How is Diwali connected to us?

We all celebrate this ‘festival of lights’ with such fervor! But do we truly know the origin of this celebratory day and what it means to us?

Narakasura, a demon, prayed to Lord Brahma faithfully in order to overthrow all the three worlds. He was offered one wish for his penance. Narakasura tried to outsmart Lord Brahma and wished that only his own mother would be able to defeat him.

Narakasura‘s greed made him look at the heavens. He snatched Aditi’s heavenly earings, for which the mother of the devas ran straight to Satyabama and Krishna. Krishna knew that Narakasura had gone too far and when Satyabama want to fight with him, Krishna agreed. During the fight, Krishna fell when one of Narakasura’s weapons hit him. Angered, Satyabama aimed her powerful weapon at Narakasura’s chest and killed him.

Krishna then, unharmed, explained that Satyabama was an incarnation of Bhoomi devi, reborn only to kill Narakasura. At that time, he regretted his wrongs and asked Krishna to celebrate the day of his demise with lights and its inevitable success over darkness.

Even though we know the obvious take-away from this story is ‘the victory of light over darkness and good over evil’, there are a lot of other life lessons we can learn. Some versions of this story speak of an asura, Banasura, who tried to use the power of Narakasura, by telling him to pray to Brahma to ask for more strength. This tells us that other people do not always have our best interests at heart. We are the best judge of our own lives. Listening to the advice of other people sometimes works in our favour but other times; it can be the advice that leads to your demise.

In another account, Narakasura is painted out to be good before he got greedy. His name was originally Naraka and the asura part was added thereafter. If only he had been content with the strength and riches his kingdom had, nothing bad would have happened to him. Greed can be addictive. Once you start wanting more, that want can last for a lifetime. Repeated instances dotted throughout history, across cultures and beliefs, all tell the same tale. Ambition is not the same as greed. When your ambition alone is the intent behind every action that is when the danger begins. You can miss out on so many important things in life if you do not appreciate what you have and want instead. The grass is not always greener on the other side. This is something Narakasura learned as he took his last breath. Let the light burn away the darkness inside us this Diwali.