Long after you have left home, long after you have gone too far, long after you missed some people on the way, you realize how much you have lost. Those little joys of life. Those festival of lights, those moments of colours.
To be with someone, you lose someone. To be someone, you lose to be someone. But this would perhaps be a constricted way of seeing things. On a more cosmic level, everything belongs to the Divine and every creation of His, reflects Him. And that is the beauty of Universe. A reflection of the divinity in everything: light and dark, colours and their somber shades, spicy and sugary, heavy and light, big and small, away but not so far. Diwali the festival of lights signifies this spiritual aspect of existence.
Legends galore why the festival is reveringly celebrated all over India and perhaps the world. But the most beloved is the one that refers to Lord Rama’s return from exile after fourteen years. Lord Rama, is referred to as the ‘Maryada Purshottam’ in the Vedas. ‘Maryada Purshottam’ a Sanskrit word, when translated literally means, the highest and the best amongst all human beings. That is He signifies the best of human qualities, closest to the Divine.
In Hindu spirituality, there is a strong faith in re-birth and incarnation. It is believed that one of the reasons that Lord incarnates from time to time is to show love and come as a close relationship to those who loved and prayed the Lord in their last lives and wanted to have Him as their child, spouse or parent. The other important reason, Lord incarnates, is to destroy the demons and bring peace to the world. And finally to set an example for the world, as to how the best and ideal men & women should behave.
Lord Rama as ‘maryada purshottam’ as the ideal human set an example for the humans to act with serenity in the most difficult of circumstances, to fight the evil and to love everyone. It is said that Lord Rama was so much loved and revered by the people all over Bharat(as India was referred to then), that when their beloved Rama came back from exile, after fourteen years, people lighted their homes with ‘diyas’(kind of candles burnt with ghee, a type of Indian butter made from cow milk) and celebrated sweets.
Thousands of years may have passed away since then, but the spirit remains. The fragrance of this festival lingers on, the light lightens our spirits and reminds of those waiting somewhere for us. And in my heart, brings a promise to my parents, that next year there really will be a Diwali at home…. Till then, just a promise .. na juda honge hum, kabhi khushi, kabhi gham….
Till then, lets try spread the infectious spirit of love, life and spirituality wherever we are, wherever we go. Live a little bit of spirituality wherever we are, see that Divine residing inside each one of us that makes us a little more good, a little less bad!! … Happy Diwali!
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