Diwali: Illumination

 Hey all! Been almost a month... Wow, seems like ages since I wrote. Urm... today I'd like to explain the importance of Diwali, i.e. the Indian Christmas and it's waaaaaaaaay cooler than the conceptual christmas. To begin with, the Indian food and the Indian clothing (du'uh, always the best and awesomeness). Then, fireworks, vedic chants, warmth, colors, lights, brightness illumination... Happiness. That's what Diwali's about. Like, christmas is just a meal, a few gifts and some lights, but Diwali is welcome to the new, clean up and suspension of the dark. What's more awesome is, it's a little after halloween, and a little before christmas. So yay! Celebration.

Okay, now that I've talked about why Diwali's so awesome, I might get on to telling on what it actually is. Diwali's referred to as the festival of lights. The Hindu people decorate their houses with lights, diyas, candles, flowers, rangolis (colored pattern made out of powdered color on ground) to make everything seem bright and awesome. We start the festivity from a week before with cleanup and disposal of waste. Waste is evil and occupies the productive space, so that way we're giving space to the God within us to come out.

Next step goes three days before Diwali when the new is bought, followed by the prayer of books. Now, the new is bought to reward oneself for bringing out the inner goodness and aslo, it's the day of donation. The prayer of books is the prayer of wisdom. The books have heard enough to be able to speak out the stories, therefore we are worshipping the onseeker of knowledge.

Now, clean up, rennovation, finishing takes a heck load of time, so a week of clean up should do it. Then finally it's Diwali! Yay! Everyone gets Indian sweets, everyone dressed in Indian clothes, everyone prayed the Vedic way, everyone lights a lot of lights and yay fireworks! Moreover, there's a Diwali special sweet called gujia. Awesome-ish enough, we people actually like the taste of feast. Diwali is all about giving, you see, so go give gifts to loved ones, to unloved ones and be polite to even your arch enemies, which I believe should be there through out the year so that there's no hatered in this world of ours. We live in the Vedic period of Kalayuga, where our inner God is losing itself. Let us speak words of kindness and put forward hearts of compassion to bring it out. =)

To why is it so important, is that it is the return of Sri Rama, the Indian God referred to as the Maryada Purushottama i.e. the man of highest regard with his wife Sita after fourteen years of living in a forest under the Aryan sect of discipline. After a victorious and virtuous battle of Karma of good over evil, he returns to his land of reign, Ayodya (i.e. the land where there is no war). His highness had been greeted with lights, and Diwali is said to be celebrated ever since.

Actually, the whole world's about happy endings. We never let our idols be in peril in a story and always manage to save them with nothing short of miracles, practically to awaken our inner faith system and make ourselves feel free and much more strong, with hope faith and love within us happening time and time again. Right now, I gotta finish last minute shopping with my mum, and then pray in the evening and, no this year I'm not bursting crackers, rather shooting them with my camera. Much love and happy Diwali everyone!