Hindu leaders: Covid19 won't affect spirit of Divali

HINDU leaders say the covid19 public restrictions will not affect the spirit of Divali, even as the festival celebrations have largely moved online. Divali will be celebrated on November 14 as a public holiday.

Head and secretary general of the country's largest Hindu organisation – the Sanatan Dharma Maha Saba (SDMS) – Vijay Maharaj said while there would be no large gatherings this year, plans have been put in place for virtual celebrations at the organisation’s many schools and temples throughout the country.

“Most of the schools are having virtual Divali programmes where the teachers are involved, inviting the children to be on the virtual platform, and they’re doing the celebration in that format. So you might do a small religious ceremony in the school with the principal and a couple of teachers, and a pundit and that would be shown on Zoom or Google as the case may be," Maharaj said.

As far as our individual temples are concerned, I am aware that each temple is doing a little ceremony just prior to Divali. There are no meals being cooked or anything like that, there’s some sweets being handed out and we celebrate Divali in that manner.

"The family home is normal where people would do their cooking and lighting of deyas on Divali day. So yes we’re observing Divali, it’s one of the most auspicious occasions for us in the Hindu calendar, the arrival of Mother Lakshmi on earth bringing light over darkness and dispelling ignorance.”

Former Inter-Religious Organisation head Pundit Harrypersad Maharaj said Divali has always been seen as a family occasion.

“It is a time when families get together, so I think apart from the larger gatherings such as the Divali Nagar, Divali is a family festival so I don’t think it is particularly affected, because people will still light how many deyas they would like to light, they will have their normal home gatherings and even after people light up they would normally go for a drive or whatever and I don’t think that’s going to affect it really.

"We know we wouldn’t be able to have large gatherings and sitting together and eating and so on but when you think about it, the essence of Divali has to do with the family,” he said.

Pundit Satyanand Maharaj of the Satya Anand Ashram Temple of Truth and Bliss said there will be limited participation in group activities by members of his organisation. He said for people who have to attend the temple, social distancing and crowd control will be observed.

“We’re not yet out of the woods with covid19 and we continue to encourage people to stay at home and do their lighting at home. Most of our activities that were community-based have gone online, so you would find our ramayans and our discourses, they’re all now online.

"What many people don’t realise is covid19 has forced us, especially as we’re not able to congregate, to up our game with video publishing, so any free medium we can use, we’ve tried to access it. Facebook, Instagram, online TV stations, all these things we’ve taken up.

"We’ve launched an online TV platform that caters to the smaller groups that may not have the facilities to do their own videos, so we’re doing that for them. Man is a social creature, we have to find other ways to socialise, even if it’s virtual socialisation.”