Audit your life on Diwaali
Well Deepawali, the festival dedicated to Goddess of wealth and prosperity, Maha Lakshmi is back again to capture our social mood at the happiest. It is time for everyone-the young, the old, rich and poor, men and women-for the entire Indian community. It is the season to be jolly and gay. Deepawali means ‘Array of lamps’. Even the humblest of hut of a poor man will be lighted by earthen lamps on this auspicious day. The light symbolizes victory of righteousness and lifting of spiritual darkness. The festival commemorates Lord Rama’s return to his kingdom Ayodhya after his 14 year exile having vanquished the demon king Ravana. Another view is that this festival is celebrated as victory of Lord Krishna over the demon king Narakasur. Overall this is a festival where people from all age groups participate in the festivities to give expressions to their happiness.
This festival of lights while worshipping goddess of wealth Lakshmi reminds us that money is important in satisfying much of our daily needs but one also needs to remember that beyond certain point money ceases to give desired results. In fact excess of money can bring grave disharmony in life. On such festive occasions one should also take stock of what one has achieved out of money and analyze whether in the rat race of chasing wealth, one is not getting blindfolded and losing on other equally important fronts like health, mental peace, family life, love and friendship. Money is limited in its capacity to provide every thing in life and it is a fact that beyond certain limit money brings more of evils attached to it like arrogance, fear, greed and disharmony in life affecting the mental balance and one’s health. No wonder Goddess Lakshmi is shown beside her blessed bird owl which symbolizes that one blessed with excess of money can make him loose one’s wisdom and make him behave stupid like owl, the bird of darkness. To judge a man’s success in real term one has to take into consideration other things in life like health, social recognition, mental satisfaction and spiritual achievements apart from material wealth. Basically man’s achievements at fag end of life are judged as sum total of all these attributes.
Ghanshyam Das Birla, legendary Patriarch of Birla family when asked during one of his interview to comment on his success of building country’s one of the largest business empire said philosophically that what you call success could be judged sometimes as failure. It is no secret that many business family in blind pursuit of money get caught in quagmire of family disputes, business rivalry, disharmony in life and many other evils and find no solace overall.
Further choice of means to realize one’s aspirations play a very key role in deriving fulfillment of happiness and satisfaction. Means adopted with a right conduct coupled with goodness, truthfulness and a fearless mind have been praised in most of the religious scriptures. Mighty and wicked demon king Ravana adopted wrong means to achieve his objective of universal supremacy and had to suffer as Bhagwaan Rama had to vanquish him as his means and methods were evil in nature .Till today Diwaali is celebrated in this country to establish victory of goodness over wickedness manifested by Lord Rama’s banishing Ravana. According to Maharshi Vyaas, it is through right conduct that wealth and fulfillment of desires also accrue.
In life, opportunities keep coming to satisfy your various needs and aspirations but onus is on you to make the best of it while fulfilling your goals and needs through rightful means. Ideally every thing material in life can be achieved but with limited time and energy it is best to draw your balanced objectives and create a policy of your life, which is acceptable to you. As a feedback mechanism, one can constantly look back at every stage of life and analyze whether your achievements are balanced in fulfilling your needs in all walks of your life. One should keep sort of auditing one’s policy about life updating the objectives of satisfying your various needs through rightful means and with a right conduct of life. This is the essence of achieving fulfillment at the end.
While lighting ‘Deepawali Diyaas’ symbolizing removal of darkness of poverty, ignorance and evil, let us worship Goddess Laksmi with following words.
‘O Mother Goddess Lakshmi!, lead us from path of untruth to right conduct and truth, from death to eternity and from darkness to path of glory and enlightenment!’
Written by
Professor Akhil Chandra
