From darkness lead us to the Light. From death lead us to Immortality. These lines capture the very essence of spiritual life, which is a movement away from the finite toward the Infinite, the ultimate Reality. This movement, however, does not occur in external space but inwardly. The whole struggle toward liberation or enlightenment is a drama enacted within and by the mind.
Spiritual life is essentially a matter of the cultivation of appropriate attitudes and values.
Now, the above three lines are in the form of a prayerful request or petition. They are addressed to the Divine. But they could just as well be addressed to the guru who, if he is fully realized or enlightened, is so totally immersed in Reality as to be traditionally considered as an embodiment of the ultimate Reality. For us Westerners this is very difficult to grasp and even more difficult to accept. In other words, we only see with our eyes, and hence we do not see deeply enough.