Sadhguru
In the Indian culture, there was a time when there used to be a festival every day of the year – 365 festivals in a year. The idea behind this was to make our whole life into a celebration. Today, maybe only thirty or forty festivals remain. We are not able to celebrate even those now because we have to go to office or do something else daily. So, people usually celebrate only around eight or ten festivals annually. If we leave it like this, the next generation will not have any festival. They will not know what a festival is. They will just earn and eat, earn and eat – they will go on and on with just this. It has already become like this for many people. A festival means they give you a holiday, and you wake up only at noon. Then you just eat more, go for a movie or watch television at home. And only if they take some external stimulants, will these people dance a little. Otherwise they will not sing or dance. It was not like that before. A festival meant that the whole town would gather in a place, and there would be a big celebration. A festival meant we got up at four in the morning, and very actively, lots of things happened all over the house. To bring back this culture in people, Isha celebrates four important festivals: Pongal or Makar Sankranti, Mahashivratri, Dussehra and Diwali.
OSHO
Thoughts are like dirt, clinging to the mirror of the mind. Thoughts, desires, imaginations, memories — all are forms of dirt. Because of them, the purity of the mind is lost. Because of them, the capacity to reflect, the mirror-like quality of the mind is lost. A continuous cleaning is needed. So, meditation is not something that you do once and forget about, because each moment of life you go on gathering dust. It is just like a traveler who is travelling. Each day he goes on gathering dust on his clothes, on his body. Every day he has to take a bath to cleanse his body. Again the next day he will be gathering.
If your meditation is going right, your dreams will by and by disappear. Your night will become a peaceful sleep with no dreams. And if the night is without dreams, in the morning you will be able to come up very fresh, very young, virgin. Then meditate again, because even if there have been no dreams, with the very passage of time, dust collects. Even if you have not been travelling on dusty roads, just sitting in your house, dust collects. Even if your windows are closed, and doors are closed, in the morning you will find your room has gathered a little dust. Dust collects. The very passage of time is dust-collecting. In the morning, again meditate.
And if you meditate rightly and you become a silent pool of energy, you will move in the world in a totally different way — non-conflicting, non-aggressive, in harmony. Even if somebody hates you, you will transform that energy into love. Then you will move in the world deeply skillfully… with the attitude of aikido. Whatsoever is happening, you will take it, receive it, in a deep love and gratitude. Even if somebody insults you, you will accept it in deep love. And then the insult will be no more an insult. And then you will be nourished by it. By the insult he has thrown a certain amount of energy. He is losing it, you can gain it. You can simply receive it, welcome it. And if this becomes your natural way of life — the way of the Sannyasin, not the way of the soldier — every moment you will feel things are growing into a new light and your mind is becoming more and more illuminating.
When your mind is pure, uncontaminated, unpolluted, when not even a thought flickers in your mind, and there is no smoke around your mind — your mind is like a clear sky without clouds — Buddha says you will be able to see everything that is. You will be able to know everything that is. Your sensitivity will be infinite. And whatsoever has existed from the very beginning of time will become available to you. Your knowing will become perfect.
And this illumination, this luminosity, does not come from anything outside you. It explodes from your innermost core. You are like a lamp which is covered by many curtains, dark curtains, and no light comes out of it. Then by and by you remove one curtain, then another curtain, then another curtain. And slowly rays start coming — not clear, but a glow. More curtains are removed — the glow becomes more penetrating, more clear. More curtains are removed… one day when all curtains are dropped, you suddenly see that you are a lamp unto yourself.
That source of luminosity is within you. It is not outside you. If you seek it outside, you seek in vain. Close your eyes and go within yourself. It is there… waiting since eternity. It is your innermost nature. You are luminosity, your being is luminous. This luminosity is not borrowed, it is your innermost core. It is you. You are light — a light unto yourself.
Meekness is power and meditation is illumination. Both are two aspects of the same coin. On one side it is meekness, egolessness; on another side it is purity of mind, illumination. They both go together. You will have to work on both these things simultaneously, together. Become more and more egoless, and become more and more meditative. And the greatest power will be yours, and the greatest knowing will be yours, and the greatest light will be yours.
Ravi Shanker
Time and space are infinite. Grains of sand are countless. Atoms in the universe are innumerable. So also the stars and the galaxies. The same is with life on this planet, neither is there a beginning nor is there an end because life is all spherical. A sphere has neither a beginning nor an end, nor a goal nor a direction. Truth has no direction and no goal. Truth itself is the goal and truth is infinite.
Feeling or experiencing the infinity within this finite body, living the timelessness within the time span of life, uncovering the bliss within the misery, this is what we are here for.
Today is Diwali, the festival of lights. The streets and buildings are lit up with colorful lights.
There are four aspects of Diwali:
- Lighting of lamps. The lights on Diwali are symbolic of spreading knowledge
- Fire crackers. When an explosion happens on the outside the explosion inside is diffused. This is the significance of fire crackers
- Gift exchange and distribution of sweets. Sweets dispel any bitterness and is symbolic of a renewed friendship
- Feeling the abundance. It is a day to feel grateful for all that we have
When true wisdom dawns it gives rise to celebration, and in celebration we may lose focus or awareness. The ancient rishis knew this, so to maintain awareness in the midst of gaiety of celebration they brought sacredness and puja to every celebration. So let us celebrate this Diwali with knowledge and feel the abundance, for those who have will be given more!