I am sure all of you have sent and received several messages on Diwali.
A small rule on wishes. You can give only what you have. So when you wish health wealth happiness to someone, make sure you have enough of it yourself.
The world has reduced everything to a Happy something – which is the 1st level of experience of anything. There are deeper levels that exist. If you think of it:
LISTENING IS DEEPER THAN TALKING
THINKING IS DEEPER THAN LISTENING
FEELING IS DEEPER THAN THINKING
And so on… we don’t even know how many layers are there but all will agree that they exist because we have felt them. So here below I present a small story on the festival of Diwali. When you read, you will listen, which you will think of, which you will feel and experience it on many layers.
Once there was a king who had 7 beautiful daughters.
One day, he asked all,
King: Who is it that feeds you?
The first 6 daughters said in praise of the king: It is you father, the greatest king, who feeds us.
Only the 7th daughter said: It is god who feeds us all.
The king got very angry. He married his 6 daughters to handsome rich princes but got the 7th one married to a poor and leprosy inflicted person.
The 7th daughter was very happy in her life however. She told her husband never to come back empty handed when he came back home from work every day.
So each day he would bring some fruit, vegetables, wood etc. back home.
One day he went to the jungle but couldn’t find anything to take back home, but found a dead snake, so he took that with him. When he showed to his wife, she asked him to throw the dead snake on their hut’s rooftop.
Meanwhile, the king of the state where she was married had a wife, who went out bathing one day to the riverside. At the riverside, she kept her expensive diamond necklace on the banks while she bathed.
Suddenly an eagle snooped down and took the necklace with it. She was heartbroken.
The eagle meanwhile realised it is of no use to him and saw the dead snake on the poor 7th daughters huts rooftop , so it snooped down and kept the necklace and took the dead snake which it could eat.
The king meanwhile announced that whoever finds the queens necklace would get a reward he desires.
The 7th daughter asked her husband to take the necklace to the king and whispered in his ear what to ask.
The king was very happy and asked the man: “What do you want?” He said nothing. The king forced him. He again said he wants nothing. The king ordered him: Ask you must, what is that that I as king can do.
He then told the king that his wife has a wish that on Diwali, no one light any diya in the whole town except for their hut. The king thought about it but for his word, said yes to it.
So on Diwali, the whole town was dark (being Amavasya, a no moon night) except for the poor man’s hut where the diya was lit.
So when Goddess Laxmi arrived, she saw that its dark everywhere and so went to the poor man’s hut and knocked on the door.
The 7th daughter, the poor man’s wife, asked: “Who is it ?”
“It’s me, Goddess Laxmi”
Wife: “Why do you need to knock, please come inside”
Goddess Laxmi walks in and is very happy and asked them: “What can I do for you, you are the only ones who lit a diya for me”
The wife said: “Now that you have come, never leave, stay with us”. And with that, she shut the door.
And Laxmi stayed there forever.
And so friends, with this small longish story, I wish you all a very happy Diwali. It is the feeling you invest into mythology that connects us from the material world to our souls. It tells us that with internal grit and determination and planning, even the gods can be captured by overcoming all our obstacles. It is not mere sweet eating and cracker bursting and bhajan singing, it is basically invoking the powers that lie within all of us. To invoke the powers, one needs concentration and for that one needs seclusion from external gimmicks.