Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): In the month of Kartika, on the night of Amavasya, Rama offered a gift of two thousand lamps at the great temple of Vishnu in the evening. The King illuminated the entire city with rows of lamps. Ever since that time, the world has celebrated the Festival of Lights – Ananda Ramayana
Festivals never grow old, though they have existed since the days of yore. The stories associated with festivals also remain ever-interesting. Perhaps, Dussehra and Diwali have more legends associated with them than any other festivities.
A single religious treatise does not speak about Diwali as a historical event. The festival remains an opus consisting of narratives tinged with brushstrokes. Diwali signifies the struggle between the darkness of ignorance and the light of knowledge.
According to the most popular narrative, the people of Ayodhya celebrated Lord Rama’s return to Ayodhya from his 14 years of exile on the day of Diwali. The end of the Lord’s exile coincides with the night of an autumn Amavasya. The festival falls in the month of Kartik. As the Lord returned to his birthplace, Ayodhya, the people lit each house with earthen lamps to welcome the Lord to banish the darkness of ignorance, which had covered the place during his absence.
The people of Southern India, especially in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, celebrate the day as Naraka Chaturdashi. They wake up at dawn and take an oil bath (Abhangya Snan) before lighting lamps.
Their tale of Diwali centres around Lord Krishna and his consort Satyabhama. Narakasura, a powerful demon king, grew arrogant because of a boon that only his mother could destroy him. The boon invested in him the power to reign over the universe. The gods then prayed to Lord Krishna to end the tyranny of Narakasura. The Lord, together with Satyabhama, the incarnation of Bhudevi, Narakasura’s mother, descended onto the battlefield.
Satyabhama picked up a bow and shot an arrow that pierced through Narakasura. It ended the tyranny of the demon king.
As he began to draw his final fading breaths, he begged Lord Krishna for a boon: people should not mourn his death.
People of northern and central India celebrate Chhoti Diwali on this day to remove the darkness of conceit. The people of southern India wake up early and bathe in oil to wash off the blood of the demon king.
Likewise, the people of western, northern, and central India worship Goddess Lakhsmi. Worshipping Goddess Lakshmi remains rooted in the celestial event known as Samudra Manthan (the Churning of Ocean). According to Hindu mythology, a tug-of-war took place between gods and demons for the nectar of immortality.
On the day of Kartik Amavasya, Goddess Lakshmi manifested herself standing on a lotus. The universe erupted, worshipping Her, lighting lamps and cleaning up their homes and household goods.
Another narrative exists. Vishnu manifested himself as Vamana, a short-heighted Brahmin, and went to Mahabali, a virtuous demon king. When the king was performing the sacrificial ritual, Vamana met him and sought three paces of land. The king laughed and wanted to give him everything that the Brahmin longed for.
As Mahabali gifted three paces of land and Vamana measured it with his steps. He claimed the earth with his first step and the heavens with the second. Mahabali had no place to offer him for the third step. Mahabali then surrendered to the Lord, who pushed him down to the underworld with a boon that he would return to his kingdom on Diwali to see the people happy and prosperous.
The Sikhs celebrate the day as Bandi Chhor, the Day of Liberation. The Mughal emperor Jahangir released Guru Hargobind Sahib, the sixth Sikh Guru with 52 Rajput princes. When the Guru returned to his home, the people decked up the Golden Temple in Amritsar with earthen lamps, symbolising the triumph of justice.
Diwali has a special spiritual significance for the Jains. When Vardhamana Mahavira, the twenty-fourth and final Tirthankara, attained Nirvana on Diwali night, his physical body passed away and his soul achieved absolute enlightenment; gods lit lamps in the heaven.
So, the Jains light material lamps, believing Mahavira’s enlightened soul will guide them in the hour of darkness.
