Diwali

Diwali celebrates the victory of light over darkness; wisdom over ignorance. The holiday takes place on the darkest night at the start of the darkest month of the year. At this time, we invoke luminous quality of consciousness, in form of Lakshmi, and ask her to enter our lives and bring us good fortune.

There are many stories about the source of this festival. Some say it marks:

• the anniversary of the marriage of Lakshmi and Vishnu

• Rama and Sita’s return to Ayodhya, after 14 years in exile in the forest and their defeat of Ravana

• Krishna-Satyabhama defeat of Narakasura, the demon of Hell’, who kidnapped 16,000 women, including the daughters gods; imprisoned them - and also robbed Aditi, mother of gods, of her precious earrings. (one of my favourite stories, which I tell on the Satsang recording).

Diwali is the said to be the night that Lakshmi looks for a home for the coming year. Of course, everyone wants Lakshmi to live with them. She represents all forms of wealth, not only money and jewels, but also the nobler values life. She is said to prefer places of hard work and sincerity, but leaves if these qualities disappear.

Lakshmi is ‘chanchala’ by nature, which means that she needs to flow. In fact, a person becomes an asura/ demon when they resist sharing Lakshmi, i.e. they hoard their wealth or are greedy.

To read more and to watch the Satsang recording: https://swamisaradananda.substack.com/