Diwali is an event that illuminates the inner light that protects every family from spiritual darkness. We must deeply understand the Indian spiritual culture, which is most important in the process of living in the global village, and even understand the transcendent life that Indians have. In India, you can taste the deep meaning of the mother river, the Indian Ganges, where people come from and where they go, and the agony of human life, sorrows and conflicts. Looking back at the history of human religions, we can see that Buddhism is about 4,600 years old, Hinduism is about 3,500 years old, Christianity is about 2,030 years old, and Islam is about 630 years old. To understand the spirit of the Indian people, one must know the root culture of the Ganges River. Indians call the Ganges River, a holy place for Hindus, the holy place of Hinduism.
We are currently living in the era of quantum mechanics, ChatGPT and state-of-the-art smartphones with Ai. What is even more surprising is that the world of quantum mechanics is living in a cutting-edge era, where even the material and location of planets billions of light-years away can be known by the color of light. However, the advanced knowledge and bread of man is man. Even at the cutting edge, there are limits to human life, and the reality is that human beings live with various emptiness and numerous mysteries, wondering where they came from and where they are going.
This is because we can understand the meaning of human life and the limit of death in the Ganges River in India. To send death into India's mother river, the living bring their bodies to the river's edge and burn them on a pyre. People understand the deep meaning of the smell of burning flesh, being scattered as ashes, and being thrown into the river. The river of death is the holy water of reincarnation, so people flock to it to brush their teeth, take a bath, and drink it without hesitation. All of these actions are natural, and the basic concepts of this philosophy appear in karma predestination, samsara, the eternal cycle of birth, and liberation before one can attain (moksa). Karma is a process that revolves around life and death, and if an individual does many good things, he or she will be reborn as a noble person in the next life (postexistence), and if the opposite is true, he or she will be reborn as a lowly being. This is the fatalism of self-reliance. If you believe this, even people who were born as low-income people according to caste, an ancient class system that still exists in India, will blame themselves for doing a lot of bad things in their past lives rather than resenting the social system, and they will live a better life for their descendants. This is the spirit of Indians who live and practice good deeds throughout their lives.
Reincarnation means that life and death are constantly repeated. Death is not the end, but only the beginning of a new life. In other words, it makes it possible to realize that death is also a part of life. If you believe this, the serious meaning of death disappears. Reincarnation and karma allow Indians to transcend the hardships and material desires of this world to some extent without being bound by life and death. However, the ultimate purpose of life and the most important Hindu concept is liberation. Liberation is the realization of escaping the cycle of reincarnation where life and death are repeated. Liberation is the realization that "Atman" and another Brahman who is omnipresent as the transcendent being of the universe and that Brahman is one. It is the same concept as entering Nirvana in Buddhism, which means freedom from the pain of birth, old age, sickness and death.
Then we can understand what Diwali means in the actual lives of Indians. Diwali is the festival of lights in India, and in the realities of life, the clay lanterns of the festival symbolize the illumination of the inner light that protects each family from spiritual darkness, and garlands of colorful flowers are used in Diwali decorations. Diwali is a brightly burning clay lamp that people place outside their homes during the holiday to honor the inner light that protects each household from spiritual darkness. Diwali is the largest and most important festival in India and has been celebrated in India for centuries. As a national festival enjoyed by all people, Diwali now aims to become a light in the reality of people's lives for people around the world. If the youth of India forget the motherly spirit of the Ganges River in India and the spirit of peace of Diwali, there will be no future for India.
Image source: Wikipedia.
