The Celebration Of Diwali. By Dr. Schavi Ali M. Ali

On Saturday, November 14, 2020, the celebration of DIWALI occurs. This Sanskrit term translates as “Festival of Lights”.

It is celebrated each year in the autumn (in late October or early November according to the Vedic calendar) as a time of praying for and meditating on both material and spiritual prosperity.

Sri Lakshmi, the feminine aspect of SOURCE which blesses us with abundance, is honored.

A “Puja” (“ceremony”) to Her is performed whereby the usual items involved are a flaming candle, incense, nuts and fruits, a prayer mala, and a small jar of sacred Chandana (Sandalwood) oil or a combination of fragrant flowery oils are on an altar.

Finally, with the index finger of the right hand, the person performing this ritual places a bit of the sacred oil on his or her third eye in a clock-wise fashion.

This symbolizes receiving blessings from SOURCE in the form of Lakshmi.

Whenever an aspect of SOURCE is called upon, this is known as worshiping the Divine in “Saguna” (“with form”).

After this ritual, celebratory foods are eaten such as delicious nutritious vegetable dishes, rice, nuts, fruits, and fancy desserts.

People give gifts as well. DIWALI is celebrated by families and community groups.

Homes and temples are colorfully decorated the day before DIWALI, and children often draw feet on a sheet of paper, cut them out, and place them at the front door of their houses symbolizing Lakshmi coming into the home. Small gold coins are also sometimes placed on the home altar.

Some people mistakenly refer to this ancient sacred time as the “Indian Christmas”. It has nothing to do with traditional Christmas celebrations, although it is certainly a time of honoring Divine energy and helping those in need and gifting others.

It is interesting and wonderful that all over the world there are certain celebrations especially meant for helping others and for remembering that we are blessed by the Divine intervention of SOURCE.

Sri Lakshmi is depicted in statues and in paintings dressed in a beautiful red or deep fuchsia dress decorated with golden threads.

She holds a vase that is pouring out with gold coins in Her right lower arm, and in Her other arms, She holds lovely pink lotus flowers.

In the Vedic tradition, aspects of the Divine are depicted with several arms because this represents SOURCE (which is most often referred to as the “Divine Mother” or as the “Divine Absolute”) reaching out ready to embrace and protect all creation.

Lakshmi is also surrounded by elephants with upraised trunks who spray Her with refreshing water.

The word that most people are familiar with, “Hinduism”, is not Sanskrit and will not be found in the Vedic scriptures.

This term is from the Greek language and tends to be used because thousands of years ago, when the people who lived in the Indus-Kush Valley were discovered, they were called “Hindus”.

The word “Vedic” is from the Sanskrit phoneme root “Vid” which means “knowledge”; and thus, anyone can be “Vedic” who follows the path of SANATANA DHARMA.

He or she is not following the mistaken title “Hinduism”.

Yet, a person does not have to be an initiate of this path in order to perform its rituals or recite its mantras. It is a universal path.

However, those who are indeed initiates perform other types of additional rituals as well and have a specific type of lifestyle involving foods eaten or not eaten, daily activities, particular prayer times, etc.

The ancient name “Bharata” is the correct one for what most people know as “India”.

Recently, the people there voted to return to using their ancient name. Linguistically, “Bharata” translates as “Land of the Light of the Soul”.

Long long ago—many thousands of years ago—during a former “Golden Age”, the continents that we recognize today as “Africa” and “Asia” were one huge continental land mass known as “Alkebu-lan”.

Its Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and floods over many ages separated the land masses into what we identify with today.

The word “Pangea” is also used in terms of numerous land masses of Earth/Gaia being fused together. The phoneme “Pan” means “All”.

During DIWALI giving knowledge is also considered as giving a gift, and so books are excellent gifts to extend to others too.

The greeting on DIWALI is “JAI DIWALI!” which is “VICTORY TO DIWALI”. Therefore, we are saying: “Victory to the Festival of Lights!”

This year DIWALI (which will be done virtually in many cases) occurs on the same day that Mars moves direct ( Saturday, November 14th) in Tropical Zodiac Aries (New Starts, Leadership, New Ideas) and in Sidereal Zodiac Pisces (Spiritual Elevation) and also the day before the Super New Moon in Tropical Zodiac “Scorpio” (Transformation) and in Sidereal Zodiac Libra (Balance) on Sunday, November 15th.

We are going to have an auspicious weekend of cosmic energetics.

The vibrations of DIWALI as well as those of the cosmic events mentioned will not be just on the days that they occur.

Their energetics will continue throughout the final weeks of 2020 and well into 2021 as the human collective steadily focuses upon love, peace, health, and abundance for the entire planet and galaxy.

For those who will not be joining many of us in celebrating DIWALI, consider offering special prayers according to your path for blessings for Earth/Gaia.

Remember, we are actually “Galactic”. Other names for our varying ethnicities are only sociological terms for convenience in studying history’s time lines.

We are all from one Divine Parent—SOURCE!

We are siblings.

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