Diwali celebrations @ K

Diwali was celebrated with great fanfare and enthusiasm as the entire student community came together to give the celebration a familiar feeling of oneness. As part of the celebrations, Spicmacay organized Rangoli and inter-hostel diya lighting competitions. The enthusiasm shown by the students for these competitions was very much evident as every hostel came up with innovative ideas to impress the judge, Prof. S.S.S.Kumar who was floored by the decorations and had a tough time deciding the winner. And how can one forget the lip-smacking sumptuous dinner arranged by the Messcom which had people remarking 'Paet Bhar Gaya Par Man Nahin Bhara'

After these competitions it was time to light up the night with fireworks. And what a magnificent display it was! This was followed by a game of tambola, thus rounding off what had been a memorable diwali to all of us.

Day 3: The D-Day

The third instalment from Hitesh.. read and enjoy!

Almost all of us know the story behind the Festival of Lights. Ramanand Sagar and his tele-serial 'Ramayana' have ensured that our generation is knowledgeable about atleast the basic plot of the legend of Lord Rama (I suspect that the future will hail Ramanand Sagar as an incarnation of Valmiki/Tulsidas). For those who would still like a retelling of the eternal tale, I have something different - a video I found on the net. It uses scenes from the animated movie 'Ramayan - The Legend of Prince Ram'. It can be found at \\loki\public\hitesh10\diwali.avi
For those who like the video better than my drabbles, forget it - there is no escaping me! I will talk about the lesser known trivia about Diwali.

First, have you wondered, if Diwali is about Lord Rama's return, why do we worship Goddess Laxmi instead? Well the answer is simple really. Remember the churning-of-the-sea (Sagar Manthan) the Dhanteras post mentioned? As was mentioned in that post, Goddess Laxmi had appeared from the sea then. She 'later' married Lord Vishnu through a Swayamvara. You guessed right - the 'later' was 2 days after that - the evening of Diwali! This being her marriage anniversary, the Goddess is said to be in her best mood and willing to listen to all her devotees. Strange - in today's age if I were to disturb a kind lady on her marriage anniversary she would ask me to buzz off. Thats what makes them only human I guess.

But I digress. Sikhs also celebrate this day with great fervour. For them this day is 'Bandi Chhorh Diwas' - 'Release from Imprisonment Day'. It was on this day that the sixth Guru Hargobindji was released from prison by Emperor Jahangir. An interesting legend surrounding this is that the guru agreed to be released only if the 52 princes detaineed with him were limited too. Jahangir, to limit the number declared that any number of princes could leave, as long as they were holding the guru's cloak while leaving. The foolish emperor didnt realize that all the Guru had to do was wear a longer cloak. He did and the 52 princes left prison clutching onto one knot each on the guru's cloak. That left the emperor in knots. It is said that a few years later he had turned into a drunkard and invalid. I think he always was - this emperor was once known as Prince Salim (Anarkali's-royal-lover-fame).

I seem to have digressed again (its becoming a habit!). The Jains too have their own reason to celebrate Diwali. The24th (and last) tirthankara, Lord Mahavira attained Nirvana on this day in 527 BCE at Pavapuri. A freedom from the cycle of birth and death, this Nirvana is a reason for celebration. This day also marks the end of the Jain year (Veer Niravana Samvaat). Interestingly, the oldest historical reference of Diwali is in a, not Hindu, but Jain text dating around 700 CE. I do not wish to question the antiquity of the festival, for this would bring into question the historicity of Lord Rama itself - a debate that has bored many of us out of our wits in more ways than one!

Nepal calls the festival 'Tihar' :D (I wonder why India naming its maximum security prison by that name didn't cause a diplomatic standoff). While their celebrations also strech over 5 days, they worship cows on Dhanteras, dogs on Naraka Chaturthi, Goddess Lakshmi on Diwali, oxes on the day after that and on the last day brothers and sisters exchange pleasentaries. Cows, dogs, Lakshmi, oxes - I wonder why this hasn't caused the Goddess to unleash her fury. I have long given up understanding Goddesses!

Rest in the next instalment!

Day 2: Naraka Chaturdashi

Hitesh is back with the next instalment in his Diwali special:

Long long ago, there lived an king called Narakasura. He wasn't always evil, the son of Mother Earth and Lord Vishnu's incarnation Varaha the Boar, he was initially pious. He overthrew the last danava of earth to establish his rule over all of Kamrup (modern day Assam). He also built a new capital, Pragjyotishpur (said to be today's Guwahati). His initial benevelonce saw him getting a boon of a extraordinarily long life. He used this boon to plunder Swarga time and again, making Indra penniless for a zillionth time. While Indra was used to this 'regime change' the present situation was worse than before though. Earlier Indra would run to Lord Vishnu and the Lord would take an avataar and destroy the demon. But the that time avataar of the Lord, Krishna was as anti-Indra as Narakasura. Krishna had stopped the worship of Indra in households (remember the mountain lifting act? that was to protect Gokulwasis from Indra's reaction post this decision). Also Krishna had recently claimed that everything the Samudra Manthana produced (remember the cows, jewels, godesses, etc i mentioned yesterday) belonged to him. Indra was hardly in a position approach Lord Krishna.

But then Narakasura dug his own grave. He started plundering neighbouring kingdoms, not just for their wealth but also for their women. These kings, who had an ex-boy scout like bonhomie, approached the western-most (and thus one of the few as yet unaffected by the onslaughts of the first Assamese terrorist ever) of their club, Vasudeva Krishna. Always ready to uphold righteousness, he agreed. Thus the battle began.

Krishna being God-and-all, the battle was over soon. Krishna was at his impressive best, fully armed what with his weapon Sudarshana and mount Garuda. The Lord's 108 wives too turned up for moral support. After defeating Tamra, Antariksha, Sravana, Vibhavasu, Vasu, Nabhasvan, Aruna, Mura and finally Narakasura, Lord Vishnu proceeded to install Naraka's son as the next king (colonies separated by 100s of km can be very difficult to manage, something our not-so-friendly neighbour realised only in 1971). This event is celebrated every year as Naraka Chaturdashi. Yes thats the festival we have today!

He decided to return all the spoils of war to their rightful owners. These included strange trinkets like Aditi's ear-rings, a garland of vaijayanti, Varuna's umbrella and the rock that was the peak of Mount Mandara (now wasn't Narakasura weird to have collected all these?). But there was one problem when 16000 of the 'returns' were disowned. These were the women Narakasura had abducted; no one save the the 16000 and the Lord himself believed in their chastity. The Lord did the only thing an honourable man would - he married them all.

The Lord, his army and 16108 wives proceeded to hand deliver the stuff that belonged to Indra. Indra and his charming wife Sachi played the perfect hosts. They even showed the guests the grand courthouse Sudharma and the greatest of the Kalpavrikshas (wish-fulfilling trees) - Parijata. The Lord liked the former and his favourite wife (I know that sounds strange in today's monogamous world!) Satyabhama liked the later. They uprooted both and headed home. Indra, the fool that he is, decided to battle the Lord. He was, of course, defeated. He then famously declared that 'He always wanted to lose to Lord Krishna and it was an honour' - the most pathetic oneliner a loser ever gave. The courthouse and tree were then installed in Dwarka, where they remained till Krishna's death, when Dwarka itself got washed away.

More tomorrow!