Festival of Diwali
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| Lord Rama and Sita Devi |
Festival of Diwali or Deepavali refers to a row of lamps, which symbolises victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, and good over evil. Diwali is a five-day festival and the third day, Chaturdashi also called as Naraka Chaturdashi is celebrated is the most important day. The Hindu scriptures mention that on this day, the demon Narakasura was killed by Lord Krishna accompanied by his wife Satyabhama.
It is also said that on the day of Diwali, Lord Krishna as a baby boy performed the Damodhara Lila of mother Yashoda tying him to a grinding stone and Krishna than dragged the grinding mortar with him to pulldown the two gigantic trees in his backyard, delivering the two sons of Kubera, Manigriva and Nala Kubera who were cursed by Narada Rishi and standing as trees. Of course, before all this there was an amazing pastime of Lord Krishna breaking the pots of butter, yogurt, throwing them everywhere, feeding the monkeys. And then he started running away like a child in fear of mother Yashoda who was chasing him with a stick in her hand. Queen Kunti explains that this pastime is unconceivable to her because, the person whom by seeing even the fear personified becomes fearful the Yogis and Jnanis trying to catch him with their practice of Yoga, Pranayama and knowledge and unable to do so, such a person is running away in fear. And, when Krishna seeing his mother is getting tired, finally allows himself caught by her. The pastime continues, when Mother Yashoda tries to tie baby Krishna with a rope, it was short by two fingers. And, she added more and more rope from the neighborhood. And, seeing her determination Lord Krishna again, allows himself from abdomen to be tied to the grinding stone. The Acharyas explain that the two fingers signify, devotee’s determination and the Lords Mercy.
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| Sri Ram, Lakshman, Sita and Hanuman |
It is also mentioned in the scriptures that Diwali is the day, when Lord Ramachandra along with Lakshman, Sita Mata, Hanuman returned to his Kingdom of Ayodhya. The people welcomed Lord by lighting up their houses with lamps.
On this Auspicious day, may Lord Rama with his immense strength and fierce arrows, who in a moment (40 mins) killed 14,000 Rakshsas (race of unrighteous beings) in the forest of Dandakarunya may kill those demons sitting in our hearts in the form of Lust, anger, greed, jealousy, hatred etc. and bring all auspiciousness in to our lives. Happy Diwali to you ☺…
