Prof. Dr. Sharda S. Nandram, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Nyenrode Business Universiteit
I asked my 94-year-old father about his memories of the Divali festival. As so often, he has many. “I can still remember how women used to go from house to house before Divali to sell big baskets full of diyás (earth pots with clarified butter and cotton wicks to light lights). Already days before, my Nani (my maternal grandmother) started the preparations. She prepared different kinds of sweets, like Gulab Jamun, Barfi and Sew. Especially for the festivities, she made Rajasthani dishes. Many of those dishes, such as Laapsi, Rabdi, Jelebi, and Batasha, the people in Suriname don’t know anymore.”
As he was speaking, several memories came to me as well. For my mother it was important to have the house thoroughly cleaned and that we wore clean clothes. All the copper had to be polished in the days before Divali. But for my mother it was important that we were also ‘clean’ on the inside. As a young girl I always had the idea that on the day of Divali we had to behave as perfectly as possible. If we ruined that and on the day of Divali we would quarrel with each other, talk poorly about someone else, or even think about it, it could have a negative impact all year round. You would have to wait a whole year for a new Divali celebration to live as a ‘good’ human being again and live in ‘darkness’ for the year.
“Your mother lit a lot of diyás,” my father told me. “She did this to light up all the dark places around the house. The first light that came on that day was a diyá. The house lighting wasn’t turned on until one of the diyás had gone out of its own accord. Because the many diyás around the house gave a lot of light and the doors and windows were open, the normal light was only needed to turn on the colored lights on our balcony, which made the day extra festive.”
My father also made lights out of metal jars. He poured gasoline in them, put a cotton wick in them and lit them on the day of Divali. “We called the gasoline Titatail. People from all over the neighborhood liked to see more than just the diyás. These homemade lanterns were lined up at the front of our house on the stone pillars of the gates.”
I asked my father if, in hindsight, this was not dangerous, for example when it was windy, but he assures me that there have never been accidents with these lanterns. It was always warm, dry and windless in Suriname, so the lanterns stayed on until late in the evening.
How do we celebrate the Divali festival in the Netherlands? When my daughter was 4 years old, she asked me on the day of Divali when She would finally come. It was already late for her and she wanted to go to sleep. “I am so tired, but I want to see Her.” As a Hindustani mother I read her Divali stories. On the day of Divali I gave her both a diyá with a tea light and a box of sweets for her school Teacher Danielle. As I frequently helped out at school, I had a good relationship with Teacher Danielle, who was certainly open minded towards holidays she didn’t know herself.
From my daughter’s story, I concluded that the teacher had paid attention to it. The children had received some treats from the box and she had read the story of Lakshmi Mata, which said that Lakshmi Mata comes to see everyone who lives in the light. Therefore, my daughter was literally waiting that night for the arrival of the Goddess Lakshmi. At every Divali I tell her this story and now that she is older she understands that it is mainly about lighting the Light in ourselves.
In addition to the social and cultural dimensions, the Divali celebration also has an economic and a deeper spiritual dimension. Through my deepening in Hindu Spirituality I know that Hindus in various regions of India as well as other parts of the world give different meanings to this festival. In some places the Divali festival is called Deepavali.
There are different stories going around about Divali. Some celebrate the return of Bhagwan Ram to his home in Ayodhya after he defeated the King of Lanka, Ravana. It is said that the people of Ayodhya welcomed him at that time by lighting lamps and diyás. Others make the connection between Divali and the Goddess Lakshmi and Kubera Puja (symbol of prosperity).
On the first day of the festivities, the Divine manifestation in the form of prosperity is welcomed. Some light a diyá and place it outside at the front door. Others make a floor painting (rangoli) at the front door in the form of footprints with rice and colored powder.
Farmers also use this day to celebrate their harvest. With the money they earn from the first sale of their crops they buy gold or silver and with that the economy gets a boost. This habit now lives on not only in the family of the farmers. People from various backgrounds save money all year round to buy gold or silver on this auspicious day and consider this purchase as a good monetary investment.
The last day, Bhai Dooj, can be compared to the festival of Raksha Bandhan, which celebrates the bond between brothers and sisters. On the second day, Narak Chaturdashi, also called Choti Divali, is celebrated and this is seen as the destruction of negative energy in us. Some people light diyás at the back of their house and throughout, as a symbol of the victory of light.
On the fourth day Govardhan Puja is celebrated as an expression of gratitude and defeat of arrogance. Some temples in our country pay attention to this. For all Hindus, usually the third day, the day of Divali/Deepawali, is considered the most important day. This year the five-day celebration takes place from 12 to 16 November.
This five-day celebration can also be seen as a way to tend to the physical, vital, mental, psychic, and spiritual facets within us. The five days symbolize the five layers of our consciousness, through which all our experiences are filtered. This filtering is necessary to find our true nature.
Yoga philosophy teaches us through the Sutras of Maharishi Patanjali how to prepare ourselves to get closer to our ‘True Self’. The Yoga Sutras teach us about the noise that occurs in our perception (Yoga Sutras 2.3-2.9). The Sutras explain that ignorance is the underlying basis for all our suffering (Yoga Sutras 2.23-2.25). The Yoga Sutras 2.26-2.29 also discuss how to improve our perception. There are several layers we have to pass through until we meet the ‘True I’. Therefore, in the third and fourth chapters, the Yoga Sutras discuss the deeper layers we need to work on.
Several other writings dive into the meaning of light. Verse 18 of chapter 13 of the Bhagavad Gita reminds us of the real Light. The Vedanta philosophy, explained by Adi Shankara Acharya in verse 22 in Aparokṣānubhūti, creates the aspiration (Mumukṣutva) and gives six disciplines (śama, dama, śraddhā, uparati, titikṣā, samādhāna) to get closer to the real Light that is permanently within us and the will to let go of everything else (Vairāgya). To be able to distinguish between what is real and what is not real (Vivek) is the precondition for the journey of this aspiration.
When the diyá is lit during Divali we realize spiritually that we are more than our body and mind. The diyá serves as a vehicle on a journey to the true Light.
[1] Acknowledging my father’s input Mr. B. Nandram, 1st of November 2020.
EN 
NL