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Why celebrate Diwali?
The rise of autocracy, political divide, explosive progress in Artificial intelligence, and proliferation of nuclear weapons are all weaponizing evil.
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Pradeep B. Deshpande - Sat, 11, Oct 2025
- 17:26 EDT
- 25
Representative Image / AI generated using Perplexity
This year, Diwali falls on October 20th. The festival celebrates the victory of light over darkness, of knowledge over ignorance, and of good over evil. Lord Rama's triumph over Ravana and Krishna's triumph over Narakasura are also commemorated during the festival.
A billion people in India have been celebrating Diwali for thousands of years.
This year, California has become the first West Coast state in America to adopt Diwali as a recognized holiday, joining Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Texas. The White House has maintained the custom of celebrating Diwali since 2003, when George W. Bush was president; this was carried on by Obama, Biden, and Trump.
What is “good” and what is “evil”?
There are two options for the reader to choose from: (1) Truthfulness, honesty, equanimity, steadfastness, love, kindness, empathy, and compassion, or (2) Anger, hatred, hostility, resentment, frustration, jealousy, fear, guilt, and sorrow.
If I were to ask who is apt to perpetrate violence? A person endowed with the characteristics in (1) or (2)?
I trust your response is an unequivocal (2)?
This is what had happened in the time of Mahabharata.
The evil side had perpetrated violence necessitating the good side to engage in battle and defeat it.
Sri Krishna himself clarifies that the battle of good over evil is not a one-time phenomena limited to the time of Mahabharata.
The present time is no exception. The rise of autocracy, political divide, explosive progress in Artificial intelligence, and proliferation of nuclear weapons are all weaponizing evil.
This begs the question; shouldn’t everyone, Indians included, strive to grasp why violence occurs at the fundamental level, learn how to attenuate it and put the learning in practice.
There is an obstacle to progress, and it is this. There is a widespread belief across the world that reason alone is sufficient to solve all problems. Products of reason include sciences, laws, policies and the like.
This in spite of the fact that numerous examples from India have demonstrated transcending reason can be the pathway to solving problems and to making new discoveries that are not possible with reason alone.
The transformation of evil into good warrants that the required positive changes come from within. Meditation, or more generally yoga, and bhakti are the tools to bring about the necessary changes from within.
In the absence of an understanding of these concepts, the celebration of Diwali will be limited to the lighting lamps, setting off firecrackers, and enjoying sweets, which is of little significance.
Please see the article, 89 Seconds to Midnight for a detailed explanation of why violence occurs and how it can be attenuated.
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