Diwali lights up dark times
Tonight and over the next few days, folks all over the world are celebrating Diwali. In smaller groups and further away than most years, people are participating in this festival of light in what feels like an overwhelmingly dark time.
Diwali doesn’t just celebrate the light of candles during the dark of night. Its origin stories are rich with allegory and lessons of taking action to triumph over darkness, to spread awareness over ignorance, to fight for justice in the face of oppression, to restore benevolence over tyranny.
“Diwali is a celebration of light. It reminds me that we can help one another get through the darkest times. And it comes at an especially grim time in our country,” writes Somini Sengupta, a An American Bengali Hindu in her article To Celebrate Diwali Is to Celebrate the Light for The New York Times today.
Though there is great variety in the traditions, celebrations, and stories, “the main stories at the center of the days-long festival feature heroes defeating demons, restoring balance to a troubled world,” explains Anita Chabria in LA Times.
Pooja Makhijani breaks it down for us in her recent NY Times Article: “The imagery of light and dark isn’t unique to Diwali; such dualities exist across literatures, cultures and faiths, and it can be uplifting to celebrate that shared humanity during this time, Vasan said. As for embracing those coexisting, contradictory themes, Neha Chaudhary, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, said that celebrations “allow us to feel glimpses of connection during periods of isolation. We can feel isolation and pain, but also find joy and meaning. Learning to find and hold onto the good with the bad is what makes us grow. It’s part of what makes us resilient’. ”
And to me, that sounds like the takeaway from the tale of this year, not unlike other dark periods in human history.
For those of us who love the physical practice, it’s critical for us to know that the shapes we enjoy taking on have roots in these ancient traditions and mythology and are part of a large and complex system of science and culture known as Yoga. There are as many versions of these stories as there are tellers, as mythologist, artist and teacher Devdutt Pattanaik describes. (Shout out to my teacher Susanna Barkataki for turning me onto Devdutt!)
One of my favorite stories is when Hanuman (of the beloved Hanumanasana) reunites divine love by rescuing Sita and reuniting her with Ram before they return to their benevolent leadership roles. After his heroic leap and battle, he accepts no tokens because he already embodies the gift of their divine love within himself. I’ll leave the long form story-telling to the professionals, but I encourage you to look up different translations and tellings of the Ram, Sita + Hanuman Diwali Story!
Check out Pattanaik’s article on How Lord Hanuman Can Make Leaders Good Human Beings and explore some of the Diwali mythology. Where do you find connections and meanings to your life and where we find ourselves in our society and culture right now?
Since I first started practicing yoga as a kid, I felt deeply inspired and connected by the stories of the Yoga tradition, and felt that they affirmed my burning questions - which I now can identify as existential and ethical. As a white practitioner and teacher of Yoga, I am no religious scholar and an amateur in mythology and philosophy, but I appreciate the symbology, ethics and meaning. And I LOVE stories. What are some of your favorite holiday stories? Which stories resonate with you most?
More importantly, we must ask ourselves: How can we spread whatever light we have to make this world less dark for those who are struggling right now?
Can we share information? Donate funds to organizations fighting for those who are in detention centers, houseless, hungry, or suffering from the violence of systemic oppression?
Better yet: How can we use our distinctive gifts to fight for justice in our world? To uplift those who have less privilege + those who have never been granted their birth rights?
The heroes in the stories show us: It requires great bravery, courage, and resolve to light up the dark. And if we do the necessary work, we can ensure a brighter world for one another. But no one promised it was going to be quick or easy.