Dark world needs the light of Divali

THE EDITOR: Light has an eternal interpretation for every civilisation. Light knows no boundaries. Light, like truth, justice and love, is not the sole ownership of any person or group of people. Light belongs to all mankind – yesterday, today and tomorrow.

The light in the Hindu festival of Divali continues to be a religious, spiritual and inspirational feature for all the people of Hinduism and several observances. It is revered not only at sacred occasions like Divali for the Hindu community, but light is a symbol for all mankind. Light remains the guiding tool for all times – yesterday, today and tomorrow.

To demonstrate the importance and relevance of light, and to give it the additional clout it so richly deserves, the United Nations should mandate the Festival of Lights as a part of its universal observance, in similar fashion as it recently did for the steelpan.

For the Hindu community, light or the festival of Divali must be an everyday feature of our existence. And you better believe it, the world is in complete darkness, and one has to look to the Ukraine-Russia war going into two years next February, and more recently the war between Israel and Hamas.

The great seers of the past had long pontificated that without truth, justice and light there would continue to be mass destruction of nations and peoples from all corners of the globe. In Hinduism, the light of the deya continues to offer hope, a great hope for all mankind. Mankind is far from the crossroads to a more beloved group.

Divali 2023 must become the guiding light for a safe, peaceful and prosperous future, and we must recognised with all the seriousness it deserves, because failure to give it the urgency it requires would lead us to an abysmal path.

Our society is undergoing serious, agonising stress. There continues to be decay in our thoughts, words and deeds. There are rampant murders, house invasions, youth displacement, mismanagement of our economic resources, and a general tardiness in the social, political and even religious leadership, all of which must not be left unchecked.

Failure to use the message of light would cause total annihilation of the little human, spiritual and moral values left. We must bequeath the strong – even stronger – value system which our forefathers left for us to the incoming generations. This we must do without hatred, rancour, bitterness or malice. It is our bounden duty.

And we must undertake this serious analytical recovery with all the urgency at our command. Failure to respond with the greatest of dispatch would suffocate our entire civilisation.

So let us use the message and emblem of light as a stocktaking assignment and, therefore, realign our human thoughts and values.

Happy Divali to all of TT, and by extension all of humanity.

PARAS RAMOUTAR

via e-mail