Many of your know that I am very much longing to go to India, in particular I’d love to go during a festival. In late October/early November Hindus, Sikhs and Jains celebrate Diwali – Festival of lights. It is a beautiful celebration, one of the more significant ones of the year in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Mauritius, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Suriname, Malaysia, Singapore and Fiji. Today The Big Picture released their photos of 2012 Diwali and they sent my spirit soring. Please have a look at them here.

How Diwali is celebrated varies region to region but generally includes beautiful festive fireworks, worship, sharing of lollies and sweet things, and of course lights and candles over the entire month (in stages).

No matter where it is celebrated the central idea of rejoicing our inner light (Atman) and the underlying grounded reality of all living things remains the same (Brahman).

Hindu philosophy shares that all humans have a pure, infinitie inner light which goes beyond our physical form. This light of higher knowledge can be harnessd to dispell dillusion or ignorance to reveal our true nature and grounded reality in a sort of victory of good over evil. Once the cloud have been removed what it left is compassion and awareness of the connection between all things.

I’m no expert on Diwali and I’m sure this just touches the surface of such an significant event, please comment and add your thoughts, experiences and any major elements that I’ve missed!