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| Sunday, 30 October 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Bring out
your lamps, Festival of Lights is here
by Aditha Dissanayake
"Which else shall beautify a home/. But the flame of a lovely lamp/. Which else shall adorn the mind/. But the Light of Wisdom deep". The lines quoted by Sivanandini Duraisawamy in "Remembering Hindu Traditions" come to mind, now that October is over, and in a days time it would be Deepavali. Getting ready Hundred and forty kilometers away from Colombo, in Watagoda, I meet a worker of the tea estate close by, walking along the Pundalu-Oya Road with his wife. His name is Parameswaran. He looks forty?Fifty?Sixty? I give up trying to guess. His wife, Rajeshwary, dressed in a jacket of the brightest pink and a green, gold threaded sari hovers shyly behind him. They are on their way to the Watagoda town to do their Deepavali shopping. "Romba kasu irikku tha? Nallam?" (You have lots of money. Isn't that marvellous?) I ask them hoping I had got the sentence correct. "Ama, ama", says Parameswaran revealing a row of blood red teeth, Dracula would have envied. The look of innocent joy in his eyes is a sight to behold. He begins to speak without pause. I listen as intently as I can and conclude they are on their way to buy green gram, rice and flour and clothes for their daughter, Indira Gandhi, and their son, Podian". I turn to Rajeshwary and ask her what food she will be preparing for Deepavali. Bashful like a school girl, she covers her mouth with her hand and giggles. Parameswaran glares at her and speaks on her behalf. "Wadai, murukku, urundei". Urundei? What is urundei. Rajeshwary begins to explain, but alas, my limited Tamil fails me. I give up trying to understand the recipe for urundei. "They have been paid the festival advances", says the owner of the Grocery nearby who has been listening to our conversation. 'In some families, where several members work as daily paid employees in the tea estates, contributions are made by everybody to form a lump sum, with which they buy a video deck or a TV". Oil, wick ... Looking at the pavements filled with goods in the town of Thalawakelle, resembling a miniature version of Pettah during April, it is obvious that the extra payments have made all the estate workers feel like kings this month. The month of Deepavali. Deepavali - the festival of lights. Or rather, the festival of a row of lighted lamps which denote four legitimate goals of human kind. The lamp itself, the oil, the wick and the flame all put together are said to represent dharma, wealth, love and spiritual liberation. According to Duraiswamy, Saint Appar sings of this in a lovely psalm in which he speaks of the body as the House where Lord Siva resides and due to the darkness of ignorance God is not visible, and adds, that the mind which is the lamp, should be filled with ghee which is the spirit and the wick of life placed in it and lit up by knowledge so that the darkness will be removed and God's Feet will be discerned. It is this Light that is mirrored in the rows of lights of Deepavali. But does Parameswaran know about the deep significance the sages have attributed to Deepavali? Does he know that it was on this day that Lord Vishnu married Lakshmi? And that this was the day Rama returned to Ayodhya after defeating Ravana? He shakes his head in bewilderment. His hand goes to his shirt pocket. Taking out a bundle of notes he licks his finger and begins to count. Not wanting to delay them from their shopping spree I take my leave. Parameswaran and Rajeshwary may not know the deep significance of Deepavali, but they are happy, and surely this is all that counts? For in their own way they have brought out the lamps of goodwill and joy within themselves. As Rabindranath Tagore said "Come Deepa-wali waken hidden flames/. Out of the desolate dark/, and offer a symphony of praise/ to eternal light. The stars are dimmed. The night is desolate/. And the call comes from the deep./ "Man bring out your lamps". |
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