Lodge Burroughs Strange No. 87
Vijayawada, India

"The only wisdom we can hope to acquire Is the Wisdom of HUMILITY" - T. S. Eliot.

"The light of a Master Mason is darkness visible". So says the ritual of the charge after raising.

It was very pertinently observed by a great scholar that "Those great moments when you realise how little you know are the very moments when you are on the threshold of great knowledge". Though he was never initiated into our fraternity he is a real Mason at heart.

'Darkness visible' is a symbol of humility which indeed is a very noble trait. 'Amanitvam (humility) is the very first in the list of twenty four moral and ethical qualities enumerated in the Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 13: 8-12).

Imagine a small lighted candle in the middle of a big dense forest on a new moon night. That little candle light cannot illuminate the whole forest but can only throw a small circle of light surrounded by a vast area of pitch darkness. But by the presence of that small light one should be able to perceive or make visible the encircling darkness.

Newton-that world famous scientist - is said to have once remarked - "I do not know what people think of me, but as far as I am concerned. I feel, I am a small child playing on the Sunday beach, while the great ocean of learning is spread before me. Perhaps I am luckier than others in laying my hands on a smoother pebble or a brighter shell" This is humility born out of real knowledge.

Let us now view the subject from a spiritual angle. From the man of the world. TRUTH (the knowledge of yourself) is veiled by a thick dark curtain of spiritual darkness (Maya ignorance) on account of which he cannot perceive the LIGHT (true knowledge). But as Master masons, who are expected to be enlightened personalities far from the madding crowd' - we should be able to make a chink here and a chink there in that dark curtain and get at least a momentary glimpses of Truth visible through that veil of darkness. To the true seeker of Light, this is an encouraging thought for even those transitory glimpses have a cumulative effect and will some day lead to an absolute and total self realisation.

As masons with an unflinching faith in the Godhead, we are always urged to continue our search after Truth which is a series of steps each having a glimmer of Light and if we truly and unceasingly move on and on, the previous step receives greater illumination.

With the desire to rise higher and higher on the ladder of spiritual ascendance, we must naturally loose our attachment to things mundane and begin to work inwards but there is the great danger that we might take a little knowledge as all knowledge. This is a well known trap in spiritual progress called 'spiritual pride' or egotism. We receive a revelation and instead of seeking further by the light of that is all. If we make an attempt to advance, the first revelation seems to dim slightly and we are likely to retrace our steps to the point we have gained and cling to it. This is indeed a tragedy in the path of spiritual evolution of many a seeker. They however receive certain supernatural powers as a result of their efforts. While some keep silent, a few begin to cash on the gullibility and credulity of the common man: yet some others begin to make comparison between what they know and superior to others. What they learn they keep for themselves; what they have, they are not inclined to part with. It is the absence of love which crates such a superiority complex. If they have true love they do not set themselves apart from or above all.

The G.A.O.T.U. taught us Love and by the light of that love, our darkness becomes VISIBLE and having perceived our darkness, we can strive to lighten it.

S.M.I.B.