The Guyana Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha says that as the nation celebrates the “most glamorous and important” festival of Deepavali by lighting up their lives with kind words and deeds, it hopes that these actions “rekindle and preserve our rich cultural and spiritual values.”
In a press release the Sabha said Deepavali celebrates the victory of goodness over evil and light over darkness. On this occasion, devotees often clean and decorate their homes with lit diyas and wear new clothes to commemorate Lord Rama’s return to his kingdom Ayodhya after completing his 14-year cycle.
In the evenings Laxhmi puja is performed in order to seek blessings from the goddess of wealth, light, prosperity and wisdom and to Ganesh, the “Remover of Obstacles” or the “Lord of Beginnings.”
The Sabha said while Deepavali is popularly known as the festival of lights its most significant spiritual meaning is the “awareness of the inner light Vital to Hindu philosophy is the assertion that there is something beyond the physical body and mind which is pure, infinite, and eternal.”
Deepavali is the awakening of the individual’s true nature, not as the body but as the unchaining infinite reality, it added.
The Sabha said it was hopeful that as the lit diyas burn brightly; dispelling all gloom, darkness and ignorance, they usher in an atmosphere of enlightenment, peace and material and spiritual prosperity.
