大象传媒

Good morning. The Diwali celebrations are underway but this year Hindu scholars were divided whether to begin festivities on Thursday or Friday as - unusually - both nights had no moon- and it鈥檚 the full darkness of the New Moon night that prompts devotees to light the lamps that illuminate Rama鈥檚 return home. This festival, like many other Hindu events, that are linked to the cycles of the sun, moon and stars reminds us that we are not disconnected from the cosmos.

Recently, I was in discussion with a group of astronomers and cosmologists. They lamented what they called the 鈥淟ost Sky鈥�. Thanks to light and atmospheric pollution, most of us no longer see the night heavens ablaze with stars and the dazzling Milky Way in the same way that our ancestors did. How often does the awe and wonder of the night sky overwhelm and lift our mind above the cares that fill our lives.
The James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful there is, shows amazing images of the Pillars of Creation and Ring Nebula, but we view them on tiny screens. Hardly the same emotional impact.

Whether we believe ourselves to be products of the laws of nature, or the creation of a supreme intelligence, our existence is predicated on the powers that have ordered the cosmos. The Hindu view is that consciousness is beyond time, eternal. As the Gita says: 鈥淣ever was a time when we did not exist鈥︹�� It claims that our consciousness pre-exists the universe and that the universe is a co-creation, an act of God to facilitate our primordial intentions.
And so, our hopes and aspirations for life and fulfilment in the material realm have been encoded into the unfolding of the structure and order of the cosmos. But, also into this co-creation, we injected our conflicting capacities for both love and selfishness.

The pressures and challenges of earthly life oblige us to look down, to keep our world small and manageable. We have only limited bandwidth for the troubles of others; or to tackle their hurt, injustice and inequality. For Hindus, the connection we should feel with the universe is a reminder that there is a bigger picture to which we all belong. It is meant to reinforce our sense of responsibility to ourselves and to all other living beings. As the Prime Minister said on Wednesday: 鈥淒iwali is a time to celebrate and focus on a brighter future.鈥� Hope and conviction flourish when we understand that our actions, prayers, and intentions have power to create the sort of world we wish to live in.

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