred act of entering a profound meditative state, a holy daze, if you will, in which the ego dissolves in the blissful presence of the One God, the Supreme Selfless Self. The actual achievement of union with God is the intention of all religion. Religion is not just about faith, prayer, and good works. It demands full devotion of the mind, heart, and soul to the genuine attainment of God-consciousness. Sitting in a holy daze is just the beginning, of course. One must return transformed from one’s contemplative prayer and then act in the world from that same state of egoless purity of heart, strength of purpose, wisdom and clarity of mind that God-consciousness implies. It is not a matter of preaching, but of living the truth, of transmitting the gift of inner peace, of healing insight, of centeredness, of divine love. These are the gifts to give on Christmas. This is the good news that we are to disseminate. This is the miracle of Light.



May all our days be Holy. May we bring the gifts of Wholeness and Healing to every part of this shattered world, that God’s will shall be fulfilled through us. Our mission can be no less.



All blessings,

Shunyamurti