Are we really observing Deepawali the way it was originally meant? Youngsters collectively give their opinion to krrisha.com this week. They found that the celebrations are neither in sync with the original tradition nor with environment. Your celebration doesn’t mean you upset others!
Let’s get deeper
Deepawali was first celebrated in Ayodhya to welcome Lord Rama back home with his wife Sita after killing Ravan—the villain of His time—and getting Sita released from his clutches.
What does a deep signify? The earthen pot represents your heart, the mustard oil or ghee the liquid energy, the emotional energy in you, the cotton wick your focused mind and the flame your intelligence. I mean this is what real celebrations is. When your heart becomes the seat of all emotions, which get soaked up into a focused flame, converting emotional energy into Intelligent Energy and what follows thereafter is joy of union.
A deep is the principle of uniting our emotional enemies into Intelligent Energy. When Intelligent Energy nears you, all your emotions get soaked into the upward cotton wick and flame up into Intelligent Energy, spreading light and joys all around. So the event of homecoming was happening outside and inside. The joys were silent. Ram was outside as a person and in every heart as a principle. This awakened continuity of inside and outside is what is called the festival of light, where all separating darkness dissolves into light and the separations disappear. What remains thereafter is Oneness with Intelligent Energy. Energy all around, you, he, she, it and they all immersed in that energy.
This was followed up as a tradition. But, crackers only upset the focus and environmental balance. It is as if somebody hitting your head when you are enjoying the orgasmic unity with Intelligent Energy. Everybody, be it a bird, a dog or a cat or a cow is in that vibrational unity this day. But crackers only disconnect them, trigger opposite emotions of fright, scare and disunity. Well, it is not Deepawali. In the Ram Rajya, everybody had the right to unity with Him. He allowed it. And those who disallowed it were only asuras and Rakshasas. Your cracker blasts only prove that you are a Rakshas to the creation. So better learn it before Ram Baan pieces through your hearts! Ram Baan is nothing but the Natural Environmental reaction, which is faced as natural calamities.
How should we celebrate it
Burn earthen diyas with camphor soaked mustard oil outside on the walls and with ghee inside the house. Of course, sit with your family around the diyas and welcome Ram in your heart by lighting a Diya, as described above. Do it for 15 minutes. Then chant His name, offer pakwans, enjoy the feast with family and friends, sing, dance and enjoy making Ram, Sita and Hanuman ji the centre of it all. Circle around them, dancing and clapping and cracking jokes…This will energise you and clean up negativities within and without too. Within your house and without too.
Meet people. Make new friends and let the kingdom of Ram expand beyond the narrow confines of your home.
Lighting Diyas makes you Ram’s, bursting crackers makes you Ravan’s.
Krishna says in His Discourse Ten, “Out of compassion, I light up the lamp of wisdom, residing in their heart, and remove negativities or darkness with it therefrom.”
This is the true meaning of Deepawali. It should remove the negativities within and without to make way for the real joys.
Vivek Sharma
Editor-In-chief
krrisha.com
The name Deepawali itself stresses on "Deep" which means lamp. So Deepawali is a festival of lights. People welcomed Ram back to his abode by lightning lamps and not by bursting crackers. If we get deeper into this, lighting lamps indicates spreading light. So the festival stresses on the victory of light over the darkness. The darkness implies everything dark within us and not just the physical darkness. The lamps and the light symbolize enlightenment which shuns the darkness covering every soul. This happens only when Ram returns back to his abode i.e. our hearts. Putting it together, when we realize the presence of God in our hearts, we are enlightened and all the darkness fades away. Such a person would always be blissful and in harmony with nature.
Regarding the crackers, the festival has no connection with bursting crackers. They are nowhere into the tradition of the festival. They are merely used to create excitement and fun. Bursting crackers is actually causing disturbance and if we think in depth, any disturbance is against the gist of the celebration of Deepawali.
Deepawali is meant for all. Living and non living, all have the right to evolve and get enlightened. The sun's rays are for all without any differentiation. So if we celebrate the festival by means which provide fun and momentary pleasure to us alone then that is not acceptable. Moreover, when we burst crackers we cause pollution to the nature, we disturb many animals, many old aged people find it difficult to withstand the noise. We must try to spread happiness and joy during this festival. This could be done by acts of charity, donation, activities related to environment protection as all this would ultimately bring us in harmony with all. And that unity is the true spirit of Deepawali. Let's be the light which we want to spread. Happy Deepawali.My Betu, Bruno. He doesn't enjoy the noise of crackers. We keep him close to us so as to comfort him.
Gunjan Patel
The true spirit of Deepawali as the name suggests, is the row (avali) of clay lamps (deepa) that Indians light outside their homes to symbolize the inner light that protects from spiritual darkness. It symbolizes spiritual victory of light over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance.
We can have Deepawali in harmony with nature, by illuminating not only the outer but the inner environment of ours and others. Share love, happiness, sweets and clothes, etc. with others specially with the underprivileged people, orphans and the needy ones. Have concern for animals and nature. What goes around comes around, in past some years the level of pollution in some cities has raised to a level that wearing a mask becomes a compulsion. Natural calamities is another repercussion. So Beware! Before it's too late.
No. Burning crackers is not in harmony with the true spirit of Deepawali! It is the festival of light, so every place is brightly illuminated and darkness is expelled. Crackers bring temporary light which affects Nature and it's beings adversely; so it can't be in harmony with the true spirit of Deepawali.
This dog on my street was running here and there confused and scared, through the smoke of crackers. It was a very horrid situation. He stopped for a moment when I called him and then he ran away, hearing the terrifying sound of crackers. He was perplexed and didn't knew where to hide and what to do. I was feeling helpless too at that moment. But through this blog I wanted to ask everyone, can't we really stop this? If you have a small baby at home and he gets disturbed, won't you stop this? Please do think and manifest your love and concern for these little babies too.
Snigdha Mishra.
The true spirit of Deepawali lies in realizing the events that lead to the celebration of the festival ; return of Purushottama Ram Jee back to His abode with the power Mother Sita.
We can have deep, intent meditations to let our mind come in synchronization with the natural harmony of the beautiful night and fondly remember Lord Ram.
Deepawali is not just for humans but for all beings.
No. Burning crackers is not in harmony with the true spirit of Deepawali. I feel bursting of crackers is more of an externalization of the jubilation and joy that one feels within with realization of the events but people with there mechanical tendencies seem to be repeating the action without trying to discern.
Diwali nights are difficult for little baby Paachu. It's his first Deepawali and whereas the light works made him recede back behind a shelter: a door or bed post or under the table, he contested the blasting bombs with his barks but eventually got tired and kept waking up as and when he heard bombs exploding.
Bhavini Dubey
Deepawali is the Festival of Lights. According to mythology, Deepawali marks the return of Lord Ram and his family to Ayodhya after killing Ravana who has been associated with evil and negativity. Light signifies abolishing of sadness, pain and disharmony which signify darkness. Deepawali marks the end of all this and is celebrated among one and all irrespective of caste, creed and religion.
Burning crackers is not in harmony with the celebration of Deepawali because Deepawali is the Festival of Lights and not of crackers which cause malice like air and noise pollution which are detrimental to the old and ailing and also to the animals. Since it’s a festival of unity, one should always keep all this in consideration and celebrate the festival responsibly where all is united in harmony.
Since India is a country with high forms of pollution levels one should abstain from pollution creating crackers and bombs, which create inconvenience for money. One should engage in lots of food and sweets and also light Diyas to avert darkness. Since we should all have a higher purpose in life one should also make it a point to share the happiness with the less fortunate and also celebrate with them. This is how we can have a Diwali in harmony with nature.
Its not only about dogs and cats. I guess the smog and the noises of bursting crackers even made the birds scared.
Meghna Beri
The true spirit of Deepawali is victory of good over evil . It spreads the message of love ,joy,happiness, selflessness and care. The festival of lights is celebrated to spread prosperity . No, Deepawali is not just for humans.
Not just humans and animals but every creature has the right to celebrate each and every spirit in its true spirit.
Not at all ,burning crackers is never in harmony with the true spirit of Deepawali In fact I believe it is something completely contradictory to the beautiful essence of this festival. The entire ecosystem is adversely affected by bursting of crackers.
We can celebrate Deepawali in harmony with nature by lighting diyas and candles instead of burning firecrackers and wasting a huge amount of electricity in lights and alike, making people aware of the ill-effects of crackers and how they affect the plants ,animals and even the humans, and most importantly.
The street dog in the picture is Whitey though he is always active and happy waving his tail at me but he looked terrified on and post Deepawali celebrations. Looking at him made me conscious of the selfish choices we humans make.
Tiasha Sen
Diwali or Deepawali is not just a festival of lights or burning crackers, it is more than that. As the name suggests, Deepawali means row of lights.
When you light a lamp and add fuel to it in the form of ghee or vegetable oil, while pouring it into diyas you are transferring your fears, depression,ego, hatred,anguish, suffering and burning it in the fire by lighting the diya or lamp. Diya lights up with hope, faith and calms our mind and spirit and restores our energies, making us feel lighter.
Diwali is for every being which is a creation of God, and giving hope to them whether birds or animals or insects in the form of lights in the dark hours of night.
Burning crackers is just a modern outlook, and following others culture and forgetting our traditional past. The nations which are big manufacturers of these crackers are themselves banning them to be burnt in their respective countries, and exporting us.
We can have safe Diwali by lighting diya's and earthen lamps made of clay soil. We can make rangoli designs and decorate our entrances. The best gift you can give to nature on Diwali would be to plant a new seed every Diwali and make it a habit because we are responsible citizens and therefore should live in harmony with nature by conserving and preserving our natural resources.
This is picture of my friends cat named Myra on hearing a loud cracker on the morning of Deepawali. She did not eat properly that day.
Fiza Ibrahim
I think true spirit of Deepwali should be victory of your true selves over your darkest struggles. It is for all and should be for all since Ram accepted all.
I think crackers have no role to play in Deepwali. After all it's just sound, pollution and a race, a competition for who burns more crackers. Anything which disturbs the balance of nature is disharmonious, same is the case with crackers, who except us humans actually enjoys the sound of crackers? None. Dogs fear them, trees detest them and environment gets polluted by them, old people do not enjoy such loud noises. I guess anything which strikes fear should be considered anti-Ram approach and not Deepawali.
Putting into practice the spirit behind Deepawali that is fighting to get back your shakti from the darkness which overpowers us, be it-- a habit, a bad attitude, a wrong company etc . It is in line with what Beejankuri:The Seed of Bhagwad Gita says, 'Getting in tune with the intelligent energy and growing from an exclusive standpoint to an inclusive standpoint.' At last, Deepawali should bring light and happiness to all hearts so let's not only clean our homes but our colony and our environment.
I have three dogs and none could sleep during the hustle of Deepawali. They had their worst Deepawali.
Shivangi Sharma
Compiled by krrisha youngsters
This compilation is the product of the team effort of youngsters-- Snigdha Mishra, Meghna Beri, Gunjan Patel, Tiasha Sen, Fiza Ibrahim, Bhavini Dubey and Shivangi Sharma. These youngsters got inspired to work for the awareness of true spirit of Deepawali which they believe is an inclusive and not an exclusive celebration. They all say that the seed of this inspiration lies in Beejankuri: The Seed of Bhagwad Gita which explains how the humans are harming themselves and the environment with their selfish actions due to the sense of exclusivity, while the whole universe works inclusively and in harmony. They say the grandest celebration is when everybody:trees,animals, water-bodies,humans, environment all inclusively participate in the jubilation and celebration.