Celebrating Divali beyond the festival of lights

THE EDITOR: To the Hindus, the holy month of Karthika trayodashi is the holiest of the lunar calendar.

On the thirteenth day of that month Divali is celebrated. As the time approaches many will be writing about good over evil and light over darkness and wishing each other Happy Divali. To some devotees there is more to the simple celebrations. For some of them it is acknowledging the story of the holy one Ram rescuing his wife Sita and the celebrations that followed.

Perhaps one of the most pertinent aspects of this time of the year is the cleansing that occurs.

For Divali, many Hindus clean their homes in and out. It is believed that only when the home is clean, would the Goddess Lakshmi enter one’s home and bless it. In TT the need for wealth, for blessings, for gifts have become so endemic that it has led to unscrupulous behaviour, corruption and in many cases criminal behaviour.

At this period of enlightenment, it may be instructive to reflect on the suggestion that blessings, goodness, happiness, and wealth can only be bestowed upon a place of cleanliness.

Too many people claim to be spiritually enlightened but find great difficulty in loving someone of another race or religion. They claim to love their country but would dispose of garbage indiscriminately, they would have thousands or millions of dollars in their bank account and would pass a leaking pipe that simply requires a $60 compression coupling and complain about poor governance.

If Divali is to mean something to the people of TT beyond fireworks, and sharing goodies, if there is to be any real meaning to our many thoughts about good over evil and light over darkness, then there must be a cleansing of our souls. We must see God in every face and in every race. We must clean our country and our home, protecting and preserving them for the generations to come.

The simple things we can do in our community like filling a pothole with some concrete or gravel rather than take pictures and post them on social media. By giving a drop to the child in our village that is going to the same school as our children, by visiting the poor and sharing a meal with them outside of the celebrations period. These and many more are what this period of Divali focuses our attention on.

There is another part of the Divali story that is also pertinent to us. It was the rescuing of Ram’s wife Sita. He did not accomplish the task alone. He did so with the help of the animals led by the monkey king Hanuman. If TT is to be rescued from the darkness then everyone must unite, they must confront evil together. Only with unity, sincerity, and concerted purpose can we be successful and eventually have our light overpower the darkness.

The story of Divali is one of hope.

God bless our nation.

Steve Alvarez

via e-mail