Deepavali - Festival of Enlightenment

Deepavali is the festival of light. Festival of enlightenment. Chasing away

of darkness of ignorance by light of wisdom. Burning of deep rooted
samskaras and vasanas in the light of wisdom of the Self - Atmajnana.

Every festival of India carries a deeper spiritual message. Festival of
Deepavali carries the message the sloka

Asato ma Sadgamaya, tamaso ma jyotirgamaya, mrityorma amritam gamaya om
Shanti Shanti Shantih.

Lead us from falsehood to Truth, from Darkness to Light, from death to
immortality, Peace.

Deepavali is a call for living the life in Truth, enlightenment and wisdom.
The Truth is "Everything is Conciousness - Sarvam Khalu idam Brahma". "Inner
Self is Brahman - Ayamatma Brahma". The universe, Cosmic form of the Lord is
nothing but projection of the inner Self - Atman.

When we live the life of Service (yagna) to the Lord -Vishnu (Cosmic form)
we are living in Truth. This is symbolised by the story of Bali chakravarthy
(Trivikrama - Cosmic form of Lord). Everything in our life should be
offerting to the Cosmic form of the Lord. The ultimate offering is our ego
symbolised by Bali offering is head to the feet of Lord.

Life of Service (Seva) purifies the Chitta. Light of innerself (Sakshi)
glows in the lamp of purified Chitta. Intellect is the wick. Viveka and and
Vairagya are the oil.


Significance of Deepavali (written in 2009)

Deepavali stands for string of lamps - light. It is a festival of lights.
It is festival for celebration of enlightenment - Liberation. Light is the
inner Light - light of Self - Atmajyoti. It is customary to celebrate
deepavali with crackers. Crackers - for sound and light. Sound and light
represents the world. Sound represents Nama (name), light represents the
Rupa (Form). When Nama and Rupa disappears in the the meditation, what
remains is the Light of Inner Self (Atma Jyoti) - Peace and Tranquillity and
Truth shines as ones own Self. This is the real Wealth - Laxmi. Laxmi stands
for Laxyam - what we aim for in Life. We aim for money, power, ... But in
reality all our aim is to attain peace and happiness. When inner light
awakens, the real peace and happiness dawns. This is Real Deepavali.

The inner meaning of 3 days of celebration of Deepavali is as follows.

Day 1 : Dhantera (Dhantrayodasi)/Yamadeepam - Dhan is worship of wealth.
Trayodashi is thirteenth day. The wealth hidden behind the thirteen - 10
sense organs + Body+Mind+Intelligence = the wealth of the Self which alone
can give real peace, harmony, happiness and immortality. Outer wealth is
worshipped in the form of Gold.

The lighting of this day is called yamadeepam - symbolizing conquering of
death. Yama is the king of death. In symbolic form, there is a story of
young wife confusing yama dharmaraya by lighting lamps amidst gold
ornaments. Yama who has come to take the life of the husband in the form of
snake gets confused by the light.

This story is symbolic way of indicating how to conquer death. Light the
lamp of wisdom in the middle of gold ornaments. Lamp of light is the wisdom
of
Self. Gold ornaments are higher spiritual qualities called Sadhana Sampatti
- shama, dama, titiksha ... etc. Then you will confuse Yama - Lord of
Death. You will attain immortality.

Day 2: Naraka Chaturdasi Nara+ka = Human Being + difficulties(suffering) -
Demon who causes suffering for human beings. Chaturdasi = fourteen - 10
sense organs+manas+buddi+ahamkara+chitta. Slaying of demon Narakasura by
Shri Krishna symbolizing the enlightenment. When we get established in the
Inner Self - Shri Krishna - Adi Purusha - Witness Conciousness, the demon
Narakasura who causes us suffering is killed. By taking oil bath early in
the morning ( Brahmi Muhurtam), the festival is celebrated. Brahmi Muhurtam
represents dawn of wisdom. Passing away of the darkness of the night.
Darkness of ignorance of the Self.



King Bali Chakravarthy who was sent to patala ( netherlands) returns to the
earth on this day with a lamp. Lamp represents the wisdom. Light of wisdom.
Bali represents the powerful ego - sense of "i". Lord Vishnu in the form of
Vamana - ( mana stands for mind - va stands for higher) as small kid begs
Bali for a 3 steps of Land. When Bali grants that wish, Vamana grows into
Trivikrama occupying the entire universe. When we give a small place in our
egoistic heart (Bali) to the Lord, we experience, Trivikram - experience of
Lord in the entire Universe. This is God Realization - Savikalpa Samadhi.

Day 3: Laxmi Puja Worship of Goddess of Wealth. Celebration of
enlightenment. Experiencing the Divine Blessings - offering our grattitude
to the Existance for all the Blessings in the form of Real wealth - Wisdom,
Peace, Love and Joy.


Deepavali is about inner Victory and spreading the Joy of inner victory to
the outer world.