Diwali – The festival of lights

The religious significance of Diwali varies regionally within India, depending upon The Hindu philosophy, regional myths, legends and beliefs. Diwali is celebrated by Hindus, Jains and Sikhs to mark different historical events, stories, myths but they all symbolize the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, good over evil, hope over despair. Every one of us is aware of the reason behind celebration of Diwali and we agree that Diwali is festival of lights and brings lots of happiness, love and positivity all around. Each and every person no matter what age group is filled with enthusiasm and excitement during Diwali. Its preparation starts since many days which includes cleaning and decorating the house and offices, buying new clothes, crackers, gifts for friends and relatives and puja.

It is an environment of fun and positivity all around. Each and every festival gives us messages of life.

Here are the messages from Diwali:

Cleaning of the house and office before Diwali– This is the basic activity done by almost each family during Diwali. The belief is Goddess Laxmi arrives where there is cleanliness. The idea attached to it is to remove the clutters from the house and office that are of no use and occupy space and dust. Then the next step is decoration. Decoration is never beautiful when there is no cleanliness..
The message from this is one should clean their heart, mind and soul from the dirt of negativity and the damaging negative emotions such as anger, hatred, jealousy, revenge etc. which are of no use and occupy space and dirt in our heart, mind and soul and stops from decorating self with positivity, love, care, kindness, humanity and much more and also from growth, success and peace. It may happen that people may decorate themselves with positivity and positive emotions for the four days of Diwali but again tend back to negativity. The reason is less time and effort was made in the cleanliness procedure of negative emotions.
Lighting diyas in the house and office– This is done with the thought to remove the darkness and enlighten the house and office to welcome Goddess Laxmi, friends and relatives. The message from this is to enlighten self with knowledge, positivity, love and humanity to remove the darker areas of life. Again it should be understood that no one would like to be associated with the people surrounded by darkness (negativity and negative emotions). Darkness leads to pessimism—a big hindrance in the path of growth, success, happiness and peace .The need is to understand and accept that everyone has to enlighten self no one lights a diya in someone else premise. One has to enlighten self as blaming others and expecting from others is not fruitful.
Distribution of sweets to friends and relatives– Almost all the house is full of sweets in Diwali. Distributing sweets is the tradition during Diwali. The message is to spread sweetness through thoughts, feelings, behavior and action. It has a mutual benefit to the giver and the taker both are energized positively.
Bursting crackers– The crackers are burnt to have fun and logically it kills the mosquitoes, moths, and insects generated during this season. Now a day various crackers are available in the market. Some bombs are with huge sound and the others with colorful glitters. Each of the crackers needs fire to burst. The message is all the explosives are within us and needs fire to burst. The need is to understand what should be stored inside, a bomb which when lighted creates a huge sound and makes people uncomfortable or colorful glitters which makes people happy when it gets enlighten. The glitters can be love, care, kindness, generosity, humanity and many more.
Puja– Laxmi pujan and Saraswati pujan (chopda pujan) is done on Diwali. Everyone performs puja to please Goddess Laxmi and Saraswati for happy and prosperous life. Let the puja not be an activity. It is an occasion of connecting to God. It can always be done for fulfilling the desire but at the same time thanking God and being grateful for what we have is also a part of puja. God and Goddess always want to help us and fulfill our desire but the need is to rise up to such a level where the heart, mind and soul is clean and filled with positivity and humanity where they can reside. The message is very simple as a human you never want to go to a place which is negative or talk to a person who is negative or ill minded how will God and Goddess like to?
Greeting friends and relatives– Everyone wishes happiness and happy Diwali to all they meet with a smiling face. The message is you get what you give. It is often heard that they do good and give but don’t receive the same. The universal law is you get what you give, you deposit on the north you get it from the south.
Let this Diwali be an opportunity to understand the message, grab it and implement it along with pomp and celebrations for a better and meaningful life.