Sat­narayan Ma­haraj

Part 1

Sat­ur­day Oc­to­ber 29 has been de­clared a Di­vali na­tion­al pub­lic hol­i­day. We in the T&T time-zone cel­e­brate this Hin­du fes­ti­val of lights on the Sat­ur­day while those in In­dia cel­e­brate on Sun­day, Oc­to­ber 30. The phas­es of the moon guide the Hin­du as­trologers who de­clare Di­vali cel­e­bra­tion on the dark­est night of the year. We in T&T will see the new moon on Sun­day Oc­to­ber 30.

The word "Di­vali" or "De­pavali" means rows of sa­cred light­ed deeyas or earth­en lamps. It is one of the main fes­ti­vals of In­dia, T&T and Guyana and oth­er coun­tries to where Hin­dus were trans­port­ed as con­tract labour­ers. Di­vali is an oc­ca­sion when light­ed deeyas and oth­er forms of light are used at night time to dis­pel the dark­ness.

Light­ing of deeyas and us­ing oth­er forms of light such as fire­works are on­ly two parts of the cel­e­bra­tion. It al­so in­cludes clean­ing of homes and bod­ies, fast­ing and prayer and pu­ja. Just as light re­moves dark­ness, Hin­dus be­lieve that by cel­e­brat­ing Di­vali, hu­man ig­no­rance is re­moved. Knowl­edge and un­der­stand­ing take its place and this brings peace and hap­pi­ness to all of mankind.

The ac­tu­al wor­ship at Di­vali time is sup­posed to de­vel­op a clos­er link with God. A pub­lic hol­i­day has been de­clared by the state and this fa­cil­i­tates not on­ly Hin­dus, but our fel­low cit­i­zens to join in the ob­ser­vance. Some of our na­tion­al fam­i­ly of oth­er faiths light at least one deeya and or­der the fa­mous roti for this day.

In T&T Di­vali was first de­clared a pub­lic hol­i­day in 1966. The cel­e­bra­tion in­volves the en­tire fam­i­ly in the prepa­ra­tion and ac­tu­al wor­ship. Thus it de­vel­ops fam­i­ly uni­ty. The mem­bers of the fam­i­ly share the work to be done. This joy of work­ing to­geth­er is al­so ex­pe­ri­enced by oth­er cit­i­zens who join in com­mu­ni­ty cel­e­bra­tions.

Tem­ple grounds and open spaces are some­times dec­o­rat­ed with bam­boo arch­es which hold light­ed deeyas. Dec­o­ra­tions which are de­signed with elec­tric bulbs are al­so used. The peo­ple of Fe­lic­i­ty in Cen­tral Trinidad dec­o­rate and light the streets at least one week be­fore the ac­tu­al cel­e­bra­tions and this draws thou­sands of vis­i­tors from across the coun­try. This Fe­lic­i­ty ef­fort has spurred oth­er com­mu­ni­ties to sim­i­lar­ly dec­o­rate their vil­lages.

In his writ­ings, Swa­mi Giri Ji ad­vis­es: "Bring so­lace where there is af­flic­tion, strength where there is weak­ness, hope where there is de­spair and light where there is dark­ness." Light is of uni­ver­sal im­por­tance. The sun's light and heat are im­por­tant for life on this plan­et of ours. Through­out man's his­to­ry, the use of fire and light have played an im­por­tant role in the de­vel­op­ment of dif­fer­ent cul­tures.

Di­vali, as a cel­e­bra­tion, has been traced back to the ear­ly Hin­du scrip­tures but some cus­toms have been added. The fes­ti­val is now ob­served for dif­fer­ent lengths of time in var­i­ous places. In some parts of In­dia, Di­vali is a five-day cel­e­bra­tion, whilst in our coun­try, it may be ob­served for two or three days with the em­pha­sis on Di­vali Day. Thou­sands of chil­dren in the Hin­du schools across the coun­try par­tic­i­pate in their school's Di­vali Poo­ja and en­gage in Di­vali skits.

The first day, which is two days be­fore Di­vali Day, is ded­i­cat­ed to the founder of the Hin­du School of Med­i­cine which be­gan al­most at the time of cre­ation. He was Dhan­wan­tari Vaidya. Pu­ja or wor­ship is done in his mem­o­ry es­pe­cial­ly to keep sick­ness and death away from all, par­tic­u­lar­ly chil­dren. A spe­cial fea­ture in some parts of In­dia is sail­ing pa­per boats on rivers. This day is Dhantray­o­dashi.

The sec­ond day re­mem­bers the Lord as "Kr­ish­na" for His spe­cial ser­vice to 16,000 princess­es. These princess­es had been im­pris­oned by an evil king, Naraka­sur. Lord Kr­ish­na, who was an in­car­na­tion of God, de­stroyed the de­mon king and freed the princess­es. Vin­dra­van in Mathu­ra, In­dia is where Lord Kr­ish­na per­formed His play on earth and where spe­cial cel­e­bra­tions take place.

On this day, the form of God "Ya­ma" which is present at death is wor­shipped to keep away un­time­ly death. This day is al­so known as "Lit­tle Di­vali" when a deeya is lit and placed at the en­trance to the house. This re­minds Hin­dus of the lamp which Bharat lit to wel­come home his broth­er, Lord Ra­ma. This deeya is called "Jam deeya."

On Di­vali day, there is fast­ing, prepa­ra­tion of spe­cial foods and Prasad, per­form­ing Lak­sh­mi Pu­ja and light­ing of deeyas. Many Hin­du homes are vis­it­ed by their pun­dits who per­form spe­cial wor­ship called "Lak­sh­mi Poo­ja" weeks ahead of the ac­tu­al Di­vali day. Lak­sh­mi is the Hin­du god­dess of wealth, pros­per­i­ty (both ma­te­r­i­al and spir­i­tu­al), for­tune, and the em­bod­i­ment of beau­ty. She is said to bring good luck and is be­lieved to pro­tect her devo­tees from all types of mis­ery and mon­ey-re­lat­ed sor­rows.

Lak­sh­mi is wor­shipped dai­ly in Hin­du homes and com­mer­cial es­tab­lish­ments as the god­dess of wealth. She al­so en­joys wor­ship as the con­sort of Vish­nu in many tem­ples. The fes­ti­vals of Di­vali and Ko­ja­giri Purn­i­ma are cel­e­brat­ed in her ho­n­our.