Publishing it a year late...the message remains the same:)
This
year too, Diwali was as special as it always is. The
cleaning..dusting….decorating starting at least a week before the actual day of
the festival. The rush to get everything in order for the evening Puja, lighting
of the lamps, cooking the dinner feast…getting all decked up for the inevitable
family photograph. Everything was the same save one. Never before had I asked
myself the real reason I celebrate Diwali. Oh, we all pay lip service to the
story of the victory of good over evil but that’s not the reason I celebrate
Diwali…it’s just the right reason to give to the uninitiated firang…or the new
kids on the block (read today’s generation).
I am
a follower of Jainism by birth and practice. And by a celestial co-incidence,
the new moon of the month of Kartik is also the day our lord Tirthankara
Mahavir attained Moksha or Nirvana. So, as a devout Jain, do I celebrate Diwali
for the above reason? It will be a lie to say I do.
So
what really is the reason I and scores of others like me celebrate the day with
such fanfare. Am I really doing it as a religious thing or is there a broader
perspective that I have never really thought about. A simple and joyous piece
of news answered the question for me. My parents who live in the north eastern
part of the country were resigned to spending the festival without any of their
four children. All of us sisters are settled in the north and my brother, their
only son, is in faraway Ethiopia.
Two
days before Diwali, my parents got the news that their son is coming home to
spend Diwali with them. The joy of having their son home for the occasion was
the highlight of the week for them. When I got to know this, my question was
answered. It is the spirit of homecoming and togetherness that we celebrate on
this day; it is the reason why there is such a rush on every festival of every
religion…why the trains and flights are all booked to hilt. And why there is a
Diwali in every home on any day that the family is finally together, on the day
the birds who flew away from the nest long back return home.
Oh
yes, we celebrate the homecoming of lord Rama after spending fourteen years
away from his family. And yes, we do celebrate the Nirvana of Lord
Mahavira….his soul reaching its final abode….homecoming of a different kind but
homecoming all the same!
Happy Diwali Everyone!
