Diwali is being celebrated since the Era of Vedas !
In the Era of Vedas, there were only five religious festivals – Gudhipadwa, Ganesh Chaturthi, Dussehra, Diwali and Holi according to Hindu Dharma. At that time, these festivals carried a lot of importance. Diwali is a religious festival in the form of compassion in a human being.
A Prayer – O’ God ! Through this Diwali festival, please light the bright flame of performing every action without any expectations in our hearts. We have surrendered ourselves unto you completely. Please give us a sattvik (Spiritually pure) intellect and the strength to spread these noble thoughts to everyone, so that we can become like a single earthen lamp that ignites multiple lamps around it. Through this, we would be graced to celebrate Diwali in its true spirit !
Celebrate Diwali in the spiritually correct way !
Do’s
1. Buy clothes such as sarees for women and kurta-pyjama or dhoti for men, long skirts for girls and kurta-pyjamas for boys. Wearing sattvik clothes helps imbibe positivity.
2. Gift items used for ritualistic worship, books on Spirituality, etc. instead of materialistic / worldly objects.
3. Instead of buying, try to make sweets, snacks or food at home, using pure ghee and fresh products.
4. If we wish to have a get-together, we can organise a puja instead of a party.
5. On the 3 days of Diwali (starting from Narak Chaturdashi) wake up at dawn and bathe after an oil massage (Abhyangasnan). Such a bath increases our Sattva component by 0.00001% when compared with a regular bath on other days. Applying ubtan increases the sensitivity of the body to absorb Chaitanya (Divine consciousness).
6. Play bhajans or shlokas instead of high decibel music that spreads Raja-Tama vibrations and pollutes the atmosphere.
7. Use flowers such as marigold to make a garland along with mango leaves and hang it at the main door.
8. Draw sattvik rangoli designs outside the door. Drawing rangoli designs such as lotus, swastik, conch, etc. helps attract positive vibrations.
9. If we wish to celebrate Diwali as a community, we can organise various competitions such as – bhajan singing, drawing rangolis, etc. instead of games such as lotto, food stalls, jewellery stalls, etc.
10. We can devote time to praying and chanting during the days of Diwali as this will help us absorb the Chaitanya in the atmosphere.
11. The lady of the house should perform aukshan (Waving of lit lamps) for the members of the family.
l2. Nowadays, many people light wax candles. However, wax does not emit positive vibrations. At twilight, light oil lamps. Avoid artificial lighting such as string of electric bulbs or lanterns in the shape of a star or Chinese lanterns.
Don’t’s
1. Discourage children from lighting fire-crackers since they are a waste of money and the smoke they emit pollutes the atmosphere and can be hazardous to health.
2. As a gesture of love, boxes of sweets are presented to relatives and friends. Sometimes these boxes carry pictures or Names of Deities on their covers. Make sure that these boxes are not thrown in dustbins.
3. Lottery tickets with pictures and Names of Deities printed on them are
sold in large numbers. Do not crumple and discard these tickets in dustbins once their validity is over as this amounts to denigration of Deities.
Draw rangoli on Narak Chaturdashi and Diwali
*Rangoli is drawn to nullify the uneven vibrations created while sweeping the fl oor with a broom.
*The white in rangoli attracts subtle Divine waves. Kumkum smeared on rangoli activates Shri Ganesh Principle and turmeric smeared on rangoli activates Shri Durga Principle in the rangoli.
*Women have the ability to absorb subtle Principles easily; hence, they should draw rangolis.
Significance of lighting earthen lamps during Diwali
1. A subtle Divine protective sheath of circular waves of the Tejtattva (Absolute Fire Principle) emanating from the lamps is created all around the house. The protective sheath created by the lit lamps cleanses the house at the spiritual level and destroys all negative energies inside the house.
2. If the house has doors in the front as well as at the back, then two lamps should be placed outside (on both sides of each door) so that the negative vibrations, which may have been brought inside the house by people using the doors, are destroyed by the marak (Destroyer) Tejtattva of the lamps.
3. Lighting lamps in the evening helps attract the Divine maraktattva (Destroyer Principle) of Shri Lakshmi. As a result, the Tejtattva of the lamps is able to cleanse the house of negative energies.
4. The light of a candle attracts distressing negative energies from the environment; hence, do not light candles.
Yamadwitiya (3rd November)
None has escaped or will escape death, which will come in due time. However, to prevent untimely death, an oil lamp (or 13 oil lamps) made of wheat flour should be lit and placed outside the house (facing South) in the evening on Narak Chaturdashi, Yamadwitiya in addition to Dhanateras.
Dhanavantari Jayanti
From the perspective of Ayurveda, the 1st day of Diwali is Dhanavantari Jayanti. On this day, Vaidyas (Ayurvedic Doctors) worship Deity Dhanavantari (Physician of Gods). Small pieces of leaves of bitter neem mixed with sugar are distributed as Prasad (Holy sacrament).
Neem is created out of Divine nectar. Hence, Prasad indicates that Dhanavantari is the dispenser of Divine nectar. If 5-6 leaves of neem are eaten every day, ailments will be prevented.
On this day, pray to Shri Dhanavantari – May Hindus get the wisdom to get rid of Allopathic medicines which have far-reaching side-effects on the body, and follow Ayurvedic remedies !
Be alert, the Nation is in a crisis !
When the Nation is going through a period of crisis, celebrating public festivals as entertainment is like ‘Nero fiddling while Rome was burning’ ! Our Nation is going through critical times at all levels – financial, social, political, defense, international relations, etc. The need is to use festivals such as Diwali to create awareness amongst people and to seriously work on regaining our past glory
| O’ God ! Through this festival, please light the bright flame of performing every action without any expectations in our hearts ! |