| Diwali
Beliefs And Practice |
Diwali
or more aptly Deepavali is very enthusiastically
celebrated for five continuous days and each day has its
significance with a number of myths, legends and beliefs.
The First day is called DHANTERAS or DHANTRAYODASHI which
falls on the thirteenth day of the month of Kartik. The
word "Dhan" means wealth. As such this day of
the five-day Diwali festival has a great importance for
the rich mercantile community of Western India. Houses and
Business premises are renovated and decorated. Entrances
are made colourful with lovely traditional motifs of
Rangoli designs to welcome the Goddess of wealth and
prosperity. To indicate her long-awaited arrival, small
footprints are drawn with rice flour and vermilion powder
all over the houses. Lamps are kept burning all through
the nights. Believing this day to be auspicious women
purchase some gold or silver or at least one or two new
utensils. "Lakshmi-Puja" is performed in the
evenings when tiny diyas of clay are lighted to drive away
the shadows of evil spirits. "Bhajans"-devotional
songs- in praise of Goddess Laxmi are sung and "Naivedya"
of traditional sweets is offered to the Goddess. There is
a peculiar custom in Maharashtra to lightly pound dry
coriander seeds with jaggery and offer as Naivedya.
In villages cattles are adorned and worshipped by farmers
as they form the main source of their income. In south
cows are offered special veneration as they are supposed
to be the incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi and therefore
they are adorned and worshipped on this day.
A very interesting story about this day is of the sixteen
year old son of King Hima. As per his horoscope he was
doomed to die by a snake-bite on the fourth day of his
marriage. On that particular fourth day of his marriage
his young wife did not allow him to sleep. She laid all
the ornaments and lots of gold and silver coins in a big
heap at the entrance of her husband's boudoir and lighted
innumerable lamps all over the place. And she went on
telling stories and singing songs. When Yam, the god of
Death arrived there in the guise of a Serpent his eyes got
blinded by that dazzle of those brilliant lights and he
could not enter the Prince's chamber. So he climbed on top
of the heap of the ornaments and coins and sat there whole
night listening to the melodious songs. In the morning he
quietly went away.
Thus the young wife saved her husband from the clutches of
death. Since then this day of Dhanteras came to be known
as the day of "YAMADEEPDAAN" and lamps are kept
burning throughout the night in reverential adoration to
Yam, the god of Death.
The SECOND day is called NARKA-CHATURDASHI or CHOTI DIWAL
which falls on the fourteenth day of the month of Kartik.
The story goes that the demon king Narakasur ruler of
Pragjyotishpur ( a province to the South of Nepal) after
defeating Lord Indra had snatched away the magnificent
earrings of Aditi, the Mother Goddess and imprisoned
sixteen thousand daughters of the gods and saints in his
harem. On the day previous to Narakachaturdashi, Lord
Krishna killed the demon and liberated the imprisoned
damsels and also recovered those precious earrings of
Aditi. As a symbol of that victory Lord Krishna smeared
his forehead with the demon king's blood. Krishna returned
home in the very early morning of the Narakachaturdashi
day. The womenfolk massaged scented oil to his body and
gave him a good bath to wash away the filth from his body.
Since then the custom of taking bath before sunrise on
this day has become a traditional practice specially in
Maharashtra.
In South India that victory of the divine over the mundane
is celebrated in a very peculiar way. People wake up
before sunrise prepare blood by mixing Kumkum in oil and
after breaking a bitter fruit that represents the head of
the demon King that was smashed by Krishna, apply that
mixture on their foreheads. Then they have an oil bath
using sandalwood paste.
In Maharashtra also, traditional early baths with oil and
"Uptan" (paste) of gram flour and fragrant
powders are a `must'. All through the ritual of baths,
deafening sounds of crackers and fireworks are there in
order that the children enjoy bathing. Afterwards steamed
vermiceli with milk and sugar or puffed rice with curd is
served.
Another legend is about King Bali of the nether world
mighty power had become a threat to the gods. In order to
curb his powers Lord Vishnu in the guise of a Batu Waman-
a small boy- visited him and begged him to give him only
that much land which he could cover with his three steps.
Known for his philanthropy King Bali proudly granted him
his wish. That very moment that small boy transformed
himself into the all-powerful Lord Vishnu. With his first
step Lord Vishnu covered the entire heaven and with the
second step the earth and asked Bali where to keep his
third step. Bali offered his head. Putting his foot on his
head Vishnu pushed him down to the underworld. At the same
time for his generosity Lord Vishnu gave him the lamp of
knowledge and allowed him to return to earth once a year
to light millions of lamps to dispel the darkness and
ignorance and spread the radiance of love and wisdom.
This Narakachaturdashi day therefore is dedicated to
lights and prayers heralding a future full of joy and
laughter.
The THIRD day of the festival of Diwali is the most
important day of LAKSHMI-PUJA which is entirely devoted to
the propitiation of Goddess Lakshmi. This day is also
known by the name of "CHOPADA-PUJA". On this
very day sun enters his second course and passes Libra
which is represented by the balance or scale. Hence, this
design of Libra is believed to have suggested the
balancing of account books and their closing. Despite the
fact that this day falls on an amavasya day it is regarded
as the most auspicious.
The day of Lakshmi-Puja falls on the dark night of
Amavasya. The strains of joyous sounds of bells and drums
float from the temples as man is invoking Goddess Lakshmi
in a wondrous holy "pouring-in" of his heart.
All of a sudden that impenetrable darkness is pierced by
innumerable rays of light for just a moment and the next
moment a blaze of light descends down to earth from heaven
as golden-footed Deep-Lakshmi alights on earth in all her
celestial glory amidst chantings of Vedic hymns. A living
luminance of Universal Motherhood envelopes the entire
world in that blessed moment of fulfillment of a
long-awaited dream of the mortal. A sublime light of
knowledge dawns upon humanity and devotion of man finally
conquers ignorance. This self enlightenment is expressed
through the twinkling lamps that illuminate the palaces of
the wealthy as well as the lowly abodes of the poor. It is
believed that on this day Lakshmi walks through the green
fields and loiters through the bye-lanes and showers her
blessings on man for plenty and prosperity. When the sun
sets in the evening and ceremonial worship is finished all
the home-made sweets are offered to the goddess as "NAIVEDYA"
and distributed as "PRASAD". Feasts are arranged
and gifts are exchanged on this day gaily dressed men,
women and children go to temples and fairs, visit friends
and relatives. Everything is gay, gold and glitter!
One of the most curious customs which characterises this
festival of Diwali is the indulgence of gambling,
specially on a large scale in North India. It is believed
that goddess Parvati played dice with her husband, Lord
Shiv on this day and she decreed that whosoever gambled on
Diwali night would prosper throughout the ensuring year.
This tradition of playing cards- flush and rummy with
stakes on this particular day continues even to-day.
On this auspicious day Lord Shri Krishna around whom
revolved the entire story of our great epic Mahabharat and
the philosopher, who preached Karmayog through his Geeta
to Arjun on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, discarded his
body.
Bhagwan, Mahavir, the Jain prophet also attained "Nirvan"
on this day.
We kindle innumerable lights on this day to immortalise
the sacred memories of those great men who lived to
brighten the lives of millions of their fellow beings. |
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