大象传媒

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Brahmacharini Shripriya Chaitanya

鈥�
Lamps of love are lit

Good morning. I share a blessing from Swami Tejomayananda.

Diwali, or 鈥淒eepavali鈥�, means a row of lights or a billion lights. Most of the festivals in the Hindu culture are meant to celebrate the victory of good over evil. In this sense, Diwali is a day of many blessings.

As per the Ramayana, it is the day when Sri Ram, Sita and Lakshman returned to Ayodhya. Happiness, peace and harmony returned to Ayodhya鈥攖he land of no conflict. Sri Ram represents honesty and firm adherence to duty; Sita embodies faith and devotion; Lakshman personifies detachment. For this homecoming, lamps of peace are lit.

It is the day Sri Krishna killed Narakasura鈥攖he demon of sorrow and hell who had kidnapped and imprisoned 16, 000 princesses. It is the day when the selfish ego, which has entrapped all the 16,000 thought-varieties, is killed and all thoughts get wedded to the one infinite blissful consciousness. When our mind turns towards this infinite Self, the sense of limitation along with its selfishness ends. For this knowledge, lamps of joy are lit.

It is the day when we harvest the results of our hard work blessed with wealth by Mother Lakshmi. We pray to her with gratitude and ask the Divine Mother to shower Her blessings in abundance for the coming year, to give us the intelligence to use our wealth in the right manner and to give us the heart to share it generously with our fellow beings.

For this sharing, lamps of love are lit.

I pray that we may fill our hearts with love, light the lamp of knowledge within and remove darkness around us, to each be a light unto the world.

Hari Om

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