Diwali 2024

About the festival

The name of Diwali Festival (or, by its fuller name, Dīpāvali) means a chain of lights. The Sanskrit expression refers to a miraculous event, the return of King Rāma. On the day of Dīpāvali devotees not only in India but throughout the world celebrate the victory and return of a special incarnation of Kṛṣṇa, Lord Rāmacandra. The story, exemplary life and glorious victory of Prince Rāma over the forces of darkness has a significance not only for the approximately 600 million Vaiṣṇava believers, but also represents an eternal teaching for humankind, which is included in the most ancient epic Rāmāyana. Today, in 2024, just after a wave of pandemic, facing economic hardship and witnessing an armed conflict in our neighborhood, we can admit that we first and foremost need God’s blessing and prowess in our everyday struggle.

Prince Rāma appeared on the planet Earth tens of thousands of years before Jesus Christ as the incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in a city at the feet of the Himalayas. The young prince was a perfect heir to the throne: both his father and himself were loved by their subjects, abundance and peace pervaded the kingdom. Lord Rāmacandra appeared in the Sun dynasty and He himself was just like the Sun: effulgent, powerful, just and equitable: he gave shelter to the whole population. When his father intended to abdicate according to Vedic custom and wanted to return to the forest, he wanted to pass the kingdom to Rāma, his firstborn son. Because of court plot however, following an earlier promise, he had to change the succession to the throne and banish Rāma to exile for fourteen years. To save his father’s honour, Rāma accepted the exile without a complaint.

His beloved wife, Sītā and His Brother, Lakṣman also accompanied Him to the forest. They lived there a very simple, renounced life, living on fruits picked in the forest. Driven by lust and hunger for power, the ruler of Lankā, Rāvana abducted Sītā. To save his chaste wife, Lord Rāma led a war against Rāvana with his army of monkeys and other forest animals and recovered His wife from captivity. According to the tradition, Rāma suffered these seemingly unpleasant calamities to have a reason to relieve the Earth from the burden of the demon by killing him. Tradition has it that His enemy was put down at the end of the month of Asvini and he returned to Ayodhya at the time of Diwali, the new year. Their trip by air was marked by lights provided by the happy devotees of Lord Rāma, thence the reference to a string of lights.

Divali is the Hindu New Year

In India the festival of Diwali lasts 5 days. Millions of lights remind us that knowledge and righteousness always prevail over darkness, greed and injustice under all circumstances; it also reminds us that all souls who have left God will go back to Him eventually.

By lighting a lamp or candle on the occasion of Diwali, we can also invite love and success into our homes. The common belief in India is that in this way, we can also invite Lakṣmī, the wife of Lord Viṣṇu, who is the Goddess of fortune, riches, beauty and joy into our homes. She is indivisible from Light, the Supreme Lord, therefore She will follow the lights and be our guest as well.

On the festival of Dīpāvali we invite everybody to light lamps, to carry the Light. We invite you with affection to the Festival of the Light by giving you the light of life force, of the festival, of knowledge at once, maintaining the beautiful and rich tradition of India.

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