Deepavali Message

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

We lit a light before God. For whom, this light is lit? Is it for God? Not at all. Because, God is said to be the source of all lights and no light can be helpful to Him (na tattra suryo bhaati… tasya bhaasaa… – Veda). The light is helpful to us only. With the help of light, we can read a divine book or we can see the picture of God clearly. This happens only when there is darkness around us. But we lit the light even in day time, which is not helpful to us in any way. We are burning ghee or oil for the sake of light even though it is not needed. The oil and ghee are food materials created by God for the sake of human beings to live and grow strongly. You are finally burning the precious food without any need. The Veda says that destruction of food shall not be done (annam na parichakshiita).

If this oil or ghee is donated to a poor fellow, for the sake of maintaining the life-light in his body so that you can preach him about God to make him a devotee, how much meritorious is this deed! The light is normally lit in the night time for our needs. This much is perfectly meaningful. But if we lit the light in the day time in absence of any need, it is the greatest sin because, you are burning the food without donating it to a poor devotee. Moreover, any burning material causes environmental pollution affecting the rains thereby harming this world. This is in no way, lesser than sadism of a demon! God is very furious towards demons and demonic activities.

There is another purpose to lit the light. The purpose is to preach you that knowledge is like light in removing the darkness like ignorance. By seeing a light lit in one night, this concept is understood by you. You need not lit the light in every night to learn this concept! If you lit the light in every night to learn this concept, it is highly foolish. In such case, the original question remains as it is, which is that for what purpose, the light is lit in day time? Moreover, even in the night, if the electric light exists to help you in the darkness for your worldly needs and needs of worship, why this duplication of oil light? The electric light need not be looked cheaper than the oil lamp because, the electricity (Vaidyutaagni) is greater than the physical fire (Laukikaagni) due to absence of polluting smoke and eternality of the light energy. In ancient days, the fire is lit always in huts in forest (Nityaagnihotram) so that wild animals go away along with troubling mosquitoes. What is the logic to lit the fire constantly in the house when such needs are absent? Shri Shirdi Sai Baba lit the fire in a condemned mosque for the same above mentioned two purposes only. Today, you are burning sticks continuously in His temples since you have not understood the real background!

The Gita says that you shall do anything after perfect analysis only (jnaatvaa kurviita karmaani). The light is lit by you without any analysis based on blind tradition. In ancient days, the light was lit before God, which helps the worldly needs also since there was no electric-light facility. Agni is of three types – 1) Laukikaagni or Bhautikaagni, which is the fire lit by sticks, ghee, oil etc. 2) Vaidyutaagni is the fire lit by electricity. 3) Devataagni or Vaishvaanaraagni is the fire of hunger lit in hungry stomach. The first two types of fire are used to cook the food in the sacrifice and is called Yajna-saadhanam or means to cook the food. The third type is the fire to be worshiped by offering the cooked food to the hungry stomach and is called Yajnopaasyah or the fire to be worshiped in the sacrifice. Without analysis of this, ignorant priests are burning the food in the first type of fire! Sage Kapila clearly told that burning ghee in sacrifice is foolishness. God Krishna asked the performers of sacrifice to give the cooked food for His hungry friends thereby establishing the real aim of the sacrifice.

Therefore, we must understand that the lit light is the spiritual knowledge that is used to remove darkness–ignorance. Since we have learnt this concept by observing the lit light in one night, we need not lit the lights every day to note this concept again and again claiming that you are forgetting the concept every day! Hence, the conclusion is that there is no need to lit any light without any need of the human soul. The light is called Deepah and the row of lights is called Deepavali. One light represents the spiritual knowledge that is heard (Shrotavyah). The row of lights indicates the repeated memorization of the heard spiritual knowledge (mantavyah). Without knowing this background of real concept, what is the use of burning a single light or row of lights in absence of any practical need?

Today, the row of lights is lit indicating this festival of Deepavali, which shall be taken in the sense of real spiritual knowledge to be learnt and to be memorized by us. If we take this concept, leaving this simile of the lights, Krishna is really worshiped. Krishna clearly said that He is pleased only by the knowledge (Jnaana yajnena tenaaham…) and also told that the concept is more important than the simile given involving materials (Shreyan dravyamayaat…). We are worshiping Krishna as the embodiment of spiritual knowledge and as the spiritual preacher to the world (Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum). Every chapter of the Gita containing a series of verses is a row of lights. When the lights are condemned in this way, no need to speak about crackers burnt causing heavy environmental pollution. Performance of a festival is the subject of creation or imaginable domain in which scientific analysis is the ultimate authority. Scientific logic fails only in understanding the unimaginable God, called Parabrahman. This is not the subject of any miracle performed by unimaginable God as an unimaginable event. In both these cases (God and miracle), science or worldly logic fails. We shall not attribute unimaginable nature to the imaginable incidents like performing a festival or like performing a sacrifice to please God. The festival and sacrifice are imaginable only, which are done by us, the imaginable souls, to please the unimaginable God. The action done by the souls to please unimaginable God need not be unimaginable. If it is unimaginable, the soul can’t perform it at all! A soul can’t perform the unimaginable miracle, but can perform the imaginable festival or sacrifice to please God. The sacrifice is also meant to cook the food to be supplied to the participants of a ritual meant for discussing the concepts of spiritual knowledge and to praise God with prayers. Since nothing uttered in the ritual by the priest is understood by anybody including the priest, the ritual becomes total wastage by which neither spiritual knowledge is understood nor the devotion to God is improved. Similarly, the performance of a festival shall clarify our spiritual knowledge and shall increase our devotion to God. Neither the festival nor the sacrifice performed is achieving this real aim and moreover, sin is collected by burning the precious food and by causing the pollution damaging the world exactly like the demons.

We are simply following the blind traditions without analysis. This tradition followed by us is not the real ancient tradition followed by fully learnt sages. This tradition is developed by the middle age–priests, who blindly recited the scripture without understanding any word of it. How such tradition can be the authority? You need not argue that justice or dharma is born from tradition (Achaaraprabhavo Dharmah) and such dharma is supported by God (Dharmasya Prabhurachyutah). Hence, based on this, you should not argue that the tradition is always supported by God. This is total misunderstanding. Here, the tradition referred in the verse means good tradition only and not bad tradition. If tradition by itself is authority, the hatred towards the worship of God Vishnu was the tradition of demons and in such case, why Prahlada did not follow it? Hence, tradition by itself is not an authority. Only good tradition is the authority. Whether the tradition is good or bad, is decided by the sharp analysis, which discriminates truth and false (sadasat vivekah). Without this analysis, we can’t accept every statement of the scripture also, because, scriptures are also polluted by insertions (Prakshepa) in course of time. When the scripture itself is subjected to analysis, what is the sanctity of statements, which are not found even in the scriptures? Divine preachers like Shankara quoted the scripture and also analysed it for this reason. They did not simply mention the scripture and told that it should be followed without analysis. They analysed the statements of the quoted scriptures only to prove that a specific statement of the scripture is genuine and not the inserted pollution of the scripture. Even God Krishna asked Arjuna to analyse whatever was preached by Him before accepting it (Vimrushyaitadasheshena…) because, Krishna knows that His preached Gita might be polluted by insertions in future.

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