There is an old Hindu Legend, says Claude Bragdon, that at one time all men on earth were gods, but that men so sinned and abused the Divine that Brahma, the god of all gods, decided that the godhead should be taken away from man and hidden some place where he would never again find it to abuse it.

“We will bury it deep in the earth,” said the other gods.

“No,” said Brahma, “because man will dig down in the earth and find it.”

“Then we will sink it in the deepest ocean,” they said.

“No,” said Brahma, “because man will learn to dive and find it there too.”

“We will hide it on the highest mountain,” they said.

“No,” said Brahma, “because man will some day climb every mountain on the earth and again capture the godhead.”

“Then we do not know where to hide it where he cannot find it,” said the lesser gods.

“I will tell you,” said Brahma, “hide it down in man himself. He will never think to look there.”

And that is what they did. Hidden down in every man is some of the divine. Ever since then he has gone over the earth digging, diving, and climbing, looking for that godlike quality which all the time is hidden down within himself.

It is this spark that I am daring you to turn into a blaze. – “It is this radiance we must recapture.” It is something genuine, something for everyday use. It is the spirit that naturally makes you do the right thing at the right time.

The passage above is an excerpt from William H. Danforth’s book, I Dare You.

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In today’s over-scheduled world, there is little time and few places where we are free to sit still and connect with our spiritual center. That inner voice – perhaps the voice of God – cannot be heard amidst the noise of everyday life.  

As a society, I think that we feel the void. Some say that our obsession with material things is an attempt to fill the spiritual chasm in our world today. Addiction, depression, anxiety – so many of the mental and emotional ailments that we suffer from could be attributed to this disconnect between the body and the spirit.

I often think how much more difficult it must be for us to be faithful than it was for the generations that came before. In a historically Christianity-based society, bedtime prayers, mealtime blessings, and Sunday church services all provided time for our great-grandparents to reflect and explore their faiths. 

Of course, there were skeptics among those who participated in any one of these rituals. Rarely has a person agreed 100% with any particular take on religion. But the point is … spirituality was so much a part of the culture that “the spaces and places” existed – regardless of what you wanted to make of it on a personal level. 

Today, those spaces and places are harder to find. And if they are there, we are not in the habit of seeking them out.

But maybe, as Danforth says, getting back on the road to spiritual exploration begins by simply looking for a hint of the divine within …

Got a light, anyone?