The new lights always represent hope and more hope.

Every celebration somehow turns out to be the celebration of victory of good over bad.

Deepavali too represents that- the annihilation of the unruly Narakaasura, or the reentry of Rama to Ayodhya after vanquishing Ravana.

The new lights always represent hope and more hope.

If there is no hope, there is no life.

Therefore, we have to find hope even where there is only scope for despair and only those who envisioned the existence of a shining lamp at the farther end of a labyrinth really led us to welfare.

May thousand lights brighten every Indian home.

May many thousand lights brighten every Indian life

thamaso maa jyotir gamaya...

तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय

the ideal and the real....

the ideal and the real....

I had posted on Deepavali about the Sacrifice of a mother in killing her son Narakasura for the welfare of the society.. Someone raised a query as to whether all the living beings were the children of God, implying that there was nothing special in that Mother slaying Her son. 

My reply to that as a layman is as follows:-

But it is definitely very difficult and even a heartbreaking experience for a father or mother to mete out punishments on his own children... 

Secondly, we consider God as the father and mother of everyone just because he created or crafted us..

By the same argument, a pot is the child of a potter, a building is the child of a mason, a plant is the child of a farmer.. That is true only in a symbolic way..

But when a child is born out of the union of ones own cell with another, that makes a real difference.. Paradigms and raw truth are sometimes poles apart.. Of course, the story of Deepavali like this would make sense only if Naraka is considred as the child biologically born to Vishnu and Mother Earth..

There is a lot of difference between symbolic sayings and realities of life...

I may declare, I am brahman,, aham brahmaasmi..अहं ब्रह्मास्मि

But then in the normal course, my stomach will not be filled if the so called Brahmam eats..

I am a subscriber to the idea that we have two thinking planes..

One, the poetic, spiritual, and mythic... that would give a very pleasant mental sensation..

But there is the real and mundane thinking plane which is equally significant --.. where I scratch when the mosquito bites, run for life when a bull or buffalo chase me, swoon when I see blood, react sharply when someone berates me, feel the pangs of thirst, hunger, heat, cold etc..

That proves that I am present in the Terra Firma.. (the hard and firm earth)

So long as we live with this body, we cannot help   having at least one foot, and preferably both feet, anchored firmly on the ground.. 

Thanks.

wish you a happy deepavali

न तत्र सूर्यो भाति न चन्द्रतारकं 

नैवा विध्युतो भान्ति कुतोऽयमग्निः।

तमेव भान्तं अनुभान्ति सर्वं

तस्य भासा सर्वमिदं विभाति॥
कठोपनिषद्

na tatra sūryo bhāti na candratārakaṁ 

... naivā vidhyuto bhānti kuto'yamagniḥ|

tameva bhāntaṁ anubhānti sarvaṁ

tasya bhāsā sarvamidaṁ vibhāti||
katopanishad 

the sun does not shine there, 

nor the moon or the stars, 

no thunderbolts can spark or roar there

 and fire has not power there, 

but there stands the One Supreme Being..

and He is shining for spontaneously

and all things reflect that lustre... 

may that shining Almighty (Krishna) brighten our lives.

Wish you all a happy Deepavali.

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