Deepavali : What I learned about it

Deepavali... festival of light that hindus from all over the world celebrate. There are many stories told for the origin of Deepavali and some are as follows :-

• The Killing of Narakasura by Lord Krishna's wife Satyabama
• Commemorating Lord Rama's return to his kingdom Ayodhya after completing his 14-year exile
• Goddess Lakshmi's birthday
• Austerities of Goddess Shakthi
• Commemorating Lord Krishna's defeat of Indra, the King of Devas

The word Deepavali can be separated into 2 : Deepam (a lit lamp/flame) and Avali (array/ arranged in rows).

As the flame overpowering and engulfing the darkness, the good defeating the evil is the main significance of this festival : good/positive thought triumphing bad/evil/negative thoughts, good deeds increasing over bad/evil deeds.

Like mother's day, teachers' day and other significant days celebrated and remembered throughout the world, Deepavali is a day that reminds people to at least be good and stay good with positive thoughts and forgiving attitudes.

As for me, whenever I do a good deeds, made a positive difference to another person or learnt something new to replace a dark portion of my mind with the flame called knowledge, that is deepavali and not just the specific day when deepavali is celebrated every year.

Do you know what I leanrnt about the actual reason behind celebrating Deepavali ?

In India, the harvesting of rice (the staple food in many parts of Asia) happends in January and that is when the Pongal festival is celebrated in South India. October-December months are rainy period that may also have monsoons and even torrential rainy periods leading to floods. Deepavali period (late October to early November) and the Thiru Karthigai period (around mid December) are considered to be peaks for these rain/monsoon season. So, on these two days, to create a balance of hot and cold air temperature, the people were asked to light up their homes and temples with lamps (not electric ones, but those with oil and flames) in an array. During Thiru Karthigai, the huge lamp in the hills of Thiruvanna malai is lit up. So, the heat from these flames create that balance in the air temperature that prevents any torrential rains or floods from happening. This is to protect the harvest-ready rice. So, when January comes, good harvest of the rice can happen creating happiness for the farmers all over the country for their whole year of hard work not going to waste.

If these geographical reasons had been said, then not many people would had co-operated including the uneducated. So, I think, the stories created for the origin of Deepavali and Thiru Karthigai linking them to gods and goddesses have made the reachout easy to many people in the country convincing them to perform the necessary "rituals". Mind you, deepavali originated many centuries ago before Christ.

Whatever the reasons are, that day (Deepalavi) does creats lots of happiness among individuals, families, children, elders, relatives, friends, country and many parts of the world. So, what I have learnt have made me appreciate Deepavali even more.

You may defer from my thoughts and put a counter argument, but these are just my thoughts and view point about what I learnt about Deepavali.

Best regards

Kumaran RN