Deepavali (Diwali)

​Acquire the grace of Deities by celebrating Deepavali as per the Hindu scriptures

Friends, Deepavali (Diwali) means a row of lamps. What happens when you light the lamps ? Deepavali brings in happiness and enthusiasm in life. Deepavali means the beginning of a happy life. At present, the way in which we celebrate Deepavali causes sadness and distress to others. Will God like it ? To act so that others receive happiness is a true way to celebrate Deepavali.

1. Information about Deepavali

Deepavali means a row of lamps. On this day rows of lamps are placed all over the place. Shrikrushna killed the demon Narakasur and freed the public from attitude of indulgence, selfishness, lust, improper conduct and cruel behaviour. Shrikrushna has advised us to live happily and to possess Divine thoughts by eliminating our personal defects and developing good qualities.

When Shriram returned to Ayodhya after living in exile in the forest for 14 years, people celebrated the occasion by lighting lamps. The people started celebrating Deepavali from that day.

2. Scientific explanation of each day in Deepavali festival

A. Dhantrayodashi (Dhanteras)

It falls on Ashwin Krushna paksha Trayodashi (i.e. the 13^th day of the dark fortnight of the Hindu lunar month of Ashwin).

1. Worship the wealth : On this day, the traders worship their safes/vaults. They consider the year from last Deepavali to this Deepavali as a financial year. New account books are purchased on this day only. The wealth, which nourishes our life is also worshipped. Here, the wealth means Goddess Lakshmi.

2. Take a pledge that you will never earn wealth through improper ways : Wealth means money. We should earn money through good practices. Wealth earned by deceiving others, by corruption or by theft cannot be called wealth. It is sin. By practicing such bad ways, Goddess Lakshmi will not grace us. Hence, everybody should take a pledge never to earn wealth by improper ways.

3. Let us offer a prayer that everybody should be endowed with intellect to earn wealth by following the conduct as per Dharma : In present times, many people in the country are involved in corruption. Have they got the right to worship wealth? Friends, let us pray Goddess Lakshmi that the attitude to earn wealth by illegal means be destroyed from our country and everybody should be given intellect to earn wealth by following the conduct as per Dharma. Presently, some children steal money from their father’s pocket or from the school bags of other students in their class. If such children celebrate Deepavali, will Goddess Lakshmi bless them ? Make a resolve not to commit such mistakes. Then only, it will be Dhanteras in its true sense.

B. Dhanvantari Jayanti (Ashwin Krushna Paksha Trayodashi)

Earn the grace of Deity Dhanvantari by resolving to eat only sattvik food : Vaidyas (Ayurvedic Doctors) worship Deity Dhanvantari as ‘The doctor of Deities’. On this day Naivedya (Food offered to Deities as a part of worship) of Neem leaves and sugar is offered. The Neem tree originated from Amrut (Nectar). It is believed that if we eat Neem leaves everyday we remain healthy. Nowadays, children do not eat homemade food like vegetables and chapattis prepared by their mother. They eat burgers, pizzas, chocolates etc. available outside. This badly affects their health. Deity Dhanvantari imparts health. Hence if we make resolve to eat only home-made sattvik food, we will be blessed by Deity and our health will remain in good condition.

C. Yamadipdan (Ashwin Krushna Paksha Trayodashi)

Keep 13 lamps made from dough towards the southern direction to prevent sudden death : Deity Yama has power to take life. Death is unavoidable, but no one should face sudden and untimely death. To prevent sudden and untimely death, 13 lamps made from dough are placed towards the southern direction. We normally do not keep lit lamps towards the southern direction, but on this day we carry out such an action.

D. Narak-chaturdashi

(Ashvin Krushna Paksha Chaturdashi – 14th day of the dark fortnight of the Hindu lunar month of Ashwin)

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Narak-Chaturdashi

1. The story of assassination of Narakasur

Shrikrushna killing Narakasur : In ancient times, a demon called Narakasur was ruling at Pragjotishpur. He used to cause a lot of suffering for Deities as well as human beings. He used to harm women as well. He jailed 16,000 princesses and planned to get married to them. Hence, everybody was scared of him. When Shrikrushna learnt about this, he went there with his wife Satyabhama, killed Narakasur, and freed all the princesses.

Shrikrushna grants a boon to Narakasur : Narakasur asked for a boon from Shrikrushna that whoever takes a sacred bath on the day of Narak-chaturdashi will not face any misery. Shrikrushna endowed him with the boon. After killing Narakasur, Shrikrushna applied tilak of Narakasur’s blood. When Shrikrushna returned after defeating Narakasur, all women waved Arati around Him. Nowadays, people break karit (a bitter fruit) with their feet as a symbol of killing of Narakasur.

E. Lakshmipujan

(Ashvin Amavasya – The new moon day of the Hindu lunar month of Ashwin)

1. On the day of Lakshmipujan, Goddess Lakshmi visits the house of Her devotees : On this day, Shri Vishnu freed all Deities including Goddess Lakshmi from the prison of King Bali. On this day, a swastik of rice grains is drawn on flat small stool and idols of Goddess Lakshmi and Deity Kuber are placed on it. Goddess Lakshmi is offered Naivedya of Coriander seeds, jaggery, Lahya (parched rice) and Battase (A kind of sweet). Coriander seeds are symbols of wealth and parched rice is symbol of prosperity. As per scriptures ‘On this night, Goddess Lakshmi moves around all over the places and finds a proper place to stay.’ Where would She like to stay ? She will like to stay in the house of those who are devotees of God, who always speak the truth, behave in the way which God will like, and those who impart happiness to others by their deeds. Would you not like that Goddess Lakshmi should stay at your home ? Then make a resolve to acquire various good qualities as above. This is a true Lakshmipujan.

Watch Video : Ritualistic worship of Sri Lakshmi and Deity Kubera

2. Importance of worshipping Deity Kuber : Deity Kuber teaches us how to retain the wealth earned by us and while doing so how to spend in proper way. Hence, we worship the idol of Deity Kuber. Many people earn a lot of money, but they do not know how to spend it and maintain it, therefore, we should worship Deity Kuber.

3. Getting rid of alakshmi : When we invite Goddess Lakshmi by worshipping Her, but She will stay in our house only when we will destroy alakshmi. Similarly when we develop some good qualities, but if we do not eliminate our defects, these qualities will have no importance. On this day we sweep the floors of our house at midnight. The garbage means alakshmi. We sweep the floors of house at midnight only on this day, never on other days.

F. Balipratipada

(Kartik Shukla Pratipada – The 1st day of the Hindu lunar month of Kartik)

1. Offer everything to God like King Bali : On this day, we worship generous King Bali and his wife Vindhyavali. Donations should be given to proper person only. However, King Bali had not followed this rule and donated whatever was asked by any body. Since the donations were received by the improper persons, these persons started causing distress to others. Ultimately, Shri Vishnu incarnated in the form of Vaman and sent King Bali below the earth to Patal (Nether region). King Bali offered everything to Shri Vishnu in the form of Vaman, and he surrendered completely to God. Friends, if we surrender to God, we will also acquire His blessings.

G. Bhaubeej

(Kartik Shukla Paksha Dwitiya – 2nd day of the Hindu lunar month of Kartik)

Gift your sister with traditional Bharatiya dress : On the day of Bhaubeej, a brother visits his sister and she waves a lamp around him. If the sister does not have a brother, she will wave lamp around any person whom she assumes as her brother. On this day, a man take meals at his sister’s house instead of eating food prepared by his wife at home. On this day will you gift your sister with jeans and ‘T’ shirt? Instead you should present her with a Punjabi dress, saree or if sister is younger to you, with appropriate clothes.

We have to protect our Hindu culture. On this day, the brother should wear Kurta-pyjama or dhoti-kurta while visiting the sister. Try to refrain from gifting the sister with black coloured clothes.

3. Difference between lighting electric lamp and oil lamps

	Electric lights	Rows of oil lamps
1) Chaitanya (Divine Consciousness) of Deities	Due to lack of capacity to attract Chaitanya in the environment, no benefit is accrued	By imbibing Divine Chaitanya in the environment feeling enthusiastic
2) Capacity to attract	Attractive only to eyes, but not giving enthusiasm and pleasure to mind	Mind receiving enthusiasm and peace
3) Extroversion /introversion	Due to increase in extroversion, noticing personal defects in others instead of studying own defects, thus creating tension	Due to increase in introversion, being able to study own defects
4) Saving in nation’s natural resources	No saving	Savings

– Shri. Rajendra Pavaskar (Guruji), Panvel