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Home > Full Moon Festivals > Kojagiri Purnima

Kojagiri Purnima

Diwali, the New Moon festival of lights

The twelfth day in the dark half of Ashvin, on the eve of diwali, is Go-Vatsa dwadashi, also known as Vasubaras, reserved for the worship of the cow and calf as a part of a strong agrarian tradition. Diwali comes at the culmination of the harvesting season, of abundance in grain and farm produce in general, along with corresponding wealth.

The cow and calf represent the cattle that make this prosperity possible through their toil on the farm. Besides being a symbol of the earth, a docile and loving creature, the cow produces panchagavya, or five medicinal ingredients in the traditional Indian ayurvedic system of healing, including milk, curds, ghee, urine and cowdung. The cow also has strong sacred association with the legends and iconography of many Hindu Gods, including Krishna and Dattatreya. Women and young girls observe a fast on this day, perform the puja of the cow and her calf, and feed them consecrated food, including sweets.

The five to six day festival follows the long period of monsoon rains over many months, and it marks a sharp seasonal transition that underscores ecological shifts as they influence human enterprise on earth. Diwali is a joyous celebration at the end of the dark and overly wet months, of abundance of wealth, and it calls for fragrant pre-dawn ritual of oil massage and a warm water bath, new clothes, special shared feasts, dwellings decorated with rangolis or colourful floor mandalas, earthen oil lamps, ‘sky lanterns’ hung from the roofs, and fire cracker bursts in the night and early mornings. All this happiness is further augmented by long school holidays!

At the subtle level, water signifies the unconscious; as the water recedes, along with it recede the fears of famine, floods, disease and death. The demons of the netherworld have been met and annihilated by the protective goddess energies of the psyche.The polarities of good-evil, light-dark are integrated in a balanced way, each needing the other for its culmination; for example, the all- powerful demon surrenders in the end and asks the goddess for a boon, who grants him remembrance on an auspicious occasion through sacred ritual.

Diwali is important for the invoking and pacification of Yama, the Lord of Death, to avoid untimely demise in the household, in subliminal acknowledgment of death as an inescapable part of life itself within the divine plan for humanity, through celebration with the lights!

While the Navratris, Dussehara and the year-round nights of the Full Moon are unique celebrations of the Night, Diwali comes into its own as the King of all night festivals in terms of its connotation of material wealth, the sheer variety of rituals and exuberance

that marks its arrival. Rather interesting that all this revelry is organised around the period before and after the night of the New Moon, the only amavasya of the year that is an occasion of Joy. This is perhaps a powerful device for dispelling the fear of darkness, demons, destruction and death, through a powerful upsurge of the spirit energies using multilayered rituals.

Diwali is also an occasion for the commemoration of Lord Ram’s heroic return to his kingdom in Ayodhya, alongwith Sita, Lakshman and Hanuman, after the 12 year period of unjust banishment into the forests, which has ended with victory in the battle against the demon Ravan.

The thirteenth day of the dark fortnight is Dhan Trayodashi, which is the first day of Diwali, and traditional healers worship Dhanvantari, the healer of the Gods who came forth with a pot of medicine and herbs from the churning of the oceans. The pre-dawn bath ritual involving oil massage, application of uttan, a fragrant mixture on the skin before the warm bath, and the eating of a herbal paste of the medicinal neem and sugar, all serve to rid alimentary sluggishness on account of the monsoon fungal growth, as also sluggishness of the etheric nadis. The loud bursts of the fire crackers, along with the sulfurous smell of the gunpowder serve the same purpose, in terms of ‘kick starting’ a seasonally depressed nadi and chakra system! At night, lamps are placed facing the south, the only time that this is done, in honour of Yama, the Lord of Death, who rules over the south direction. The ritual is known as Yamadipadaan.

The fourteenth day is Narak Chaturdashi, celebrating the slaying of the demon Narakasur by Krishna. The demon had abducted and incarcerated 16,000 maidens in his eastern kingdom of Pragjyotishpur (Guwahati in Assam), who were set free by Krishna. Since their victimisation had implied shame and loss of social status, he chose to reinstate their honour by marrying them, so that they would live a life of dignity and protection as his queens. At the archetypal level, the 16,000 maidens represent the nadis or the etheric meridians of the body in bondage to the lower chakras that represent the hell of Narakasur, until they are redeemed through union with the in-dwelling divinity in the awakened heart chakra. The bitter wild cucurbit fruit, symbolic of the demon, is crushed under the toe after the early morning bath, and mothers wave the ritual lamp around their children’s face to celebrate Krishna’s victory. Worship may also be offered to Yama to ward off untimely death, in a ritual known as Yamatarpan.

The Ashvin New Moon is the event for worship of the Goddess Lakshmi, commemorating her appearance in the Kshirasagar or the Ocean of Nectar, at the time of churning the ocean. This is the main day of Diwali; it is also celebrated as Goverdhan pujan or annakut according to the Krishna legend in Brajbhoomi in the north.

Lakshmi pujan is a ritual performed at nightfall with an array of lights to substitute the fear of darkness with the sparkle and exuberance of spirit, ushering in a renewal of faith and optimism. Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth who is fickle and offended by sloth and ignorance. She must be propitiated with great positivity and invited to take up residence with the household. In her train follow the virtues of wealth, happiness, good luck, hope, wisdom, health, harmony and all things auspicious. Kuber, the treasurer of the Gods, is also worshipped on this occasion. Traders perform a symbolic puja of the books of accounts on that day, called chopda puja. The remaining festival of Diwali is celebrated on the first two days of the month of Kartik.

--Sahayog Promdak

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