"From its brilliancy everything is illuminated"
About this Quote
The phrasing matters. “From its brilliancy” puts the emphasis on origin, not on the enlightened individual. That quietly punctures spiritual vanity: the glow isn’t yours, and the credit can’t be claimed. It also carries a moral edge. If everything is illuminated, then nothing is safely hidden - not hypocrisy, not caste pride, not the everyday violences society normalizes. Illumination becomes accountability.
Context sharpens the intent. Nanak spoke in a North India threaded with religious rivalry, rigid social hierarchies, and performative piety. His project was insistently anti-gatekeeping: direct devotion, ethical living, and a radical equality that treats the divine presence as saturating the world. This line is a refusal of spiritual scarcity. It suggests a cosmos where meaning isn’t doled out to the few but radiates outward, making even the mundane legible, charged, answerable.
The subtext is daringly democratic: if the light is that strong, you can’t keep it confined to temples, texts, or elites. It belongs, by overflowing, to everyone.
Quote Details
| Topic | God |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Nanak, Guru. (2026, January 16). From its brilliancy everything is illuminated. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/from-its-brilliancy-everything-is-illuminated-131760/
Chicago Style
Nanak, Guru. "From its brilliancy everything is illuminated." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/from-its-brilliancy-everything-is-illuminated-131760/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"From its brilliancy everything is illuminated." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/from-its-brilliancy-everything-is-illuminated-131760/. Accessed 7 Feb. 2026.







