Last Saturday was the biggest festival day of Diwali, Festival of Lights, the largest Hindu festival of the year. Wikipedia says:
The word दीपावली literally translates as a row of lamps in Sanskrit. It is traditional for adherents of Diwali-celebrating faiths to light small clay lamps filled with oil to signify victory over the the evil within an individual. … While Diwali is popularly known as the “festival of lights”, the
most significant spiritual meaning is “the awareness of the inner
light”.
Central to Hindu philosophy is the assertion that there is something
beyond the physical body and mind which is pure, infinite, and eternal,
called the Atman.
Just as we celebrate the birth of our physical being, Diwali is the
celebration of this inner light, in particular the knowing of which
outshines all darkness (removes all obstacles and dispels all
ignorance), awakening the individual to one’s true nature, not as the
body, but as the unchanging, infinite, imminent and transcendent reality. With the realization of the Atman comes universal compassion,
love, and the awareness of the oneness of all things (higher
knowledge). This brings Ananda (inner joy or peace).
beyond the physical body and mind which is pure, infinite, and eternal,
called the Atman.
Just as we celebrate the birth of our physical being, Diwali is the
celebration of this inner light, in particular the knowing of which
outshines all darkness (removes all obstacles and dispels all
ignorance), awakening the individual to one’s true nature, not as the
body, but as the unchanging, infinite, imminent and transcendent reality. With the realization of the Atman comes universal compassion,
love, and the awareness of the oneness of all things (higher
knowledge). This brings Ananda (inner joy or peace).
As a follower of Christ, the spiritual parallels I can draw from Diwali to my own faith are obvious. Here is just a sampling of what the Word of God says about who I am as a follower of Christ:
The light of the righteous shines brightly, but the lamp of the wicked is snuffed out. (Prov. 13:8)
(about Christ) In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. (John 1:4-6)
(words of Christ himself) See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore,if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be
completely lighted, as when the light of a lamp shines on you. (Luke 11:35-36)
For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (2 Cor. 4:5-6)
(and about when God establishes His Kingdom on earth) I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. (Rev. 21:22-24)
Like Hindus believe in the little piece of “Atman” that dwells inside of them as inner light, I believe in the presence of the Almighty God, through the Holy Spirit, born of my belief in Jesus Christ, that dwells inside of me and shines as light in the darkness.
Like Diwali is a celebration of the inner light and the realization of that eternal presence within oneself and awakening the individual to one’s true nature, I celebrate daily my new life in Christ and how as I offer up my life as a living sacrifice to Him, He is changing me, making me more like Him and more like the daughter of the King that I was created to be.
My heart is sad that there are so many that believe in something so easily paralleled to the truth. In fact, I believe these Hindu beliefs were probably originally borne out of the truths of God, but have been twisted into a new faith altogether in something other than the one true God. If only those easily connectible truths would lead to the One Truth…but as this verse says:
In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not
subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. But we see Jesus, who
was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and
honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might
taste death for everyone. In
bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and
through whom everything exists, should make the author of their
salvation perfect through suffering. (Heb. 2:8-10)
subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. But we see Jesus, who
was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and
honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might
taste death for everyone. In
bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and
through whom everything exists, should make the author of their
salvation perfect through suffering. (Heb. 2:8-10)
I know that the one true God, reaching out to us through sending his son Jesus Christ, and creating relationship with us through his Holy Spirit, will some day establish His Kingdom on earth. It is that day I long for and live for.
