Celebrating Diwali

Diwali, the festival of lights, celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains in India and around the world, is dedicated to the triumph of goodness over evil and knowledge over ignorance. It honours the goddess of wealth, Lakshmi, and the legend of Rama and Sita. Festivities include decorating houses and public spaces with thousands of lights, candles and colourful designs. Fireworks, family gathering and gift giving also form part of the celebrations. We take a look at the best pictures of Diwali around the world.

Significance of Diwali

Every day of Diwali represents the conquest of good over evil. The word Diwali is made of two words; deep (lamp or diyas) andavali (row), which means a line or a row of lamps.  During the festival of Diwali lamps are lit in every home and workplace. That is why this festival is also known as the ‘Festival of Lights’.

So how to celebrate Diwali in a spiritually correct way?

 When we shop for new clothes we can buy clothes like sārī for ladies and kurtā-pyjāmā or dhoti for men, long skirts for girls andkurta-pyjama for boys. Wearing such sāttvik clothes helps to imbibe more positivity.

Giving gifts to friends and families is a new trend, which is unnecessary. However if we still wish to gift then we can choose gifts like items used for ritualistic worship, books on Spirituality, etc. When we indulge in such practices there are expectations from each other.

Rather than ordering commercially, if possible we can try to make sweets, snacks or food at home, using pure ghee and fresh products. Thus we can ensure purity in the food we consume.

If we wish to have a get-together we can organise a pūjā rather than a party.

On the three days of Diwali starting Narak Chaturdashi we can wake up at dawn and have a bath with oil massage (abhyangasnā). Such a bath increases our Sattva component by 0.00001% compared to regular bath on other days. By applying ubtan the sensitivity of the body to absorb Chaitanya (Divine Consciousness) increases.

Music like bhajans or shlokas can be played rather than playing noisy music which spreads Raja-Tama vibrations and pollutes the atmosphere.

Flowers like marigold can be used to make a garland along with mango leaves and hung at the main door.

Rangolī with sattvik designs can be drawn outside the door. Drawing rangoli designs like lotus, swāstik, conch, etc help to attract positive vibrations.

If we wish to celebrate Diwali as a community we can organise a rangoli competition, bhajan singing, etc. rather than games like lotto, food stalls, jewellery stalls, etc.

We can devote time to prayers and chanting during the days of Diwali as it will help us to absorb the Divine Consciousness(Chaitanya) present in the atmosphere.

The lady of the house should do aukshan (waving of lit lamps) for the other members of the family.

Nowadays many people light wax candles as they are easier to handle. However do you know that wax does not emit positive vibrations ? At twilight we can light oil lamps made of clay rather than acrylic or glass to illuminate our homes. We can avoid artificial lighting like relay of electric bulbs or lanterns in the shape of a Star or Chinese lanterns

We can discourage children from lighting fire-crackers as they are a waste of money and the smoke that is emitted pollutes the atmosphere and can be hazardous to health.

Conclusion

 We pray that you will be able to experience the joy of this Diwali by celebrating it in a spiritually correct way, deriving maximum benefit of the Divine Consciousness (Chaitanya). 

SOURCE:Telegraph.co.uk