Diwali: From the age of darkness to the age of light

The festival of Diwali is like Christmas and New Year rolled into one.

- CHIRYA RISELY

We can become living lights, connected to the One True Light to awaken others.

This festival of lights, also called the festival of brotherhood, is perhaps the most popular festival of India and is now celebrated throughout the world.

Although the origins of Christmas and Diwaliare several thousand years apart, the message and methods of celebration are quite similar. Both give a message about the renewal and lightening up of a new life. Family bonding, exchanging gifts, blessings, and good wishes, new clothes, sweets, colourful decorations, all add to the joyous nature. For Diwali, candles and millions of sparkling lights illuminate homes and businesses, reminding us that we are all divine points of light. It symbolises and signifies the ‘awakening’ of soul consciousness. Thousands of small lighted ‘deepaks’ float down the rivers on leaves as a memorial of a time when human beings lived inahigher consciousness, naturally aware of being souls.