What is Diwali – the Festival of Lights – Really About?! – your SV Ayurveda Newsletter Oct 16, 2025, #39, Vol 15

This week we celebrate the Vedic “festival of lights,” Deepawali – also known as Diwali. This is a “Hindu Festival” where the practice of lighting lamps symbolizes the “victory of light over darkness”…

In the subcontinent of India, different cities and areas celebrate this beautiful festival of lights in different ways: 

• in Bengal it is known as Mahanisha – to commemorate the appearance of Maa Kali with 64,000 yoginis; 
• in Maharashtra they celebrate diwali with the tradition of ‘Narak Chaturdashi,’ which signifies the victory of Lord Krishna over the demon Narakasura. People wake up early and take an oil bath before sunrise. Homes are cleaned and decorated with intricate rangoli designs.
• in Hyderabad, the tradition is to wash buffaloes on Diwali day; 
• in Mysore, women apply Sandalwood paste on the foreheads of men and children, and narrate the stories Narakasur; 
• in Odisha, jute sticks are burnt in order to honor the ancestors; 
• in Goa, a big statue of Narakasur is also burnt; 
• in Kumaon, there is a very special tradition in which sandalwood paste is used to make the effigy of Mahalaxmi and placed on copper plates and covered with a canopy of sugar canes; 
• in Ayodhya Diwali celebrates the return of Sri Raam. This is the ancient traditional origin of this celebration.

Diwali is a five-day festival that is observed 20 days after Navaratri – the 9 nights of Shakti culminating in the 10th day of victory or Vijayadashmi. It is really the celebration of the return of Purusha Sri Raam, along with his consort, Sita, and brother Lakshman, accompanied by Hanuman, back to Ayodhya after 14 years spent in exile. When the party flies back home on the “pushpak vimaan” – the “airplane” that belonged to Raavan’s brother, Kuber – they can see from above the whole city of Ayodhya lit with oil lamps to welcome their much-awaited king and queen back from their tribulations.

Did you know that this day also inaugurates a new era, a period of great dharmic righteous living? Sri Raam spends 14 years battling and vanquishing asuras and demons and restoring peace and balance on earth for all. In particular, he vanquishes the most powerful of them all, the 10-headed ruler of the 3 worlds, Raavan. This victory is commemorated as dussehra – that is: “killer of the 10 heads.” With his return to Ayodhya, Sri Raam re-establishes the rule of dharma – as narrated in Valmiki’s Ramayana.

The Ramayana is a timeless story for all of humanity. It reminds us to live life in righteousness, no matter how hard our dharma – duties – are. That is the core message of the Ramayana: it is the story of a noble prince, Sri Raam, and how he did not evade his princely duties, despite the tragic unfolding: is the story of sticking to one’s dharma first and foremost. Because dharma does not mean you will live in comfort and happiness in the pursuit of your desires… It means you will do what you know is meant for you to do as your duty as part of this great cosmic reality - whether it’s what YOU had planned for your life or not… Sri Raam goes into the forest, exiled, even though his coronation was meant for that exact same morning. He is stripped of his royal garb and title, and yet he willingly puts on the hermit’s shirt and wonders in the jungles barefoot, as a mere mortal. He upholds his responsibilities and dharma. Vaidya Mishra used to remind us: “when you do what you know is right, you will only desire what you deserve”… How do you know what is right to do? Simply follow the ONE AND ONLY GOLDEN RULE: treat others as you would treat yourself! Then you will be aligned with your dharma… 

This diwali, may we all aspire to find and live in accordance with our dharma – no matter how hard the path may be… Let’s turn our gaze inward, to the heart center, where the light of the atman, our soul, shines brightest, to hear our dharma beckoning us. 

Shubh Deepawali – wishing one and all an auspicious Diwali – Namaste!

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