Diwali - Festival of Lights

I went to Melbourne Airport to drop off my wife and kids, visiting India for a holiday and noticed this. Diwali being celebrated in the Airport with idols of Lakshmiji and Ganeshji being worshiped Lakshmi is to bestow wealth and prosperity and Ganesh to remove any obstacles.Hmm..

Diwali is called as festival of lights and is celebrated through out India to signify the triumph of good over evil. People, light up lamps in their houses and fire crackers to set up the jubilant mood.

It is said that, tradition of celebrating Diwali started from the times of yore when,

1. Lord Rama returned to Ayodhya after the winning the war with Ravana

2. Satyabhama - the wife of Lord Krishna killed a fierce demon called Narakasura.

As a kid, I have these sweet memories of festival, where there used to be temporary shops of fire crackers setup in front of my house and, it is my daily routine to visit the shop and buy some fire crackers with whatever pocket money my father would give. And, a day before the festival, I would go along with my father to one of the shops and make a big buy of various items like, flower pots, the electric crackers, the popular ground wheel (commonly called as charka), the high flying rockets, the favourite sparklers and of course the explosive and ear deafening bombs. Well, I had some interesting experiences with these fire-crackers. When I was about 11 years, I lighted up a chakra, holding it in my hand with the help of a twisted thin metal wire and the Chakra which is supposed to be spinning in the air making circles of light actually blew in my face. Nothing serious happened, but for about 10 minutes I was seeing everything pink, including the moon in the sky. I washed my face and eyes with water and was alright. Another incident when, a double shot bomb landed on my brother's thigh and made a lasting mark there. So, be careful while playing with fire crackers.

Talking about light, here is a nice verse from the Vedic litrature (Brhadaranyaka Upanishad),

Asato ma sadgamaya

tamaso ma jyotirgamaya

mrtyorma amrtam gamaya

Om Shanti..Shanti..Shanti..

Lead me from ignorance to the truth.

Lead me from darkness to light.

Lead me from death to immortality

Om Peace, Peace, Peace.