Diwali Special- Everyday is Diwali for the Saints !!

Heartiest Greetings to everyone on the auspicious occasion of Diwali, the Festival Of Lights !!!  

This day marks the triumphant return of the Supreme Lord Shree Ram and the Mother of the Universe Seeta to Ayodhya, amidst celebrations of lighting of lamps by the residents of Ayodhya.  May the festival of Diwali also remind us to illumine our intellects with the light of the knowledge of God, and dispel the darkness of material conditioning.  

Composition and lecture by Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj: 

हरि सूर्य माया तम गोविन्द राधे।
याते संतों की दिवाली नित्य बता दे।।  

Hari surya maya tama Govinda Radhey

Ya tey santon ki Diwali nitya bata dey.

“God is like the Sun, and maya is like darkness.  Hence, every day is Diwali for the Saints.”  

Diwali is the festival of light.  And what is the opposite of light? Darkness! Light is a manifestation of God, and darkness is a manifestation of maya.  These two things have existed since eternity, and they are opposite of each other. Where there is light, darkness cannot remain. 

Krishna surya sama maya hoye andhakar

jahan surya tahan maya nahi adhikar

Darkness in front of light? Impossible. Maya or darkness cannot stand in front of the Form of Effulgence, Shree Krishna. So, these two things are contradictory - God and maya. The biggest contradiction is - God is Supremely Sentient and maya is always totally insentient.

However, both God and maya are alike in one thing.  God is eternal, and maya is also eternal.  God did not create maya, and neither can He destroy it. Don't be surprised by this statement. God cannot destroy the existence of the entity, maya shakti.  All He can do is to remove the maya upon you.  Remove means just as someone was tied up and he is released. The ropes of bondage still exist, but he has got released from them.  His darkness has gone, but darkness still exists, and others are in the grip of it.

Let me tell you a joke. Amongst the followers of Shankaracharya, some say that there is only one entity called Brahm. That Brahm is sitting inside all. What about the soul? They say that there is no soul. The soul and Brahm are one; one is there and only one will remain; the rest is all illusion. Is that right? If this philosophy is correct, then tell me one thing - this is Kripalu's logic - if there is only one Brahm in all and you do not consider the soul, when that one soul's darkness is removed, everybody's ignorance should be removed.  If one soul’s darkness has gone and he becomes a brahmagyani, he may be any of the God-realised personalities, Brahma, Sanakadik, Janakadik, Sukadik, Sankaracharya, then every soul should become God-realized.  When they claim that there is only one Brahm, and ignorance of one Brahm has gone by doing sadhana, then everybody else's ignorance should also go. But this is not the case. One's is gone, and the rest's is still remaining.  All souls need to do their individual sadhana. And you say there is only one Brahm! 

So maya, which is the nature of darkness, exists only in the absence of God, who is the nature of light. Once a soul realizes God, his darkness is dispelled, and he becomes illumined with light. Now God resides in him, which means God manifests His splendour in that soul. From that point onwards, God remains forever with that soul.  Now when God is light and He is there always with the God-realized Saints, such Saints will have Diwali every day. Then the statement, “Tomorrow is Diwali,” becomes redundant. They now experience Diwali for the rest of eternity.  Thank you.