Diwali Festival: October 21-26, 2022
Diwali or Dipavali (meaning the Line of Lights) is the Festival of Lights celebrated by those who follow India's Hindu/Vedic, Jain, and Sikh cultural traditions. This year Diwali begins on Friday, October 21, and will go on for six nights of celebration aimed around the New Moon on October 25.
The Lakshmi Puja will occur on Monday, October 24, on the most significant day of Diwali, which celebrates the birth of Lakshmi Devi. She was born on the darkest lunar night of amavasya tithi. This event commemorates her birth and all the blessings of her love, wisdom, beauty, and abundance.
The other most important day of the Diwali festival is Dhanteras (Dhanatrayodashi), which will occur on Saturday, October 22. This event is celebrated on the thirteenth lunar day of Krishna paksha (dark fortnight) in the Vedic lunar calendar month of Ashwini. Dhanvantari, who is also worshiped on the occasion of Dhanteras, is considered the God of Ayurveda. This god imparted the wisdom of Ayurveda for the betterment of humankind, and to help rid humanity of the suffering of disease.
The Diwali New Moon in Libra will occur on Tuesday, October 25. It will be a partial solar eclipse which I wrote about in a previous post, as follows:
The New Moon/partial solar eclipse occurs with Sun, Moon, Venus, and Ketu in Libra. Venusian matters may be under pressure or transformed around this eclipse, because the eclipse occurs in the sign of Venus (Libra), and Venus is not only eclipsed but also combust (too close to the Sun). Venusian and Libran areas of concern may include relationship issues; diplomatic issues; concern over personal happiness and vitality; commerce, trade, and other financial matters.
The New Moon in Libra is one of the darkest days of the year according to Vedic astrology. This is because the New Moon is empty and conjunct/covered by the weak (debilitated) and waning Sun. The light of the outer world (Sun) reflected by the Moon is dim. Now is an especially opportune time to turn within and connect with and celebrate the inner light, the unconditional Light of the Self within. This concept is explained in this essay about the real Dipavali (Diwali) by Swami Sivananda:
O Ram! The light of lights, the self-luminous inner light of the Self is ever shining steadily in the chamber of your heart. Sit quietly. Close your eyes. Withdraw the senses. Fix the mind on this supreme light and enjoy the real Dipavali, by attaining illumination of the soul.
He who Himself sees all but whom no one beholds, who illumines the intellect, the Sun, the Moon and the stars and the whole universe but whom they cannot illumine, He indeed is Brahman, He is the inner Self. Celebrate the real Dipavali by living in Brahman, and enjoy the eternal bliss of the soul.
The Sun does not shine there, nor do the Moon and the stars, nor does lightning shine and much less fire. All the lights of the world cannot be compared even to a ray of the inner light of the Self. Merge yourself in this light of lights and enjoy the supreme Dipavali.
Many Dipavali festivals have come and gone. Yet the hearts of the vast majority are as dark as the night of the new Moon. The house is lit with lamps, but the heart is full of the darkness of ignorance. O… wake up from the slumber of ignorance. Realize the constant and eternal light of the Soul which neither rises nor sets, through meditation and deep enquiry.
May you all attain full inner illumination! May the supreme light of lights enlighten your understanding! May you all attain the inexhaustible spiritual wealth of the Self! May you all prosper gloriously on the material as well as spiritual planes!
The late Swami Krishnananda Saraswati of the Divine Life Society also wrote a beautiful essay about the spiritual meaning of Diwali, in which he explained:
Diwali is an occasion for spiritual exhilaration, a lighting up of all darkness, socially as well as personally, outwardly and inwardly, for the purpose of allowing an entry of the Supreme Light of God into the hearts of all people. Diwali is the celebration of the rise of Knowledge. It is also the celebration of the victory of the sattvic or divine elements in us over the rajasic and tamasic or baser elements which are the real asuras, the rakshasas, narakasura, and others. The whole world is within us. The whole cosmos can be found in a microscopic form in our own body.
Rama-Ravana-Yuddha and Tarakasura-Vadha, and all such epic wars, everything is going on inside us. This Dipavali is thus also a psychological context, wherein we contemplate in our own selves the holy occasion of self-mastery, self-subjugation, and self-abnegation leading to the rise of all spiritual virtues which are regarded as lustre or radiance emanating from Self-knowledge.
Bhagavati Mahalakshmi, the Goddess of prosperity, does not merely mean the Goddess of wealth in a material sense. Lakshmi does not mean only gold and silver. Lakshmi means prosperity in general, positive growth in the right direction, a rise into the higher stages of evolution. This is the advent of Lakshmi. Progress and prosperity are Lakshmi.
In the Vishnu Purana, we are told if Narayana is like the Sun, Lakshmi is like the radiance of the Sun. They are inseparable. Wherever Narayana is, there is Lakshmi. Wherever is divinity, there is prosperity. So on this day of Dipavali, we worship the Supreme God who is the source of all conceivable virtues, goodness, and prosperity, which is symbolized in illumination, lighting, and worship in the form of aarati and joyous attitude and feeling in every respect. So, in short, this is a day of rejoicing over the victory of sattva over the lower gunas, the victory of God Himself over the binding fetters of the soul.
May your light shine brighter and brighter with each coming day, and may all the devas bless you and yours now during Diwali and always and forever.