Diwali Festival : Festival Of Five Days celebrated On A Grand Scale In India
Diwali Festival is being celebrated on a grand scale in India. It starts from thirteen days of Krishna Paksha in Ashwin month and ends on the second day of Shukla Paksha of Kartik month. This is a five days festival and specific rituals are being performed on each day of this festival, First day is known as Dhantrayodashi followed by NarakChaturdashi and Lakshmi Pujan. Fourth day is Balipratipada and the fifth day is Yamadvitiya. It will be very difficult to say in which era this festival of lights started. But it is sure that references are being found in the mythic stories. According to Abu Rayhan al-Biruni a Iranian scholar and polymath, came to India in the eleventh century and he has provided detailed information about the social and political life of Hindu people. Based on the references in his writings, one can easily make out that even before the nine hundred years Diwali festival was celebrated in the same way which is exactly being celebrated today. Now, we will see the importance of each day's celebration of this festival.
From Yogesh Gogwekar
Dhantrayodashi: It is also known as Dhanteras. It is the first day of Diwali. It is the thirteenth lunar day of Krishna Paksha of Ashwin Month and it is an auspicious day to buy gold, jewelry, cloths and new utensils. Dhantrayodashi is a Sanskrit word in which Dhan means wealth and Thrayodashi means thirteen. On this day, Hindus worship Lord Kuber and goddess Lakshmi who are God and Goddess of wealth. One of the significance of this day is being told that Goddess Lakshmi emerged from the ocean during the sea churning with a pot of gold and wealth. Before worshipping Goddess Lakshmi along with Lord Kuber, one has to clean the house thoroughly to maintain sanctity of house. For this, a lamp has to lit and sweets and fruits are to be offered to Goddess and God.
There is an interesting story in Indian mythology regarding Dhantrayodashi. There was a King named as Hima whose kingdom was ruled with justice and love. He had one son. One astrologer predicted that his son would die due to a snake bite on his sixteenth birthday. It was a mental pain to the King Hima and started searching for ways to save the life of his son. An astrologer told him that his son should marry such a girl who has a lucky horoscope. As per the advice of a renowned astrologer, he got his son married to a girl who has a lucky horoscope. The couple enjoyed their life for a few days. The son started coming near to sixteenth year and the king started worrying about the same. On the eve of son’s sixteenth, his wife cleverly did the planning to save the life of her husband. She gathered all her jewels and piled in front of the main door and asked her husband not to sleep for the whole night. She also stayed awake throughout the night and started guarding by sitting at the entrance of the home. Lord Yama, the god of death arrived in the form of serpent in the front of house. Snake crawled its way to the main door of the house but a pile of ornament stopped his way. Therefore, he could not see around anything but ornaments. The girl kept on singing for whole night melodious songs and these songs were so alluring that snakes started enjoying and stayed at doorstep. During this time, the life of son has been elapsed and Lord Yama in the form of the snake had to give up his mission. Thus the witty idea of the girl saved the life of her husband. This was done on the thirteenth lunar day of Krishna Paksha of Ashwin Month which gave rise to the event of Dhantrayodashi which is the surest way to invite prosperity into the household and seek the long life of a husband.
NarakChaturdashi: This is the second day of Diwali festival. On this day, an evil Narakasura has been killed by Lord Krishna, thus it is a celebration of victory of the good over evil. There are so many rituals observed during the day but one of the main ones is taking an oil bath before sunrise as Lord Krishna did the same after killing Narakasura which is known as Abhyanga Snan in Maharashtra. In Maharashtra (especially Konkan part) and Goa, devotees make paper effigies of Narakasura which is being filled with grass and firecrackers and these effigies are burnt in morning four o’clock. After this, people return home and take an oil bath and Kareet (a Bitter berry) is crushed under the feet in the token of killing Narakasura. Later on different varieties of Phoha (Semi-cooked rice) and eatable sweet items are made and eaten with family members. In West Bengal, this day is being observed as Bhoot Chaturdashi whereas Hanuman puja is being performed in Gujrat and Rajasthan.
Lakshmi Pujan: This is the third day of Diwali Celebration. It is a religious festival that falls on no moon day (Amavasya). It is believed that Lakshmi, the wife of Lord Vishnu, Goddess of wealth and Prosperity visited the house of devotees for blessing them. Therefore, devotees clean and purify their houses and also decorate with lights and finery. They also prepare the sweets and delicacies dishes to offer to Goddess Lakshmi. There is one story in Vishnu Puran regarding the Lakshmi Pujan. As per Hindu mythology, Demon King Bali became very glorious and ruled the entire universe. With his wealth and power, he imprisoned God and Goddess. Vishnu’s wife Lakshmi is also one of them. Therefore, Vishnu took the appearance of a small person named as Vaman and visited the court of Bali and begged him to provide as much land so that he could step over in three paces. King Bali agreed for the same. Thus, Vaman with the first one step covered the whole earth and with the second step he covered the mid-world between earth and heaven. Since there was no place to go, King lowered his head and asked Vaman to place his foot on it. Vaman saw this opportunity and with the pressure of his foot sent King Bali down below to rule the netherworld (Patalat) and released all God and Goddess. Everyone was happy to know that Goddess Lakshmi was released from the hands of demons and from this day onwards, it has become practice of devotional worship of Goddess Lakshmi. On this particular day, businessmen take out their accounts books and perform puja of Lakshmi and Saraswati.
Balipratipada: It is the fourth day of Diwali festival. As per Hindu Lunar calendar, It falls on the first day of Shukla Paksha in the month of Kartik. It is celebrated for Lord Vishnu’s victory over the demon King Bali. It is being said that negative energies started getting generated under the demon king Bali. Therefore, ritualistic worship of King Bali is being done by offering some sweets to satisfy his thirst and hunger. This keeps King Bali and his negative energies under control and there will be no trouble to any human beings for the whole year. It is a very important festival of Hindus as this helps them to remove negative energies from the universe.
Yamadvitiya or Bhaiduj or Bhaubij: This is the fifth and last day of Diwali. On this day, Yamdev, deity of Death, has been worshiped by expressing the gratitude to remove the negative energies. It is also being celebrated as Bhaiduj or Bhaubij in some parts of India especially Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka. On this day, women pray to God for long and prosperous lives for their brothers and brothers give the gifts to their sisters. It is similar to Rasksha Bandhan. As per the Hindu mythology, Yamdev, deity of Death, visited to his sister Yami who welcomed him with aarati and applied Tilak on his forehead and to express the love and affection , Yamdev presented gift to Yami and said that on this particular day brothers should not worry about the death after receiving aarati and Tilak from their sisters. After the aarati, brothers should present the gifts to their sisters to show love and affection. It is also said that after killing Narakasura, Lord Krishna visited his sister's place where Subhadra welcomed him by applying Tilak on his forehead and also by giving flowers and sweets. Thus, Yamadvitiya is a memorial festival of brotherly love.
After increasing the importance of Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu in the mythical period, many worshippers started associating the festivals with their favorite deities by composing many stories about their deities. Diwali is one of the festivals which is mostly associated with Lord Krishna who was the incarnation of Lord Vishnu. If one looks at the mythological period, one will find that many home rituals prevalent at that time have been converted into many festivals and Diwali is one of them. For this purpose, one can see the information available on social conditions of Vedas and Sutras of the Upanishad.
Friends, I have tried to share the information about Diwali festival based on the information available to me. If you find some different information, then please share with proper references.
Mumbai
12/11/2020
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