Darkness is Being away from the Center

Try to understand a few things. First of all "Oh God" is nowhere there in "Tamso ma jyotirgamaya" as is there in your translation of it. You have added "Oh God" in your translation of the prayer. This is not a prayer addressed to any God. The notion of God as the almighty is deeply engraved in your heart and you have in your question already accepted that God has created darkness and light. Then the question why God has created darkness is bound to arise. Is it to distract us; hassle us; put humankind in trouble? Then it is not God but must be a Satan. No, this is wrong. God himself is in the form of inner light. Although you can say that through this "Light" the whole existence has been created. And the darkness is nowhere there. It is only light in different degrees. Somewhere it is less light; somewhere it is more; somewhere it is yet a little more; somewhere it is bright light; they are degrees of light only. There is no such thing as darkness anywhere; nowhere in this whole world.

Did you notice the light of the moon spread outside. The light of the sun is coming to the earth after reflecting at the moon. Had moon not been there as the reflector/ transformer, the light of the sun would not have come to the earth during night. In the night also the light of the sun was there but we could not see it. Some object came in between and reflecting to which the light came in the form of moonlight. If moon had not been there; if it had been a no-moon night we would have seen darkness all around. It does not mean that there is darkness. It's just that there is no object to reflect that light when it is passing in that space. On the no-moon day we can see artificial satellites twinkling in the sky. They are twinkling with the light of the sun only. They do not have any light of their own. They returned the light of the sun up to our eyes otherwise the light of the sun would have gone pastus and we could never have seen it. You stand with a torch in the night in an open ground where there are no objects in front of you. Hold the torch two or three feet away from yourself and throw it ahead of you in the ground where there are no objects. Or keep the torch facing a little upwards so that it does not touch the ground. You will be surprised that you will not be able to see the light at all. You will not even come to know if the torch is on or not. If there is any tree, a house or any object, or a fly in font of you then you will be able to see it. If there is dust you will be able to see its particles. The light of the torch cannot be seen if there is no fly, mosquito or any other object, which can reflect it back to you. The rays of the light are going away from you and the light itself cannot be seen. The light that is outside of us cannot be seen but the inner light can be seen. I want to say that there is no darkness in this world there are only different degrees of light. Light means less of darkness and as we say darkness it means less of light. If you think in terms of degrees it will be easier to understand. Then this duality, the duality of light and darkness, it will go.

Duality is not Reality
Darkness and light are not two different things. It's less light and more light. We only feel the duality. Wherever you see duality, know that that is the fault of your vision. The world is a non-duality. How can duality be possible here? If we see duality it means our vision is not right. What will you call darkness? If you go inside your house after being in strong sun outside, you will find it dark, although it is not dark. You find the inside of your house dark because your eyes have got used to the extremely bright light. If you sit silently in the house for five minutes you will be able to see well. It means it was not dark but as compared to the strong sunlight outside the house, there was less light. So whenever we say darkness it means as compared to some strong light there is less light or darkness. There are birds and animals that can see in the night. Bats and owls can see in the night. It's dark for us but for those birds and animals who wander in the night it is not dark, they can see clearly. Owl cannot see during daytime, it can see properly in the night. The poor thing cannot see during daytime. Such strong light becomes darkness for it. Don't think that we feel darkness only when the light is less. When the light is very bright even that becomes like darkness. Our eyes are not made for that. So what we call as darkness may not be less light, it can be very bright light also. A person who has not seen for years and his eyes are operated upon. After the operation his eyes are opened in less light. The bandage is removed from the eyes and after a few hours the light is increased. The next day he is taken into brighter light. Gradually he is made to open his eyes. His vision can be destroyed if he is made to see bright light at once. It may not be able to stand bright light. He may become blind forever.

So, the first thing I want to say is that this is not a prayer to any God. It is a call to one's own potentiality. This great light is hidden inside us. When the sage is saying "From Darkness to Light", it's like anyone speaking to himself to go towards light. This prayer is to one's own self and not to any God. It is turning your potentiality into actuality. This is the way this prayer is. It is to one's own self and not to any God.

This existence is constantly growing; we are also growing. The inner self is dark because of the outgoing consciousness. Come; let's tell ourselves, "From Darkness to Light". Come; let's go upwards and inwards. In spirituality inwards and upwards are synonymous. The centre of life, our consciousness is the most lighted place. As the light starts going outside through the windows of our senses, it starts getting dimmer. The way it is brightest around the lamp and as the distance from it increases the light gets dimmer. If you go five feet away, the light will be dimmer. If you go ten feet away the light will be even dimmer. Fifty feet away it may not be seen at all. The lamp can be seen, but the light is somewhat there, very little. If you go hundred feet away, you may not be able to see the lamp at all, but the light may be seen, very dim. You may not be able to see through the naked eye but it may be seen through a magnifying glass. The light starts getting dimmer as we go away from ourselves. Similarly our personality, body, mind and the world outside it also starts getting away one after the other. The light gets brighter as we start going towards the centre. The more we are away from ourselves the darker it will appear to be. The more we return to ourselves, to the source of the light, the brighter it will be. Go back home. Rest in the endless. Light the lamp of 'Name'. Then your life will be full of light. You be a lamp to yourself as Buddha said, 'Be a Light unto Yourself'. So what we are calling darkness is not exactly darkness. And this prayer is not to God but to awaken one's own potentialities.