This World Is An Illusion

Diwali is a festival where you remind yourself of the importance of knowledge in life. When there is knowledge, there is no darkness.

- Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

And when do you need knowledge? You need knowledge at the darkest time of life. When you are blissful and everything is okay, then who cares for knowledge. But when you have to face challenges, that is when you need knowledge, and that is when people don’t tend to look at knowledge. So, lighting a lamp during Diwali is simply a symbol is invoking the knowledge and the wisdom within you.

The second aspect of Diwali is distributing sweets. Sweetness in your words, in your behavior and in your relationship with others around you is the best sweet, and not the one with sugar. If you eat too much sugar, then you have exercise to burn all those calories. So, distributing sweets is to create and pleasant communicative atmosphere around us.

The third aspect of Diwali is a firecracker.

We should always avoid noise pollution, air pollution and other types of pollution. In ancient days, they would light a few firecrackers so that you can feel the explosion inside you as well. From explosion newness is born. Usually when something explodes, newness comes out of it. If some things are bothering your mind, you say, “Oh my head is going to explode”. This indicates pressure. So, when something bursts you feel a catharsis inside of you, some pressure is lifted off your system, and you enjoy this. So, if at all, you burn fire crackers, keep in mind; how you can cause minimum damage to the environment. Especially the birds and animals, they get so scared. If you are near a zoo or a bird sanctuary, then avoid bursting firecrackers or be very careful. Your festivity should not cause fear to the animals around. Even in cities, the dogs get so scared because of firecrackers bursting all over. People who have dogs lock them up in their homes, and the dogs really howl the whole time. So, minimum use of firecrackers is recommended.

Now coming to some deeper wisdom!