The message of Diwali reminds us of the importance of acquiring divine knowledge that leads to inner transformation of our hearts.
Darkness represents ignorance and light represents knowledge that dispels darkness. Inner transformation means transformation of greed into generosity, selflessness into selfless service, arrogance into humility and hate into love.
Historically, Diwali marks the return of Lord Ram to his kingdom in Ayodhya after performing his pastimes in the forest for fourteen years.
He killed the wicked demon Ravan who was an embodiment of lust, anger, greed, illusion, madness and pride. Ayodya is a city located on the banks of Sarayu River in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
The residents of Ayodhya welcomed lord Ram with opened arms and celebrated by lighting the entire kingdom with diyas.
Therefore Diwali means inviting lord into our hearts and our lives and eliminating the unwanted habits of lust, greed, anger, illusion and pride.
Lord Ram represents all that is right as lord Ram was an ideal king and ideal person. Lord Ram is absolute truth and absolute truth is a person.
Lord descended on earth millions of years ago to annihilate the demons and protect the devotees and in doing so he taught righteousness and divine life. We have to learn to nurture and feed the good side in ourselves.
When we talk about divine knowledge we talk about humility, compassion, selflessness as opposed to selfishness, charity, cleanliness,purity, truthfulness and love.
Religious festivals such as Diwali remind us of the importance of cultivating the above divine virtues and applying them in our lives.
Therefore we must always do the right things prescribed in our scriptures.
What does doing the right things mean? Every religious festival teaches righteousness and good moral principles.
These principles are conducive to good health and happiness.
These include waking up early before sunrise, speaking truthfully, respecting elders and parents, praying for ourselves and our people, practicing good work ethics and reading scriptures. Another very important teaching of Diwali is respect for women.
Lord Ram went out of his way to protect his divine consort and wife, mother Sita, who represents feminine form of god and feminine energy.
Mother Sita and mother Laksmi is the goddess of fortune. Wealth and money that we get is rewarded by goddess of fortune. Mother Sita always serves lord Ram out of pure divine love.
Therefore the message is that money should be used in the service of lord and money should not be misused.
Money should not be used for buying intoxicants such as alcohol, smoke and illicit drugs as this will bring trouble. All our money should be used on our families and education of our children and certain percentage is given as charity.
This way mother Laksmi or goddess of fortune will be very pleased and there will be progress and peace in our homes and in our nation.
Furthermore mother Laksmi likes cleanliness. This is why Hindus clean their homes and environment very thoroughly before or during Diwali celebration.
This principle should be followed by everyone and always. In Fiji we see a huge problem of rubbish thrown on roads and in drains. If we all unite to change this culture and respect our environment, this will surely lead to economic prosperity and progress of our country.
The final message of Diwali that I would like to share is hard work and surrender to god. There is a very enchanting childhood pastime of Lord Krishna that took place about 5000 years ago.
Once lord Krsna was being bound with ropes by his mother because he was very mischievous and was stealing butter and feeding the monkeys.
His mother, Yashoda Devi,attempted to bind him with ropes but each time she tried,the rope was two inches short.
These two inches represent hard work and surrender. We all need to work hard to achieve whatever we want to accomplish and at the same time depend on lord to give us guidance and good results. This way there will be peace and harmony in our lives and in our nation.
There are so many men in our country who shy away from their responsibility of earning for the livelihood of their family. Rather they indulge in alcohol and drugs and do not give time to their children.
This has to change. We can’t depend on government handouts but we have to work hard to contribute towards nation building.
Therefore we need to teach our children this principle of hard work and following religious and moral principles from an early age.
Both parents must take responsibility of nurturing and educating our children I pray that our good lord guides our teachers,parents and our children so that our people are well educated both materially and spiritually leading to a successful and prosperous nation.
May lord guide our leaders so that we continue to foster the principles of reconciliation and unity and we all work together to give our children a very happy and prosperous future.
May the light of Diwali which represents divine knowledge continue to shine in our lives and in our country and in this world forever. May there be love for all and hatred for none. May god bless Fiji and our world.
• DR RAJESH MAHARAJ is the president of the Fiji College of General Practitioners (FCGP). The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper.
