Deepāvali is one of the popular festivals in the Indian culture. The word means “row of lamps”. It is a festival of light. It is a time for family get-togethers for all Indian people. It is a spectacle to watch and hear the hundreds of fireworks that light the night skies of all Indian cities, towns and villages for almost one full week. Some cities like Ayodhya, Varanasi, Jaipur, and Mysore have special light shows, public lighting of lamps, laser shows, in drone shows, etc. In Ayodhya, every year millions of lamps are lit by thousands of volunteers on the banks of River Sarayu.
Date of Deepāvali
Indian civilization is one of the very few that have cultural continuity over several thousands of years. Being an organically developed culture, all festivals in India are timed based on the astronomical position of Earth, Sun and Moon. All astronomical observations and time calculations are made for the city of Ujjain, which is the Prime Meridian of India, where God is worshipped as Mahākāleshwar, The Lord of Time. Here are a few popular Indian festivals.
- Ugādi (Lunar New Year) – New moon in Aries (March)
- Rāmanavami – Birthday of Lord Rāma – Ninth day after new moon in Aries (March)
- Mahāvir Jayanti – Birthday of Lord Mahāvira – Thirteenth day after new moon in Aries (March)
- Baisākhi (Solar New Year) – First sunrise in Aries (April)
- Buddha Purnima – Birthday of Lord Buddha – Full moon in Libra (May)
- Guru Purnima – Birthday of Sage Vyāsa – Full moon in Sagittarius (July)
- Rākhi – Festival of Brother-Sister relationship – Full moon in Leo (August)
- Janmāshthami – Birthday of Lord Krishna – Eighth day after full moon in Leo (August)
- Ganesh Chaturthi – Fourth day after new moon in Leo (August)
- Navarātri – Nine days for worship of Goddesses – Nine days following new moon in Virgo (September)
- Deepāvali – Festival of light – New moon in Taurus (October)
- Gitā Jayanti – Day when Bhagavad Gitā was told – Eleventh day after new moon in Scorpio (November)
- Vaikuntha Ekādasi – Night for worship of Lord Vishnu – Eleventh day after new moon in Sagittarius (December)
- Sankrānti (Solar Harvest) – First sunrise in Capricorn (January)
- Shivarātri – Night for worship of Lord Shiva – New moon in Aquarius (February)
- Holi – Festival of colours – Full moon in Virgo (March)
Deepāvali is celebrated when it is new moon in Rishabha (Taurus) constellation, which comes roughly in October or November.
Stories behind Deepāvali
Different parts of India have different principal reason to celebrate Deepāvali. In the North, it is the day when Lord Rāma was coronated as king. In the South, it is the day when Narakāsura was killed by Krishna and Satyabhāma. In the West, it is the day when Goddess Lakshmi emerged out of the churning of the ocean. In the East, it is the day when Goddess Kāli killed demon Raktabeeja.
All these stories are popular all over India. We all have grown listening to these any tons more of such stories from our parents and grandparents. All these happened at the time of Deepāvali as mentioned. It is just that different parts of India have taken different stories as the main reason. There are many more, for example some parts of Mahārāshtra and Karnātaka celebrate the day after Deepāvali as the day of Balipādyami when Lord Vishnu came as Vāmana and blessed King Mahābali.
Brief Story of Rāma
Dasaratha was the emperor of India ruling from Ayodhya. He had three queens. As he was getting old, he wanted to coronate his eldest son, Rāma, the son of his eldest queen, as the crown-prince.
Dasaratha had given two boons to his youngest queen when she had helped in him in a battle. She could availed them later anytime. Now, she wanted her son, Bharata to be crowned and Rāma to live in the forests of Central India for 14 years. Dasaratha saw that this was unfair. But, Dasaratha did not want to violate his promise. He died of grief.
Rāma took it as his duty to fulfil his father’s promise and went to the forest. His wife, Sita and brother, Lakshmana accompanied him. Bharata disagreed with his mother. He wanted Rāma to be the king. He ruled Ayodhya on behalf of Rāma, waiting for Rāma to return.
After uneventful 13 years in the forest, some peaceful forest dwellers asked Rāma for help as they were being troubled and harmed by some demons. As the prince of the empire, Rāma saw that it was his duty to help his citizens. He asked Lakshmana to take care of Sita and single-handedly fought and killed almost all the 14,000 demons.
Two of the demons survived. They were brother and sister of Rāvana, the demon-king of Lanka. They went and complained to him. Rāvana wanted to teach Rāma a lesson and also take Sita as his wife. He did not want to face Rāma directly. He tricked the brothers away and kidnapped Sita. He took her away to Lanka.
Taking help from a monkey-king, Rāma fought with Rāvana’s demon-army with his monkey-army. Rāma killed Rāvana and rescued Sita. He made Rāvana’s younger brother as the king.
By this time, the 14 years period was over. Rāma returned to Ayodhya and was crowned the emperor. The coronation day is celebrated as Deepāvali.
Brief Story of Krishna and Narakāsura
Narakāsura was a demon king who had a boon that he can be killed only by his mother. He wanted to become still more invincible. He was advised by someone to do a ritual sacrificing 16,000 princesses on a specific full moon night. He had defeated several small kings all over the world and collected 16,000 princesses. No one dared to fight him.
The princesses sent a secret message to Lord Krishna to rescue them. Krishna came on his huge eagle with his warrior wife, Satyabhāma. Krishna fought with Narakāsura for some time. Then he pretended to be tired and asked his wife to continue to the fight. She defeated Narakāsura and killed him. Only Krishna had known that Satyabhāma was Narakāsura’s mother in a previous birth.
The 16,000 princesses were free now. But, as they were rescued by another man, no prince would come forward to marry them. They asked Krishna for a solution. So, Krishna multiplied himself into 16,000 copies and married each of them. He was an ideal husband to each of them. The main source book for this story, Srimad Bhāgavatam, gives detailed account of how Krishna served each princess, like massaging the feet, combing the hair, cooking, feeding, decorating hair with flowers, etc. This is given as a role-model for all husbands.
Deepāvali is the day when Satyabhāma killed Narakāsura.
Brief Story of Churning of the Ocean
The devās and asurās were cousins. The devās were noble and cultured in general but cunning towards their cousins. The asurās were simple, uncultured and dumb-witted. They were always fighting with each other. The Supreme Gods – Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu – helped both of them, whoever sought for help.
The advisor of the devās asked them to churn the ocean using a mountain and a huge snake. He said that they will get nectar which will make them strong and invincible. But this was a huge task that the devās cannot accomplish alone. They tricked their cousins, the asurās also to help them, promising to share the nectar with them.
Various precious and poisonous articles and beings came from the churning before finally the nectar came.
One of the most precious beings that came from the churning was Goddess Lakshmi. She was so precious that only Lord Vishnu was qualified to marry her. She married him.
Deepāvali is the day when Goddess Lakshmi came from the ocean.
Brief Story of Kāli and Raktabeeja
The devās requested Goddess Durga’s help to fight some very fierce demons. She was fighting the demons for them.
One particular demon named Raktabeeja was invincible. He had a boon that whenever a drop of his blood falls on the ground, it would become like a seed and it would immediately grow into another clone of him.
So, when Goddess Durga tried to kill Raktabeeja, several clones of the demon arose from drops of blood that fell to the ground and joined the fighting. As she kept killing the clones, more clones were emerging in exponential numbers.
Goddess Durga frowned at the situation wondering what to do. From the frown emerged another Goddess, who is another manifestation of Goddess Durga. She is Goddess Kāli. She had a huge protruding tongue.
Goddess Kāli increased herself to a huge size and her tongue became the battleground. Every drop of blood got absorbed into the tongue and no drop fell on the ground. Eventually, the last clone of Raktabeeja was killed and he was eliminated forever.
Raktabeeja is an illustration of our desires. Fulfilling desires only create more desires. There is no end to them. Desires are the root cause of all sorrow, anxiety, anger, jealousy, etc. The only way to eliminate desires is to offer our actions as gifts to God and accept the results as gifts from God.
Deepāvali is the day when Goddess Kāli killed Raktabeeja.
Happy Deepāvali to all !!!
May this Deepāvali being you peace, prosperity, wisdom, devotion, and freedom.