Anu Dev
“Diwali – A festival full of sweet memories, sky full of fireworks, mouth full of sweets, house full of diyas, and heart full of enjoyment.”
I just returned from a visit to Divali Nagar in Trinidad. It was the perfect way to relax after some very stressful Ob/Gyn finals, thank you!!
Divali has always been one of my favourite festivals. And I guess what has always been its most attractive feature has been the air of tranquility that lingers in my memories as I remember my mom and I spending most of the day puttering about the kitchen, cooking up a multitude of dishes — both “sweet and salt”. My personal favourites were the samosas and “aloo balls”.
But before the actual day of Diwali, the house would have been given a thorough cleaning — both inside and out. I haven’t been able to be home for Divali during these last two Divali occasions, but to be honest, I didn’t miss the cleaning part! Most Hindus — and this includes my Mom — literally don’t even leave a stone unturned when cleaning up for Diwali, because we are symbolically welcoming God into our house, and who would want to welcome God into a house that’s less than spic-and-span?
By six o’clock, we would be in our pooja rooms, offering prayers to the deities, Mother Laxmi in particular. Mother Laxmi is the Goddess of Light, so we pray to her on Diwali, which is the darkest night of the year (Amaawas night). Families praying together and singing bhajans to Mother Laxmi is one of the many wonderful ways that Diwali strengthens the family bond.
We would then carefully place a diya in every room of the house — especially the ledges of the verandahs — and then proceed outside, where the passageways, fences and bridges would be outlined with diyas. Because we live so close to the Ocean, the wind is invariably very strong, and it’s always a challenge to keep the diya going. You evolve strategies like placing them where two wicks touch and keep each other lit!
Divali is a harvest festival, and the underlying message – like with most Hindu festivals — is the triumph of light over darkness (good over evil). Poverty is seen as one of the greatest obstacles to living a virtuous life; so, from this perspective, banishing it through a bountiful harvest is a powerful message.
The lighting of the millions of diyas every Diwali is significant; it means we are battling the odds and lighting up the world on the darkest night of the year. Though the moon isn’t out, we’re making our own light. We’re forging our own paths in this life. And that’s important: you can only build up good karma if YOU take action, not if someone else does it for you. And karma is an integral part of Hinduism- we believe that we can only achieve moksha (liberation) based on our actions in life.
Sure, lighting up fireworks and cooking are really, really fun, but the whole essence of Diwali is that every diya that you light you are making a conscious decision to end the darkness. The darkness doesn’t just mean external ‘demons’ like drugs, bad friends, poverty, sickness etc.; it also means tackling your own internal conflicts, like trying to fix that mean aspect of your personality, or cultivating better discipline.
On Diwali, family members across the globe reconnect. Whether they just call or even visit for the holiday is up to them, but the important thing is that the bond is being maintained.
This Divali, I will be shuttling between north and south Trinidad; but I still hope, as I did last year, I will be in the Pooja room with my family, singing our favourite Divali Bhajans – via the magic of Skype!!
So go out there this Diwali, light a diya, keep on burning bright, and keep on shining.
