Diwali
The Festival of Lights
Anil N. Persaud

Diwali is a very old celebration steeped in the narratives of the ancient world.  Referred to as the “Festival of Lights”, Diwali is celebrated around the world by approximately one billion Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and Nepalese Buddhists.  Each year, it is celebrated on the date of the new moon between the Hindu months of Asvina and Kartika, using the traditional lunar calendar.  This usually puts it sometime in October or November on the Gregorian calendar.  The word diwali stems from the Sanskrit word deepavali – deepa meaning light and avali meaning a row; a row of lights.

Diwali is a ‘double-edged’ ceremony, with an august and solemn, internal component and a more festive and visible, external component.

The Visible Component

Exoterically, Diwali is indeed a spectacle of light.  Homes, inside and out, are alit with diyas (Hindu votive lamps, usually clay, containing a cotton wick and its principal fuel, ghee).  Especially in regions where electricity is not an extensive commodity, the display of light amidst the emerging darkness of the evening brings illumination, warmth and a quite sense of awe at being surrounded by ceremonial fires.

Marking the end of the harvest season, the night of Diwali is considered to be the naturally darkest night of the year (sans diyas) after which the light slowly begins to return.  In certain parts, prayers and offerings are made to the goddess Lakshmi, patroness of Diwali, associated with wealth, prosperity and light.

As with other celebrations that originate in India, due to the size and diversity of the land and its population, there are several different stories associated with Diwali, each signifying different things to different people.  One of these great stories tells of a possible origin of Diwali.  In antiquity, the people of the city of Ayodhya (in northern India) lit diyas to welcome back Rama, their rightful King who had been exiled to the forest for 14 years.  That night, which ended a long period of figurative darkness for Ayodhya, marked the triumphant return of the great hero Rama, a source of light for his people and his Kingdom.  Since then, it is said, Diwali has been celebrated by the lighting of diyas to welcome and invite a literal and symbolic light into our lives.

The Invisible Component

Symbolically, the celebration is that of the victory of light over darkness, the victory of those forces of evolution and growth within the human being that can overcome forces of doubt, fear and despair.  As Rama, the superhuman hero, is a conqueror of demons and untold difficulties, each of us is that Rama, with the latent ability to bring light into ourselves and our surroundings through efforts and hard-won battles.  Light is born not in situations of ease, but in moments of greatest difficulty.

As a reflection of and aspiration to inner purity, the external environment, as an act of active meditation, is purified as a part of the preparation for Diwali – homes are thoroughly cleaned, windows opened, incense burned and diyas lit.

Fire, iconic symbol of Diwali, represents both the light and the purity, for fire is the great purifier – it sanitizes, it cleanses, it tempers and purifies our most precious metals.  And fire is the result of friction.  One of the lessons of Diwali is that life with its inherent frictions and difficulties, is neither bad nor good, but how we approach those difficulties will determine the amount of light that shines our ever-ascending path.