Deepawali Festival

https://www.scribd.com/document/329332337/Deepawali

V P JAIN
Deepawali or Diwali is the biggest and the brightest of all Hindu festivals. It's the
festival of lights (deep = light and avali= a row, viz. a row of lights) which literally
bathes the landscape its golden glow and the illumination dazzles all with joy. Diwali
is nuanced by different traditions, but the underlying theme is the same, viz.
celebration of life, its enjoyment and goodness for all.

Historically, the origin of Diwali can be traced back to ancient India, when it was
probably an important harvest festival. Ever since, it has been celebrated around the
time when the winter crop ripens. However, there are various legends pointing to the
origin of Diwali or 'Deepawali.' It is believed to be the celebration of the marriage of
Goddess Lakshmi with Lord Vishnu. In Bengal the festival is dedicated to the
worship of Mother Kali. Lord Ganesha, the symbol of auspiciousness and wisdom, is
also worshiped in most Hindu homes on this day. In Jainism, Deepawali has an
added significance to the great event of Lord Mahavira attaining the eternal bliss of
nirvana. But most of all, Diwali also commemorates the return of Lord Rama along
with Sita and Lakshman from his fourteen-year long exile after vanquishing the
demon-king Ravana. In joyous celebration of the return of their king, with the
promise of divine governance epitomised as Ram-Rajya, the people of Ayodhya
decorated and illuminated the kingdom. Ram is inseparable from Ram-Rajya which
is so vividly portrayed in the Ramayana. Some excerpts:

|
|| --

While Rama was ruling the kingdom, there were no widows to lament, nor there was
no danger from wild animals, nor any fear born of diseases.

|
|| --

The world was bereft of thieves and robberies. No one felt worthless nor did old
people perform obsequies concerning youngsters.

|
|| --
Every creature felt pleased. Everyone was intent on virtue. Turning their eyes
towards Rama alone, creatures did not kill one another.

|
|| --

The trees there were bearing flowers and fruits regularly, without any injury by pests
and insects. The clouds were raining in time and the wind was delightful to the touch.

|
|| --
|

Brahmins (the priest-class), Kshatriyas (the warrior-class), Vaishyas (the class of

merchants and agriculturists), Shudras (the servant-class) were performing their
own duties, satisfied with their own work and bereft of any greed. While Rama was
ruling, the people were intent on virtue and lived without telling lies.

For more than two millennium, we have been celebrating Deepawali with all
the fan-fare and gaiety, overcome as we are with acute nostalgia for the Ramrajya.
However, there is a long and depressing history here. The India we had inherited
from Ram was wonderful, but the one which has been bequeathed to later
generations is degraded in every way. Widespread unemployment, poverty and
exclusion exist, paradoxically enough, in a world that continues to grow wealthier all
the time. What is alarming is that the gap between the rich and poor is only widening
as part of the modernization process. While obesity clinics mushroom in
metropolitan cities in India, for example, to slice off the extra fat layer of the rich
(bariatric surgery), one third of the people struggle hard, for the better part of the
day, to procure enough food for bare survival. Inclusiveness was germane to
Ramrajya. If the slogan of PM Modi of involving 125 crore people of India in the
process of development were to materialise, we would have come very close to
attaining the core value of Ramrajya. Instead, like in the rest of the world, in India
also, we have witnessed the emergence of a new class, nick named as the nouveau
rich, a long journey from Ramrajya to plutocracy, its essence being the denial of all
superiorities save that of wealth. The beneficiaries of the system, the big business
houses, the politicians, the bureaucrats and their cronies have led to the emergence
of a grotesque system of unholy nexus. Ironically, Divali, euphemistically called as
Ghoose Divas( bribe culture) has now degenerated into an instrument to fortify the
nexus. The serenity and the beauty of the deep-mala, the golden glow of the lamps
has faded in shoddy and pedantic display of the riches of the wealthy, which has
become their defining characteristics. In the same vain, the climate change accord
has become a subject of ridicule in the din of the fire-crackers, which gets louder all
the time, which is only a way of keeping score as a fashion statement. .
 We think with special shame of the contemporary world, which has gone
upside down. It makes one think that this is a morally peculiar age, in which the only
thing special about the moral horrors is their scale. Humans have throughout history
committed mass murder, extermination, cruelties, barbarism and resorted to terror
as a political instrument, all in the names of ideology, racial hatred, or political
purification. In sharp contrast to Ramrajya, the current unsettling and bewildering
scenario is simply appalling: rapes, murders, extra-judicial killings, street
vigilantism, atrocities against Dalits and the marginalised, just to name a few, hog
the headlines in the media as a matter of routine. It has become a way of life and the
people have accepted the crime graph with a sense of resignation.

On Divali day, irrespective of ones station in life, proclivities and ideological

moorings, Lakshmi - the Goddess of wealth - is worshiped to seek her blessings to
acquire prosperity and well being. For the one-dimensional elite it is an occasion,
both to showcase their riches as well as to fulfil their insatiable desire for more
wealth. The festival has degenerated into a means for furthering crass materialism.
In a culture of competitive struggle for existence, the religious fervour increases
directly in proportion to the quest for material possessions. The belief in the power of
the gods, through their capacity to grant boons or to withhold all desirable things,
drives them to propitiate gods in every possible form. In a society where individuals
feel they are unable to control or alter their day today existence, a miracle has an
obvious appeal. For the marginalised, Divali, therefore, is an opportunity to try ones
luck by lighting the lamp to welcome Goddess Lakshmi into the house, at least by
default. Many Deepavali festivals have come and gone. Yet the hearts of the vast
majority are as dark as the night of the new moon. The house is lit with lamps, but
the heart is full of the darkness of ignorance. To the spiritually ordained, Divali
celebration is to attain the illumination of the soul. May you all attain full inner
illumination! May the supreme light of lights enlighten your understanding! May you
all attain the inexhaustible spiritual wealth of the Self! May you all prosper gloriously
on the material as well as spiritual planes.

Dear Friend

Wish You and Your Family

A VERY HAPPY AND Pollution FREE

DEEPAWALI
V P JAIn Associate Professor (Retd) SOL, Delhi University.
 P.S. Like Swacch Bharat Abhiyan we must
also campaign for noise free Bharat to rid the scourge
of noise pollution and not limit ourselves to Deepawali.