By Ramesh Raja

Todays, on 1st November 2024, the festival of Diwali is celebrated all over the world. Diwali, also known as Deepavali, is a vibrant and cherished festival celebrated widely in India and across the globe. Known as the “Festival of Lights,” Diwali symbolizes light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance and good over evil. With its roots in rich cultural traditions, Diwali unites people across various backgrounds.

The word “Diwali” originates from the Sanskrit dipavali, meaning “a row of lights.” Celebrated over five days during the Hindu lunar months of Ashvin and Kartika (October–November), each day holds unique customs, symbolizing prosperity, family bonds, and spiritual renewal:

1. Dhanteras: Dedicated to Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. Families clean and decorate their homes, believing it attracts prosperity.
2. Naraka Chaturdashi (Choti Diwali): Celebrates Lord Krishna’s victory over Narakasura, symbolizing the defeat of darkness. Homes are decorated, and sweets are shared.
3. Lakshmi Puja (Main Diwali Day): Families perform prayers seeking Lakshmi’s blessings for prosperity, celebrating with lamps, fireworks, and festive meals.
4. Govardhan Puja (Padwa): Honoring the bond between husband and wife and symbolizing protection, commemorating Krishna lifting the Govardhan Hill.
5. Bhai Dooj: Celebrates the bond between brothers and sisters, who exchange blessings and gifts.

Diwali’s Origins: Cultural and Seasonal Roots

Tracing back to the Indus Valley Civilization, Diwali was initially a harvest festival of Cotton and Rice crops. Ancient societies celebrated the season’s bounty, marking the shift from summer to autumn and the start of a new financial year for many business communities.

Now a days, the festival includes diverse cultural elements:

• Illumination: Homes and streets are decorated with lamps (diyas), representing light’s victory over darkness.
• Fireworks: Fireworks light up the sky, adding joy to the celebration.
• Feasts and Sweets: Traditional sweets like ladoos and barfis are shared, fostering community bonds.
• Rangoli: Colorful patterns adorn entrances, welcoming guests and prosperity.

Diwali’s Spiritual Significance Across Religions

For Hindus, Diwali honors key legends, such as Lord Rama’s return to Ayodhya and Lakshmi’s blessings. In Sikhism, it coincides with Bandi Chhor Divas, marking Guru Hargobind’s release, symbolizing liberation. In Jainism, it commemorates Lord Mahavira’s enlightenment, reflecting inner light. Some Buddhists, especially in Nepal, celebrate it as Emperor Ashoka’s conversion to Buddhism, symbolizing peace and compassion.

Diwali in Sindh, Pakistan

In Sindh, Diwali, the Festival of Lights, traces back to the ancient Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro civilizations, where themes of light, renewal, and community were celebrated. Today, this heritage endures in Sindh’s inclusive society, uniting people of all faiths—Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, and Hindus. Sites from the Indus Valley civilization, dating to around 2500 BCE, reflect a culture that shaped festivals like Diwali.

In cities like Karachi and Hyderabad, Diwali fosters interfaith dialogue and community events, with diyas, sweets, and rangoli celebrating Sindh’s legacy of unity. Local poets enrich the celebration by capturing its essence, making Diwali a time for creativity and reflection.

ڏِٺي ڏِياري، سامونڊين سڙھ سنباهيا،

وجهيو ور ونجهه کي، روئي وڻجاري،

ماريندئي مارِي، پرھ سور پرينءَ جو.

(شاه لطيف)

‏Look at the festival lamps, the sea is aflame,

Let us weep for the pain of separation,

We will strike and still bring forth the sun’s light.

ڪالھ توکي ڏٺو مون ڏياري جيان،

شهر ڏيئا ھيو ، روشني ھر دري

(شیخ ایاز)

Yesterday, I looked you like Diwali,

The city was full of lights, illumination at every door.

خیر ہو تیری لیلاؤں کی، ان سب سے کہہ دو

آج کی شب جب دیئے جلائیں، اونچی رکھیں لو

(فیض احمد فیض)

May good fortune come to your nights; tell all of them

Tonight, when we light the lamps, keep them high.

‏سنڌڙيءَ جي سينڌ ۾ رنگن ڀري رات،

ھولي ۽ بارات، ٻئي سھيليون سونھن جون

(شيخ اياز)

In the fragrance of Sindh, the night is filled with colors,

Holi and wedding celebrations, both are beautiful.

عيد به ساڳي، ھولي به ساڳي،

پاڻ ٻنھي جي ٻولي به  ساڳي

مون وٽ تو لاءِ مان وڏو آ،

مذھب  کان انسان  وڏو آ

(بينا ابڙو)

The Eid is the same, the Holi is the same,

The language of all of us is the same.

I have something significant for you,

Humanity is greater than religion.

مايوسين جي اونداھيءَ ۾،

تنھنجي مُرڪ  ڏياري وانگي

In the darkness of despair,

Your smile is like the Diwali.

نيڻ عيدون ھجن، دل ڏياري ھجي

‏روشني روشني سنڌ سـاري ھجـي

Let the eyes be Eid and the heart a Diwali.

Let there be light throughout the land of Sindh.

ڪڏھن عيد اڱڻ تي، ڪڏھن ڏياري،

جرڪي سنڌ ساري، سدا هجي سوجھرو

Sometimes Eid in the courtyard, sometimes Diwali

Shimmering Sindh forever remains bright.

Actually, Diwali’s origins predate the Ramayana, symbolizing ancient societal conflicts of Aryans and Dravidians; which still exists in Scheduled Castes, Harijans, Dalits, and Adivasis. Diwali highlights different challenges, as laborers face economic hardships that limit their participation. Commodification contrasts with these struggles, emphasizing class divides.

True celebration calls for collective well-being and reflection on inequality. Media often focuses on affluent celebrations based on religious worships, overlooking 80% of the population, including Scheduled Castes, Harijans, Dalits, and Adivasis, whose rich traditions based on culture are rarely shown. This highlights economic inequality and limited recognition for Pakistan’s Hindu community. Political priorities often favor affluent Hindus, limiting broader representation. However, acknowledging these diverse celebrations is essential for a society that honors and respects the contributions of its Hindu minority.

Diwali is a celebration of unity, hope, and renewal. It transcends cultural and religious boundaries, encouraging all to embrace joy, reflect on virtues, and share in the universal triumph of light over darkness. Diwali invites us to appreciate our shared humanity, fostering a brighter, more harmonious world.

Read: Sindhi Mandir London to organize Children’s Diwali Party

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The author of this article, Engr. Ramesh Raja, is a Civil Engineer, visionary planner, PMP certified and literary enthusiast with a passion for art and recreation. He can be reached at engineer.raja@gmail.com  

Read: From Sindh to Syria: Saher Shah Rizvi’s Tribute to the Women of Karbala Honored in Syria

The post Happy Diwali: A Radiant Celebration of Culture, Spirituality, and Victory over Darkness first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Dr. Jernail S Anand

If material obsession has twisted the balance of human society, the tilt towards spirituality should have restored the balance. But, the way things are happening in the world, spirituality is being branded like a material art, it tends to lose its essence. Moreover, those who confused spirituality with abandonment of human desires, forcing the body on the bare minimum, have also not done any good to society. If the material man suffered the pangs of misery, the spiritual world of the earth has not given any respite from physical and mental suffering. Rather, when I look at hordes of young and old men, moving in queues from door to door, begging alms, I start feeling, which God would have desired His men to turn beggars?

Human life is a onetime affair. It is not certain you will get this boon again. After how many years, you have got this body, no one knows. And, some people tell you this world is an illusion, its desires are fake. It is short lived. Leave it before it leaves you. Become a renunciate, and live in meditation of the divine. Such romantic things appeal to two types of people. One, those who are at the beginning of their life career. It can be a wonderful idea to shun everything, and go to some sect, become a ‘bhikshu’ and enjoy being alone, without any encumbrances. The other type of people who are happy at such prospects are those who are fed up with family life. They take a turn out to the woods, in search of peace.

An Irresponsible Life

I have no patience with the philosophy of the renunciates, who think, they are in non-stop prayers to gods, while living away from life. The big question is: Why live away from life. If God had wanted us to turn renunciates, why would He grant us life and send us here? Moreover, it should not be forgotten that He has given us a beautiful body, a heart that loves, and a mind that thinks. If you put all these faculties in limbo, and without weighing the suggestions to renounce everything, decide to quit, you are violating the commands of the Almighty. How can He be happy with you if you have thrown your duties to the winds, and are now trying to lead an irresponsible life?

Human life is a onetime affair. It is not certain you will get this boon again.

I think it needs to be understood that once on this earth, we must treat ourselves as responsible citizens of this world. We must live in human society, and have a family, and rear the kids to the best of our ability. A duty well discharged will give us a feeling of dignity and importance in the divine scheme. If we turn our face away from our responsibilities, how can Gods entertain us when we go back?

When I see young men in long queues moving in holy places in search of peace, my head starts reeling. This country has a long tradition of people relinquishing the joys of the world and going to mountains, to lead a life of solitude. I do not agree with this suggestion. If body is such a bad thing, and its normal passions so obnoxious, then, instead of giving yourself pain of abstention all your life, it is better to jump into a canal, and try to reach the other end of life.

The Abnormal Tribe

I am sure, these people are abnormal people. A man who cannot eat what he wants to eat, cannot go to a place he wants to go, cannot meet a woman when he needs her, cannot have children and craves for it, – the life that he has imposed on himself, the discipline which forces him away from life – all these things actually distance him from his duty. And its results are not good for human society. Men who lose physical contact with society, remain mentally attached, and their spiritual attainment too is zero. Anybody, who denies his body its essential needs, soon finds itself languishing for the joys of the body. But, the acquired discipline forces him away from carnality. Such men cannot make any spiritual progression. Rather they keep suspended between the two worlds.

The Two Worlds

We can see huge numbers of people running to the mountains and the riversides, to life in huts, and contemplate God. They run away from active living, in search of peace. But no peace comes to a person who has fled from his duties. You are needed in the world, to help it grow better, and you are spending your time in the mountains? Gods do not relish such nonchalance from you, what your godly fathers on earth uphold.

Discordance and Crime

If we look around, we shall find a lot of discordance in society, lots of crime, and people too are not at peace. Even those living in society, and who are discharging their duties as human beings are not happy at all. We tell them, they can be saved from suffering if they leave this world, and go to shrines or holy places. Actually, as expected, this act of abandonment should have restored the balance or the human society, which has not taken place. Rather, there is so much worldliness and crime in the spiritual order as well.

It is all goof up. Religion and spirituality do come to our rescue, but only if we return to the world charged with a new vision of reality.  Holy teachings do not go far, if you have nowhere to apply them. In fact, human beings with their knowledge and wisdom, must have by now, learnt the art of living this life in the best way, which should be a mix up of the two domains: the material and the spiritual. Only material or only spiritual -both these options make things hopeless.

Take Away

If men are still suffering in this life, or if they have gone to the mountains to suffer alone, I think it is better to suffer in the family and live together, at least man will have the joy and satisfaction of having performed his duty towards his family and the human society. If too much of human attachments disturb man’s balance, and turn them into semi-monsters, too much detachment bordering on renunciation also, does not help mankind. Their suffering is different. More than the divine, they are found craving for their bodies, their thirst and their lusts, which have been willfully subdued.

Read: OF INDIFFERENT GODS & HUMAN PAIN & MISERY

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Dr. Jernail Singh Anand, President of the International Academy of Ethics, is author of 167 books in English poetry, fiction, non-fiction, philosophy and spirituality. He was awarded Charter of Morava, the great Award by Serbian Writers Association, Belgrade and his name was engraved on the Poets’ Rock in Serbia. The Academy of Arts and philosophical Sciences of Bari [Italy] honored him with the award of an Honorable Academic. Recently, he was awarded Doctor of Philosophy [Honoris Causa] by the University of Engineering and Management, Jaipur. Recently, he organized an International Conference on Contemporary Ethics at Chandigarh. His most phenomenal book is Lustus: The Prince of Darkness [first epic of the Mahkaal Trilogy]. Email: anandjs55@yahoo.com

Link Bibliography:

https://atunispoetry.com/2023/12/08/indian-author-dr-jernail-s-anand-honoured-at-the-60th-belgrade-international-meeting-of-writers/

https://sites.google.com/view/bibliography-dr-jernal-singh/home

The post RESTORING THE DISTURBED BALANCE OF SOCIETY first appeared on Sindh Courier.

By Rajesh C. Oza

A post-covid trip to Rajasthan

Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd inspired my wife (Mangla) and my first trip back to India since Covid shut down the world.  We wanted to be in quieter parts of India rather than in the middle of the Information Technology crowd that celebrates even minor software releases with a tamasha that rivals wedding bands and Diwali fireworks.

We have been returning to India for decades to visit family and colleagues who live and work in cities; time in our familial Rajasthani villages has been less frequent. But regardless of whether we visited urban or rural spaces, we stayed primarily at the apex of India’s twin hierarchies: the caste system (Brahmins) and the knowledge worker system (IT professionals).

On this trip, we landed in Hyderabad, or rather Cyberabad as some have tagged it. After a quick day trip to Kolkata to honor a lost uncle, we flew into Udaipur’s quietly efficient airport on November 22, the same day that Prime Minister Modi was visiting in advance of upcoming elections that his BJP party won handily.

Udaipur

The airport was secure, but it didn’t feel like a fortress. The trees were green, in this city of many lakes.  The palace hotels were full, but not because of the PM’s visit; this is the time of year to visit Rajasthan: the monsoon is over, and the temperature hovers between 60 degrees Fahrenheit at night when a fan and a blanket make for good company and 80 degrees Fahrenheit during warm days when you can lower a car window and breathe air that is much cleaner than most of India’s cities.

Also read: Dead Leopard Produced in the Court

We visited with an aunty who had tragically lost her son last year, leaving behind his bereaved mother, brother, wife, and two teenage children (a daughter, Kanishka, who goes by Kenny, and a son, Daksh, who goes by Roger). Yes, their nicknames are derived from the country-western legend Kenny Rogers, who famously sang “The Gambler.”

Life is a gamble everywhere, but it can feel particularly precarious in India where sometimes I feel that I’m rolling the dice when I cross a car-filled street.  The odds are that one will make it to the other side, but still, I rely on a pedestrian’s jitterbug dance to avoid cars that believe the road is their privilege.

The Bishnoi Tribe

Fortunately for us, Nitin Trivedi gently drove us around this modestly busy city. Besides being one of Udaipur’s most trusted Hindi-, Marwari-, English-, and French-speaking tour guides, Nitin is family. His wife’s father and my wife’s father were brothers. When I asked Nitin about his more prominent clients, he mentioned that he had partnered as a translator with Paris-based Irene Frain on La Forêt des 29, an ethnography of Rajasthan’s Bishnoi tribe.

The Bishnoi identify themselves as caste-neutral, thus in some ways outside Hindu hierarchy; but they are very much inside Rajasthan’s tourism ecosystem. Nitin suggested that on our travel north to visit family in our villages and then in Jodhpur, we see a Bishnoi village near Jodhpur. This village functions in a tripartite manner reminiscent of the Indian tricolor: (1) at the green base is agriculture that provides daily sustenance for most of the villagers; (2) in the white middle with its blue charka is tourism which brings a cyclical influx of cash that was halted during the pandemic; and (3) at the saffron top is the Bishnoi ethos that informs a spiritual tree-hugging that long pre-dates the modern climate change movement.

God lives in the trees

The Bishnoi believe God lives in the trees. In 1730, the Maharaja of Jodhpur, Abhay Singh, needed wood to build his new palace, so his soldiers began cutting down trees in Khejarli village. One brave Bishnoi villager, Amrita Devi, hugged a tree to protect it from the soldiers’ axes. Hundreds of other villagers adopted this pre-Gandhian form of nonviolent civil disobedience. Along with Amrita Devi, some 361 Bishnoi died protecting the trees and staying true to one of their 29 Principles. Abhay Singh was so moved by the Bishnoi’s love of the trees that he immediately ended the massacre, and a legend was born.

Also read: Have the Lions and Leopards become extinct in Sindh?

Before driving onward to Jodhpur, Mangla and I visited my father’s ancestral village, some three hours north of Udaipur. Bisalpur is home to an eye hospital that restores sight to thousands; it is also adjacent to the Jawai Bandh dam that brings water to millions. Minutes away from Bisalpur are a host of leopard camps. People from across India and the world come for either a day-long safari or stay overnight in palatial lodges or “glamping” tents near my little village to see untamed leopards in their natural habitat; these Aravalli hills are part of what is arguably the world’s oldest mountain range, home to countless generations of mother leopards and their cubs.

Spot a Leopard

Seeing a mother leopard and her three cubs was an experience that breached the boundary between tradition and modernity, village and city, past and present. After a seamless online interaction, Mangla spoke with Bhanu Pratap Singh, a Thakur of royal lineage, a former IT professional, and the founder of Jawai Safari. An impeccable gentleman, he helped Mangla book our safari tickets. Meeting Bhanu Pratap Singh in person was like what I imagine people who meet Prince William experience: while not the same as meeting the Queen or King, it is a brush with the aristocracy. After a brief interview with this “Prince of Leopards,” my family and I were on our way in a Gypsy jeep that bounced over hilly slabs of granite.

First, we went to the top of the Jawai Bandh dam and spotted two crocodiles sunning by the sweet water’s edge. Then the Gypsy raced through brush where we were a stone’s throw away from a dignified Little Egret. I asked our driver and guide, Mukesh, about the difference between egrets, herons, and cranes (egrets are a type of heron, and cranes are an altogether different kind of bird); he shrugged his shoulders and then reliably spotted a bounding nilgai, Asia’s largest antelope. Mukesh also encouraged hours-long patience as we scanned through his binoculars for a glimpse of the famed leopards.

Just as the sun was setting, and some in our Gypsy were giving up hope of spotting the feline aristocrats, we saw the mother and her cubs slipping in and out of hillside caves. Like royalty the world over, they seemed unaware of ordinary creatures desiring an audience with them.

A Rajasthani village morning

My father, who is 96 years old and lives atop a hill with my mother in Northern California, has long regaled his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren with stories about his childhood in Bisalpur. He grew up there when these spotted cats’ ancestors would stroll down from the hills and coexist with villagers. Perhaps the Rabari goatherds would sadly hang their heads or angrily pound their dust-covered red turbans when a bleating kid was carried away. But legend has it that the leopards have never harmed a single human in Bisalpur. My village forebears have long reciprocated with a live-and-let-live philosophy.

The leopard’s spots, which are actually rosettes, are a lovely metaphor for this mutualism. These rosettes, like the villages clustered around the leopard safaris, are irregularly shaped and grouped like petals of a rose. For leopards, this pattern serves as camouflage, simulating whispers of shadowy grass as the sun settles over hills of granite and highways of concrete. I pray that the traditions of Rajasthan survive. May the villagers­—thriving on the benefits of modernizing tourism—forever whisper secrets to each other in Marwari and hug the ancient ways.

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Dr. Oza is a management consultant and facilitates the interpersonal dynamics of MBAs at Stanford University. His novel, Double Play, will be published in 2024 by Chicago’s Third World Press.

Courtesy: India Currents (Published on January 25, 2024)

The post Hug a Tree, Spot a Leopard in Rajasthan first appeared on Sindh Courier.

By Nazarul Islam

Lost in the ‘alleys of faith’, man could never find the spirit of spirituality.

So true! Here, the ‘alleys of faith’ are the rituals that are so integral to all faiths and that have impeded our spiritual growth. There’s a famous English adage missing the wood for the trees.

The same has happened to humankind in terms of spiritual upliftment. We’ve lost ourselves in the welter of mindless rituals and mistaken them for self-realization.

We must weed out the rituals to pare our faith down to the simplest form. If at all god exists, they are not concerned whether you fasted or offered your prayers five times a day, or whether you ate non-veg on Tuesdays or had something sour on Fridays!

That is insignificant for someone you believe to be the regulator of the universe. What matters is the purity of your intent and the purpose of your essentially spiritual existence on earth.

There’s a beautiful parable in Islamic mysticism. The great Sufi, Bayazid Bastami, never fasted even during the month of Ramzan. Neither did he urge any of his disciples to observe the ritualistic strictness in the holy month of the Islamic calendar. Someone asked him whether he was not blasphemous by behaving in such an ‘unholy’ manner during Ramzan?

Bayazid told him, ‘for a poor person, who can’t even make both the ends meet, the whole year is Ramzan because he has to fast perforce all the time. I’m like him, a mendicant who subsists on food and alms given by others.

So, why should I make it all the more difficult for myself by further torturing and tormenting my body during the month of fasts?’ The point is, rituals serve no purpose. They make you a slave to religion and a fictional god. Rituals are the debris of a crashed aircraft. Remove them to get to the black box of self-realization.

Let us not neglect rituals. They can be the watchdogs for the survival of our mental health, warning us when a well-oiled functioning of our life story is about to disrupt. Rituals can be safeguards hindering us from stumbling into the abyss of nothingness. Rituals can be anchor points providing guidance on our potholed path for the future.

Don’t let rituals get the upper hand and dictate terms to you. Only when you feel spiritually emancipated from within can you evolve further and reach the state of blissful enlightenment. A pure heart needs no trappings or manacles of strict religiosity or ritualistic autocracy. It’s beyond all scriptural hegemony and ritualistic dictatorship.

If you have strength of character, you can use that as fuel to not only be a survivor but to transcend simply being a survivor, use an internal alchemy to turn something rotten and horrible into gold.

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About the Author

The Bengal-born writer Nazarul Islam is a senior educationist based in USA. He writes for Sindh Courier and the newspapers of Bangladesh, India and America. He is author of a recently published book ‘Chasing Hope’ – a compilation of his 119 articles.

The post Eat, pray and love…. first appeared on Sindh Courier.