An Epiphany on the Diwali Day........

Diwali, as usual, this year also enlightened every body’s life with love and fun, bliss and peace, better time and prosperity. We all celebrated it with our near and dear ones.
The Diwali day for me, started with early morning special traditional practices. The day on which I myself have to get up early, as mom is always busy in encircling the complete home with red and grey liquid…(sorry I don’t remember its traditional name). I also, as a surprise to myself, supported dad and brother to prepare for the evening puja. From the morning itself, the ambience was of divine nature with aromas of roli, mango leaves, fresh flowers, sweets and what not.
The day before Diwali never seemed so great, but the morning we wake up on Diwali, it always felt like todaaaay is something special.
In the evening, we did puja, and the end of it was the happiest moment of the day when everybody was together, smiling giving blessings to each other, talking and chatting, loving and having fun. We then had a blast, fired some flower pots, fire balls, rockets, sky launch etc. and finally ate yummiest food. I yearn for this time the complete year.
My Diwali has always been like this. Ah..there is one thing that I didn’t share is on each Diwali me and my brothers use to fire crackers till 3 am in the morning, with our group of friends, accompanied with funny pranks and light banter. It had always been fun.
However, this Diwali we didn’t fire so much as the craze is getting down with the time, but I got a realization of the true meaning of Diwali. There is a tradition in my home, that on the night of Diwali before the sun rises, complete home needs to be dusted and the scrap to be burnt. This use to happen every year, but I never gave it a thought or never tried to understand its significance. But, this time when I myself did the dusting work to just let my mother sleep, I saw the chain of thoughts in my mind. I came to the conclusion that Diwali marks the beginning of a new life free of all the bad things, and that is what I did that night. I removed all the old scrap from the house and burnt it to begin a new life free of evils.
I, then the other day asked my grandmother about that grey and red liquid, that why do we encircle or decorate our homes with that; and the reply amazed me, that liquid is actually capable of making land free of all types of insects. In fact this is not all, each and every tradition on this eventful day is related with the cleansing effect of our lives (not homes).
I think that for people like me, who were oblivious to this fact up till now, should understand the significance of old traditions, and follow them. Diwali is there to filter your life from good and evil, and to give you an opportunity to live a better life.
Realize it.
Enjoy it.
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