Diwali is a celebration of homecoming. When Lord Rama, Maa Sita and Laxmanji returned from 14 years of exile, Ayodhya was fully lit with divas. Every lane was colorful, kids danced on the streets and the joy of the people knew no bound. Similar is the scene even today. Diwali carries with it a deep emotion of togetherness and new beginnings.
What is different is the reason of celebration? This festival gives us a chance to distance ourselves momentarily from the mundane chaos. It gives us time to ponder over what values do we really want in life. Every part of the celebration signifies cascading of the old and rebuilding of the new.
Diyas fight darkness and fill your heart with their golden light. When we look around, we notice what we already have in your life. This makes us feel content. A diya has a tiny flame but it glows in its own light, never asking for more.
The traditional sweets connect us to our ancestral legacy. When the family comes together to roll ladoos and make ghujiyaas, we experience the joy of hand labour. In the age of pace and technology, this practice slows us down and helps build patience.
When we meet and greet our loved ones, we know what real connection is. The pressure exerted by social media is released temporarily while we are engrossed in meaningful conversations.
Dressing up for Diwali helps you find a new beautiful you. The sheen of the silk dress, the grace of the gold jewelry, makes you feel elegant and special.
The rituals lead us to purification, by way of which we invoke Goddess Lakshmi to bestow upon us, the choiciest of her blessings. I firmly believe that the presence of money in life is important, to ensure that we are able to create and spread goodness.
With all of this an abstract aspect that I cherish on Diwali is considering this time to be auspicious to develop new thinking patterns. The newness of material possessions does not stay for long but a change in the thinking pattern, does help you upgrade. We all are victims of our own weak thoughts, which leads to anxiety and vulnerability. The outer world does not change, but it is our perspective that makes the difference.
Diwali is the ideal time to replace jealousy with appreciation, resistance with acceptance, anger with patience, anxiety with faith and FOMO with JOMO.
It is necessary to understand the significance of the REAL. It is important to internalize the good that you have done as you celebrated and not put everything on display through pictures and posts. What is internalized stays with you, what is over exposed fades away. Let us work on internalizing the positive emotions to build a newer better world.