Today we celebrate the Festival of Lights where the lights signify victory of good over the evil. Diwali or Deepavali has many legends associated with it. In North India, it is associated with Ramayana where people of Ayodhya welcomed Rama (after a 14-year exile) by lighting rows (avali) of lamps (deepa). In Goa, it is commemorates the defeat of Narakasura at the hands of Krishna & Satyabhama.
Founder of Jainism, Mahaveer is said to have attained Nirvana on this very day. Additionally as the day, chief disciple of Mahaveer, Gautam Swami attained complete knowledge, makes Diwali an important Jain festival. Sikhs celebrate Diwali as the day of the release from prison of their sixth Guru, Hargobind along with 52 other princes with him, from detention in the Gwalior Fort in 1619.
For the Hindus, the festival marks the triumph of good over evil and the homecoming of goodwill and faith. For the Jains it is a celebration of complete knowledge. For the Sikhs, it is a struggle for freedom. And it is a confluence of all these reasons that will add meaning and purpose to our lives.
To banish the darkness, it is not enough to light lamps. The battle for freedom from darkness needs the lighting of the lamp within. We have to connect with values of equality, justice and peace for all. We need to connect to knowledge and a better understanding with what’s happening around us.
To banish the darkness shade
Light the lamp within instead!
~ Pravin K Sabnis
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