Divali as spiritual light

THE EDITOR: "O judgement! Thou art fled to brutish beasts/And men have lost their reason" (Julius Caesar, Act 3 Sc2 103-104),

Mark Antony’s words in Shakespeare’s great play are fraught with guile because it was the beginning of his effort to turn the minds of the citizens of Rome against Brutus, who, ironically, out of sheer logic and reasoning, had managed previously in his own speech to convince them that Caesar’s assassination was just. In the end Antony would succeed in convincing the citizens that Caesar’s assassination was, indeed, unjust, his sinister intent coined in his final words:

“Now let it work. Mischief thou art afoot/Take what course thou wilt” (Act 3 Sc2 260-262).

But Antony’s appeal, sinister as it was in that context, is relevant to the world in which we live today, for everywhere across the gamut of human experience his impassioned plea seems to ring true. For consistent with the propagandising that comes from both sides in the Russia/Ukraine conflict, the question to ask is why would Russian President Vladimir Putin continue to decimate the Ukrainians and why would the US and NATO continue to support Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in what seems a losing cause.

To one of average intelligence there is no missing the political agendas of each side, a new Cold War in the making, but have men lost their reason as Antony suggests, preferring to have their countrymen “wage war, kill, fire, burn” as the citizens did after Antony’s successful oratory, instead of seeking a negotiated peace?

And the same could be said of the Gaza/Israel war. No matter what the cry of lamentation on both sides of the conflict with all the propagandising and demonising, the stark reality is the stated motive, reportedly from sympathisers, officials, ideologues, is for the total annihilation of the other, with seemingly no compromise towards a negotiated peace.

And in other places in the world like in Manipur in India and Myanmar, in Sudan and in the Congo, with the Sikh problem in Canada, in Peru and Venezuela, even in the US where the politics between Democrats and Republicans seems as estranged as ever, the object is for one group to dominate the other with no real attempt at finding common ground.

And not only in the world at large. In our own little piece of Earth which we call home, the ethics of good leadership and judgement at the top is hardly there and we follow the lead by murdering without conscience, or exploiting those without the means to survive, or denying the protection to those who need it. In our own way we are the microcosm of what’s outside there.

In such a world of darkness plagued by irrationality and poor judgement, the coming of Divali as the Festival of Lights at this time could not have been more opportune. For even as the other religions of the world seek to enlighten their followers to be rational and to exercise good judgement to bring peace into the world, as, for example, in the way the Christ is portrayed as the light of the world et al, the sheer physical presence of the flickering deyas all over the world where it is celebrated gives universal substance to that symbolism, literally lighting up the darkness. And in the process exuding an overwhelming spiritual essence which seeps into your consciousness to make you recognise your own humanity and the need for the brotherhood of man instead of its current antithesis.

May the “arti” (light dispelling the darkness) of Divali reach the hearts of all to bring peace the world over.

DR ERROL NARINE BENJAMIN

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