Significance and Secrets of Diwali

Diwali, the festival of lights is considered one of the most important and pious Hindu festivals celebrated in India. Diwali is originated from the Sanskrit word ‘Deepawali’, which means an array of light. The term Deepawali consists of two words – ‘deep’ and ‘avail’. Deeps means a clay lamp, and Avail means an array or row, which signifies the meaning – an array of light. The celebration of this festival signifies the victory of good over evil and knowledge over ignorance. It is a belief that the festival of Diwali not only eradicates the darkness of life but also leads us to the self-illuminated light. This festival is celebrated every year with full of enthusiasm and joy. And like every other Indian festival, there lies a secret meaning and significance behind the celebration of the festival of Diwali.

दीपज्योतिः परब्रह्म दीपज्योतिर्जनार्दनः ।
 दीपो हरतु मे पापं दीपज्योतिर्नमोऽस्तुते ॥

शुभं करोति कल्याणमारोग्यं धनसंपद:।
शत्रुबुद्धिविनाशाय दीपज्योतिर्नमोऽस्तुते ॥

 

Every year on the significant day of Diwali, we recite this mantra, which enlightens us that the festival of Diwali brings us the auspiciousness, health, and prosperity of life. It also destroys the evil thoughts of enemies’ intellect.

Our Hindu tradition or our Vedic tradition is a tradition where we believe in Lord Surya, but this festival, ‘Deepawali’ is the only festival that is celebrated at night. This festival is a celebration of five days combining five festivals which includes Dhantrayodashi or Dhanteras, Narak Chaturdashi or Kali Chaudas, Diwali, New Year or Govardhan Puja, and Bhai Dooj or Yam Dwitya. These all festivals together form the festival of Deepawali. Even our essential elements are also Five – Space, Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. All of these five elements also have a relationship with these five festivals.

As mentioned above that we celebrate this festival at night, and the reasoning behind it is the theory of how energy works. Here, the first three festivals i.e. Dhantrayodashi, Narak Chaturdashi, and Deepawali are celebrated at night because they represent 3 feminine energies, such as Dhantrayodashi represents goddess Mahalakshmi, Narak Chaturdashi represents goddess Mahakali, and Diwali represents goddess Mahasaraswati. The last two festivals, i.e. Govardhan Poojan and Yam Dwitya are celebrated in the morning because they represent male energies, such as Govardhan Pooja represents Lord Shri Krishna and Yam Dwitya represent Lord Yam.

Now, let us go through each festival one by one to understand which ritual or pooja should be done, and which mantra should be chanted on which particular day to increase the Energy of that day. The first festival of Diwali – Dhan Trayodshi represents the goddess Mahalakshmi. So, on that day, we worship our valuables or money or goddess Lakshmi, and to enhance or increase the energy of that day, it is given in the Shastra that we should chant this Mantra:

ॐ श्रीम् ह्रीम् श्रीम् महालक्ष्म्यै नमः l

And this day of Dhanteras states the material wealth such as money, land or asset or whatever is different from us which we can call property. And this day is used to grow this material wealth.

The second day which is called ‘Kali Chaudas’ or ‘Narak Chaturdashi’ represents the goddess Mahakali. And the goddess Mahakali represents Physical Wellness. So, if you want to improve your wealth or increase your vitality, you should chant this Mantra:

ॐ एम ह्रींम् क्लीम् चामुण्डायै विच्चै ।

The third day which is ‘Deepawali’ itself, represents the goddess Saraswati. And to worship the goddess Saraswati, you should chant this Mantra:

ॐ ऎं सरस्वत्यै ऎं नमः।

The fourth day is called ‘Nutan Varash’ or ‘Govardhan Puja’. On this day, we usually worship Lord Krishna or Govardhan Mountain. But Govardhan has another meaning also, Go + Vardhan. Here, Go means cow, and the different meaning for Go is senses. Hence, Govardhan means which increases the mind and makes us more sensitive. And to enhance the energy, we should chant this Mantra:

ॐ श्री गोवेर्धनधारिणे नम: l

The last and the fifth day, which is called ‘Yam Dwitya’ or ‘Bhai Duj’, represents Dharma as Yamraj is also known as Dharmraj.  And to enhance the energy of that day, we should chant this Mantra:

ॐ यम यमाय नम: |

And this day is celebrated to bring Dharma, Yam niyam into our lives. So, we can attain all these five types of energy, and hence the energy of the cosmos is developed in such a way that it maintains balance and thus, gives us incremental growth.

Now, we will understand the festival of Diwali in detail, which falls on New Moon Day (Amavasya). There are many popular beliefs we know behind the celebration of Diwali. Such as Diwali is celebrated because Lord Rama came back to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile, or Lord Krishna killed evil Narkasur and saved 16000 ladies by marrying them, or in Vaman avatar, he killed Bali with treachery and rescued goddess Lakshmi, or else Mahavir Swami gained the knowledge of Kaivalya, or else King Vikramaditya occupied his throne on this day only. None of these beliefs is wrong, but they are all partially true. Because the fundamental principle of our “Indian culture states that whatever is there in cosmos exists on earth and the same is present in the human body.”

यत् ब्रह्माण्डे तत् पिंडे ।

So, the question now arises, “what kind of event does occur on this day of Diwali that despite having Amavasya, we celebrate this festival throughout India?” Usually, ‘No Moon Day’ (Amavasya) is considered inauspicious but still, our most enormous festival, ‘Deepavali’ is celebrated on the day of Amavasya. Behind this, there stands a reason which I am going to state here. As I said, there must be surely some exceptional movement occurring in the cosmos on this day, and that must be the reason behind celebrating Diwali despite having Amavasya. Let us see the reason behind it in detail.

In Vedang Astrology, the calculation of time is based on the speed and movement of the Sun and Moon. As we all know that on the day of Amavasya, the Sun and Moon come together, forming a 0° angle, and on the full moon day, the Sun and Moon go opposite to each other forming an angle of 180°. And the calculation of time is based on this aspect. Like every other No Moon day, the Sun and Moon come together on the day of Diwali, but this day, they come together in the zodiac of Libra that creates balance. Even the symbol of the zodiac sign Libra is balance. If we see carefully and go through our scriptures, we will understand that the Sun is debilitated in Libra, but on this day, the sun comes with the moon and forms an angle of 0°. We know Sun as the father or soul and Moon as the mother or mind. Thus, the mother of this cosmos which is feminine energy and the father of this cosmos which is male energy, create a kind of balance. And when this kind of event takes place, a wealth-generating opportunity does create.

In our scriptures, the day of Amavasya is mentioned as ‘Lakshmi Pragatya Din’. And when we read ‘Kurm Puran’, ‘Mahabharata’ or ‘Shreemad Bhagvat’, we get to know about a story. The goddess Lakshmi had gone from the gods, and to ask about how to get back the goddess Lakshmi, all the deities went to Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu replied to deities that only their efforts are not enough and told them to do a ‘Samudramanthan’. And that too with gods on one side and the evils on the other side i.e. Male energy and Feminine energy (Positive energy and negative energy). And he told the deities that they both would have to try and create a kind of balance in order to bring back goddess Lakshmi. And the same type of balance is created on every Diwali. You will be amazed to know that the word Lakshmi is originated from the root word ‘Laksh’, and from this word only another word comes known as ‘Lakshya’, which means target. Therefore, the best day to achieve target or wealth is the No Moon day of Ashwin month – the day of Diwali. And thus, by knowing the technique of using that created balancing energy, we can achieve our desired results either in the form of wealth or wish. This is the secret behind celebrating Diwali.

Now, let us further look into its details. As we know, that goddess Lakshmi was brought back through ‘Samudra Manthan’. The word Samudra is made up of two different words – ‘Sam’ and ‘Udra’. In which the word Sam means the same, and the word Udara implies water. And emotion is also a term for water which if somehow we can create a kind of situation in which our emotions stay in control, we can achieve great results on Diwali. And in this also, if we get into further details, then we can understand that on this day, not only do the Sun and Moon come together in the Libra zodiac, but they also enter into the Swati Nakshatra of Libra sign. Swati is a unique nakshatra which usually comes every month. But when the Sun and Moon come together in Swati nakshatra, a different kind of event takes place. Here, the word Swati comprises of two words – ‘Su’ and ‘Ati’. The word Su is a prefix that means more. For example: ‘Sugandh’ which means good smell, ‘Sukanya’ which means good girl, and ‘Suroop’ which means good looks, etc. So, ‘Su’ means more, and ‘Ati’ means to bring. Therefore, the meaning of ‘Swati’ is to bring or deliver something in a nice way. But the question is what to bring or deliver. The quality of Swati nakshatra is to create a situation where we can sync energy such as God, Khuda, Jesus, or say it as universal energy of the cosmos and our internal power to achieve wish fulfilling capabilities. If we observe the symbol of Swati nakshatra, then also many things can get clear. The symbol of this nakshatra depicts a picture of a plant swaying in the air. And this symbol represents freedom and softness. The definition of ‘Swati’ in the Sanskrit dictionary Amarkosh states that:

स्वनेति आतेति इति स्वातिः।

“Swati is the one who moves on its own.”

Usually, our life is dependent upon luck which we got from the deeds of our past life. And we get results based on the situation of planets only but the universe is very kind.  Even if you wish to achieve a few things despite the planetary position or nakshatra in your Kundli and your karma are not correct, then on the day of Diwali such energy is created, which can help us achieve our goals. If you understand how to make the most of that particular day, then due to the energy of Diwali, which contains a kind of freedom, it can help you in your wish fulfillment. So basically, this is the power of Deepawali in which a cosmic balance is created and gives us a kind of freedom to achieve whatever we want. Now that we know the importance of Diwali, a question arises that what do we have to do on that day in order to achieve expected results. To know that, we need to go through Vedas.

As mentioned above that on the day of Diwali, the nakshatra present is Swati. One verse has been given in ‘Taittiriya Samhita’ and ‘Yajur Veda’ to specify the qualities of Swati Nakshatra.

स्वाति नक्षत्रं वायु देवताः l

“Swati Nakshatra represents Air element.”

And as mentioned above that whatever is there in the cosmos exists on earth, and the same is present in the human body, all of our scriptures are based on this principle only. And on the day of Diwali, our cosmos has a significant influence on the air element. Now, if we observe our body, there is a vortex of energy called ‘Chakras’ consisting in our body to calibrate our body and cosmos. Let us understand in detail. The first Chakra – Root Chakra (Muladhara) represents the earth element. The Navel Chakra (Swadhisthana) represents the water element. The Solar Plexus Chakra (Manipura) represents the fire element. The Heart Chakra (Anahata) represents the air element. The Throat Chakra (Vishuddha) represents the space element. So, now we know that the Chakra, located in the center of the body – Anahata Chakra represents the air element. If we observe the location of chakras, there are in total seven Chakras, of which 3 are located above the Anahata Chakra, and 3 are located below it. Now, if we see the symbol of Heart Chakra, it can be seen that there are two triangles attached to each other. Here, the lower or inverted triangle represents feminine energy, and the upward triangle symbolizes male energy. With the help of Anahata Chakra, where either Male and nature or the Shiva and shakti both come together, we can create a kind of connection with the energy which is created on the day of Diwali. And for the wish-fulfillment, all one needs to do is write a wish either in the heart or mind or on paper. The infinity power is known as God in our scriptures. In Shrimad Bhagavadgita, Lord Krishna told Arjuna that:

ईश्वरः सर्वभूतानां हृद्देशेऽर्जुन तिष्ठति ।

“The same energy, which is omnipresent and readily available is also present in the heart on the day of Diwali. And the same energy is available in the Heart Chakra.”

Let us see this from another perspective. We have three Gods – Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh. The Root Chakra (Muladhara) is known as ‘Brahma Granthi’, the Heart Chakra (Anahata) is known as ‘Vishnu Granthi’ and the Third eye Chakra (Ajna) is known as ‘Mahesh Granthi’. Now, let us see the correlation between theories as mentioned above. Goddess Lakshmi was married to Lord Vishnu, born on the day of Diwali, and Lord Vishnu is present in the Heart Chakra of our body. Thus, Heart Chakra (Anahata), Lord Vishnu, and Lakshmi, i.e. growth or wealth are correlated. So, if we write our wish on the day of Diwali, then it will be God’s work to fulfill our wish. And that is why despite Amavasya, the business-oriented Gujarati people start their transactions of the new year on that day and state their desired target in their account books known as ‘Chopda Pujan’. And if you write your wish, then the powerful energy of the cosmos will help you with the fulfillment of your desire on that day. So, we all should remember that Diwali is a very powerful day as a kind of universal balancing energy is created on that day.

Therefore, if we do it with mindfulness or meditation, we will achieve great fulfillment results. It can be done not only on Diwali, but we can perform this wish-fulfillment ritual for two days before Diwali and two days after Diwali. Out of these five days, the first day from which we can start expecting needful results is ‘Dhan Trayodashi’ or ‘Dhanteras’. And the day that comes after two days of Diwali, which does the work of endorsement or promotion of wish fulfillment is usually known as ‘Bhai Duj’ as mentioned above. And it is also known as ‘Yam Dwitya’ and ‘Chitragupt Jayanti’. Now, if we reverse the word Chitragupt, then we will get the term ‘Gupt Chitra’. According to the known stories, we all know that Chitragupt registers all of our karmas of past life and present life. And he stores all of this in our subconscious mind. So in any of these five days, especially on the day of Diwali, one should write down a wish or wants either in the form of wealth or desire. And note that any of our biggest wishes is minimal for this universe. Even in a secret book, it is said that, “Our biggest wish is like a dot for the universe.” So you must write any of your wishes or whatever you want without any hesitation. And if possible, try to write your wish on paper or in your heart or mind. And the people who have faith in the law of attraction believe that “if you can see the things from your mind and heart, you can hold that thing in your hands”.

The festival of Diwali stands for that only. It is a day to tell the universe our wishes due to fulfilling and uplifting energies in the cosmos. May this Diwali fulfill our wishes. Let us recite this Mantra and pray that the Diwali of this year bless us with great results and meet all of our desires and wishes.

शुभं करोति कल्याणमारोग्यं धनसंपद:।
शत्रुबुद्धिविनाशाय दीपज्योतिर्नमोऽस्तुते ॥

Shubham Bhavatu

शुभम् भवतु।