Illuminate Your Heart On Diwali

Diwali is one of the most popular festivals in theIndiancalendar.The fes­tivities comprise of firecrackers, cere­monial bathing, feasting, artis, family get­togethers — and illuminations.

The aesthetically appealing illu­mination dates back to many millen­nia when the jubilant citizens of Ayodhya welcomed Lord Rama back to their city after His exile. The Ramayana describes, how when Lord Rama was exiled due to the misdirected intrigues of Kaikayi, Ayodhya became almost like a ghost city. All its citizens were plunged into an ocean of separation and sorrow for fourteen agonizingly long years. When Lord Rama finally returned, their heart’s innermost longing was at last fulfilled. They spontaneously celebrated this joyful reunion of divine love by illuminating their houses.

Apart from being a historical real­ity, this event also has immense rele­vance to our lives. Ayodhya is like our heart and Lord Rama is the Lord of our heart, the supreme object of love and devotion for all of us. Due to unfortunate misconcep­tions, we too have exiled the Lord from our heart. Just as Ayodhya became a ghost town when Lord Rama departed, our heart too has become infested with negative and often self­destructive feelings like anxiety, boredom, loneliness, depression, stress, prejudice, envy, anger and hatred. And, just like the citizens of Ayodhya, our lives too have become filled with emptiness and lamentation.

There is one important difference between us and the citizens of Ayodhya. They clearly knew that their grief was due to bereavement from the Lord. We however are often slow to recognize this root cause of our malaise. We try to hide and forget the existential empti­ness of our life by accelerating its pace in pursuit of mundane goals­wealth, enjoyment, entertainment, fame, power and position. But these illusory substitutes for love of God offer only flickering titilla­tion, not lasting fulfillment. Consequently, despite the frenzied pace and the jazzy gadgets that are the pride of our lives, we still remain largely unfulfilled.

Lord Rama answers in the Ramayana through His instructions, which inform us of our actual identity and purpose. We are all eter­nal spiritual beings, belonging to the kingdom of God, where we

eternally enthrone the Lord as the king of our hearts and rejoice in selfless lov­ing exchanges with Him. When we exile the Lord from our hearts, we exile our­selves from that world of endless love and come to this mortal world, where we misidentify ourselves with temporary material bodies. Covered by spiritual amnesia, we play illusory roles and pur­sue illusory goals, but get only disap­pointment and distress.

Though we exile and forget the Lord, He never forgets us and never actually leaves our heart. He just be­comes unmanifest to our vision and continues to accompany and guide us throughout all our adventures and misadventures in this world, eagerly waiting and inviting us back to His loving shelter. By cultivating knowledge from the sacred scriptures about the Lord and His love for us and reviving our dormant love for Him by chanting His holy names, we can invite Him back to our hearts.

Therefore while lighting the earthen lamps or Diwali, let us also light our heart with divine wisdom and love.