Deepavali

Following is an excerpt from a discourse by Bhagavan Baba on the occasion of Deepavali, the festival of lights.

Deepavali means “the array of lights.” “Tamasoma jyotirgamaya” [lead me from darkness to light] is a prayer from the Upanishads [scriptures]. This means that where there is darkness, light is needed. What is this darkness? Sorrow, peacelessness, loss, disappointment, misery, and lack of enthusiasm are all different forms of darkness. To get rid of the darkness of sorrow, you have to light the lamp of happiness. To dispel the darkness of disease, you have to install the light of health. To get over the darkness of losses and failures, you have to usher in the light of prosperity.

Looking at the Deepavali festival from the scientific point of view, it should be noted that in the distant past, our ancestors lived in the Arctic. In this region, darkness prevailed for six months. The sun appears on Mesha Sankranthi day (Hindu festival marking the entrance of the sun into the Aries sign of the Zodiac). The sun sets in this region on Tula Sankranthi day (when the sun enters Libra). In the movement between these two signs, there is an interval of six months. After the sun sets in Libra, the dark half of the year starts.

Today is Chaturdasi (the 14th day) in the month of Karthik [in the lunar calendar]. It is Amavasya (new moon day). The month is called Kaumudi. The people living in the polar region used to start lighting their lamps from this day. As they would be in darkness for a long period, they described the lamp that was lit as nityajyoti (the perennial light).

On Deepavali day, Sri Rama’s [the main character in the epic, Ramayana] coronation took place on his victorious return to Ayodhya from Lanka after vanquishing Ravana and his rakshasa [demon] brood. For a long period, Ayodhya had been plunged in darkness while Rama was in exile in the forest. In the absence of the effulgent Rama, Ayodhya was a city of darkness while the forests were filled with light. The people of Ayodhya hailed the return of Rama as the return of divine effulgence and hence they celebrated the event by lighting lamps everywhere.

Other significant features mark today’s festival. This is the day on which the Lord in His Vamana incarnation [one of 10 incarnations of Lord Vishnu] sent the Emperor Bali to the netherworld after He got the promise of three feet of ground from Bali (measured by the Lord’s foot). Vamana used this gift of three feet of land to put down the ahamkara (egoism) of Bali.

Deepavali is a festival that is designed to celebrate the suppression of the ego by the higher self. Man is plunged in the darkness of ignorance and has lost the power of discrimination between the permanent and the evanescent. When the light of divine knowledge dispels the darkness of ignorance caused by ahamkara, the effulgence of the divine is experienced. Deepavali is also the day on which Emperor Vikramaditya [a famous Indian emperor] ascended the throne.

If the darkness of ignorance is to be dispelled, man needs a container, oil, wick, and a matchbox corresponding to what an external lamp needs. For man, the heart is the container. The mind is the wick. Love is the oil and vairagya (sacrifice) is the matchbox. When you have these four, atma-jyoti (the divine flame of the spirit) shines effulgently. When the light of the spirit is aflame, the light of knowledge appears and dispels the darkness of ignorance.

The flame of a lamp has two qualities. One is to banish darkness, and the other is to display a continuous upward movement. Even when a lamp is kept in a pit, the flame moves upward. The sages, therefore, adored the lamp of wisdom as the flame that leads men to higher states. Hence, the effulgence of light should not be treated as a trivial phenomenon. Along with lighting the external lamps, men should strive to light the lamps within them. The human estate should be governed by sacred qualities. This calls for the triple purity of body, mind, and speech or trikarana shuddhi.

The inner significance of Deepavali is to lead man from darkness to light. Man is perpetually plunged in darkness. Every time he is enveloped in darkness, he should light the lamp that is always shining within him. Carry that lamp wherever you go; it will light your path wherever you may be.

Source: Divine Discourse, Nov. 5, 1991