Diwali – celebrating victory of good over evil |06 November 2015

The literal meaning of 'Diwali' in Sanskrit is 'A Row of Lamps'. The most popular tradition of Diwali is filling little clay lamps with oil and wick and lighting them in rows all over the house. Even today, the tradition projects the rich and glorious past of our country and teaches us to uphold the true values of life.
Diwali has many legends and religious accounts associated with it. Lights and diyas are lit to signify the driving away of darkness and ignorance, as well as the awakening of the light within ourselves. It is the perfect time for family gatherings, food, celebrations and pooja. Goddess Laxmi plays a major role in this festival, as do Ram and Sita.

This autumn festival is a five-day celebration, of which each one has its own significance. People renovate and decorate their houses and business places. Entrances are made colourful with lovely traditional motifs of Rangoli designs to welcome Laxmi, the Goddess of wealth and prosperity. To indicate her long awaited arrival, small footprints are drawn with rice flour and vermilion powder (kumkum) all over the houses. Lamps are kept burning all through the nights.

In order to welcome Goddess Laxmi, the house is kept clean and rangoli is drawn at the doorstep. A pandit is consulted for the best time of puja. The general things needed for a diwali puja are silver and gold coins, suparis, uncooked rice, paan leaves, kumkum for applying tilak, mithaai (Indian sweets), camphor, agarbattis (incense sticks), dry fruit (almonds, cashews), flower petals and Lakshmi - Ganesh icon.

The pooja ritual is performed in the evening when tiny diyas of clay are lit to drive away the shadows of evil spirits. Bhajans are sung in praise of the goddess and sweets are offered to her. Diwali puja consists of a combined pooja of five deities: Ganesha is worshipped at the beginning of every auspicious act as Vighnaharta; Goddess Lakshmi is worshipped in her three forms – Mahalakshmi, the goddess of wealth and money, Mahasaraswati, the goddess of books and learning and Mahakali. People also worship 'Kuber’ – the treasurer of the Gods.

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‘May the beauty of Diwali fill your world and your heart’

On behalf of the Hindu Council of Seychelles, I wish everyone a very happy, blessed and prosperous Diwali. May this festival of lights brings you lots and lots of happiness in life and fulfill all your dreams and illuminate togetherness.

‘The significance of Diwali is the removal of darkness and ignorance from the mind and filling it with goodness, oneness, and respect human values.

May the warmth and splendour, that are a part of this auspicious occasion, fill your life with happiness and bright cheer, and bring to you joy and prosperity, for the whole year. As the blessed occasion of Diwali is here and the atmospheres filled with the spirit of mirth and love, here’s hoping this festival of beauty brings your way, bright sparkles of contentment, that stay with you through the days ahead. As you celebrate this divine occasion, the most loving thoughts and wishes are for you...May the beauty of Diwali fill your world and your heart and may the love that is always yours, bring you endless joy.

As you celebrate this holy occasion, you are wished the brightest moments that Diwali can bring, lots of love and laughter to fill your days with cheer and a New Year that is sure to bring you, the best of everything. There’s always something warm and bright, about this time of the year, when everything has a special glow, and hearts are full of cheer, that's why, this special greeting comes your way, to wish you all life's best, on Diwali and in the coming year, too. May the warmth and splendour, that are a part of this auspicious occasion, fill your life with happiness and bright cheer, and bring to you joy and prosperity,for the whole year.

It's the occasion to celebrate, pray to the Gods and give them offerings, to bless us all and rid us of sufferings .A joyful day for minds and hearts and souls; laughter and smiles for many days; let there be triumph in every way.

Pravin Darad
chairman
Hindu Council of Seychelles

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Diwali – a time of renewal

Diwali is here again, bringing the message of hope, honoring the triumph of light over darkness,

marking the victory of good over evil, appreciating the rich traditions of our cultural diversity and unity.

I send my warmest greetings to friends, families and visitors who have gathered across our islands to celebrate this holy occasion, one of the most important activities on the Hindu calendar.

The annual festival is a universal event. In Seychelles, we proudly share our pluralism. We learn from one another, we understand one another. And Diwali gives us another opportunity to praise and enjoy our togetherness. It is such a wonderful thing to value this culture of friendship and peace within our communities, which makes Seychelles a light to the world.

Diwali is the festival of lights. As we light the Diva lamp, we make another promise to continue on our noble mission to eradicate all forms of darkness. We see darkness in substance abuse. The violation of our women and children is another form of darkness. The causes of poverty in a country that is ever striving for greater prosperity must be eliminated.

Diwali is a time to pray. A time of renewal. A time to rededicate ourselves to helping others who are in need. Together, we derive the strength to act from our national compassion. Our calling is, together, to bring light to the victims of scourges, deliver them from the darkness, enable them to make the right choices in their lives, empower them to achieve their fullest human potential.

On this day we strengthen the traditional, cultural and historical ties between the communities of India and Seychelles. We will continue to nurture the outstanding relationship between our two nations, to take it to a new level, to increase people-to-people contact for our mutual wellbeing.

I wish all devotees, their families, and the entire Seychellois nation, a very happy and prosperous Diwali. May this Diwali bring you all lots of happiness in your lives and fulfill our dreams as one peaceful people.

James Alix Michel
President of Seychelles

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Together to foster a culture of ‘inclusion’

The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue joyfully greets all of you on the festive occasion of Deepavali. May the Transcendent Light illumine your hearts, homes and communities, and may all your celebrations deepen the sense of belonging to one another in your families and neighborhoods, and so further harmony and happiness, peace and prosperity.

As people grounded in our own respective religious traditions and with shared convictions, may we, Hindus and Christians, join together with followers of other religions and with people of goodwill to foster a culture of inclusion for a just and peaceful society.

We wish you all a Happy Deepavali!

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran (President)
Father Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, MCCJ (Secretary)

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Diwali – a period for deep reflection and honest questioning

If my knowledge is correct, Diwali is the largest and brightest festival inIndia with a great spiritual connotation symbolising victory of 'light' over ‘darkness’. One must therefore assume that the Diwali Festival is a period for deep reflection and honest questioning with the ultimate aim of reaching as high a level of spiritual enlightenment and contentment as possible. If this be the case, Diwali certainly resonates very much within the realm of my personal philosophy which is focused on ‘peace of mind’ and which certainly provides vivid evidence that the Hindu faith is a faith of high spiritual quality.

It therefore gives me great pleasure and profound happiness to extend Happy Diwali greetings to all friends in Seychelles and overseas who are living up to the Diwali challenges and who are able to see the ‘growing light‘ on the horizon of tomorrow.

James R. Mancham
Founding President of Seychelles

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‘May the divine light of Diwali shower on you peace, prosperity, health and happiness’

Diwali is back, and as we celebrate the Festival of Lights, it is an occasion to dispel darkness and lighten up our lives. It is the celebration of the triumph of virtue over vice, right over wrong, knowledge over ignorance and truth over falsehood.

The lighting of a series of lamps one after the other illuminates the whole area. Indeed, it is deeply symbolic. It is a collective endeavour to spread happiness and bliss from the solitary individual to the humanity at large.

I congratulate the Hindu Council of Seychelles for putting together a cultural spectacle on the occasion of Diwali. On this joyous festival, all Seychellois, irrespective of their religious following, partake in the celebrations with equal fervour. This truly reflects this unique cultural melting pot – Seychelles.

On this special day, I pray to the almighty “Lead kindly light, amid the encircling gloom, lead thou me on…..” May the divine light of Diwali shower on you peace, prosperity, health and happiness.

Once again, I wish you and your family a very Happy Diwali.

Sanjay Panda
High Commissioner of India

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 ‘Let this Festival of Lights bring you joy and happiness’

The Festival of Lights is today celebrated in Seychelles and is an appreciated event.

Congratulations to the Hindu Council of Seychelles for again showcasing the Diwali celebrations in our multicultural Seychelles.

We continue to pride ourselves to be an example to the world because in Seychelles we respect everyone's religious belief, the colour of one's skin and political affiliation.

This is but one of the reasons why we have earned the tagline of the ‘Melting Pot of Cultures’.

Enjoy Diwali 2015 and let this Festival of Lights bring you joy and happiness.

 Alain St Ange
Minister for Tourism and Culture

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‘Light an expression of God's character’

Diwali, the festival of light, is one with several stories attached to it. The most popular in the Hindu tradition is the story of the return of Rama, the king of Ayodhya, with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana to his capital city after a 14-year exile and a war in which he defeated the demon-king Ravana, a story recorded in the epic poem, the Ramayana. It commemorates the people of Ayodhya, who lit oil lamps along the road to light the returning king's path in the darkness of a new moon night, and welcome them back, finally, to their home.

Given that Rama is very frequently identified with the Hindu god Vishnu, the preserver, and his wife Sita with Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, the holiday is as such devoted primarily to the worship of these deities. Of course, the Bible is unambiguous about the worship of other gods, so as a Christian, there are some parts of this holiday in which I will never be willing to take part. However, there is much in the imagery of Diwali that evokes the Bible's own imagery of light and darkness, and provides a fascinating and distinctly Indian frame for the master narrative of the Bible – the story of God redeeming humanity through the life and work of Jesus.

The Bible, also, is full with metaphors of light and darkness, starting right from the very beginning. The first recorded act of God in the creation of the heavens and earth was to say "Let there be light," and separate the light from the darkness. This is a uniquely appropriate beginning, as God created in order to show forth His own character and attributes (see Romans 1:20). First and foremost, light is a metaphor for God's own character. "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all." He is pure, beautiful, and the source of knowledge and truth. In fact, this aspect of God's character is a source of a radically God-centred epistemology – not "seeing is believing," but "In your light, we see light," in the words of Psalm 36:9.

Not only is light an expression of God's character, it also symbolises the Word of God in its other forms, particularly its written form. The author of the Bible's longest Psalm expresses it this way: "Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light unto my path." It is through the word that we learn to distinguish good and evil, wisdom and folly, reality and illusion, falsehood and truth.

Yet truth is uncomfortable, because it is not selective, and the purity of God and His Word have profound implications for us, who are measured according to that standard. In the words of Jesus, "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil." (John 3:19). Isaiah poignantly lays out the bleak picture of a world without revelation: "To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged, and looking upward, they will curse their king and their God. Then they will see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness." (Isaiah 8:20-22).

But all is not lost. Even as Isaiah looks at this gloom, the following note is one of hope: "Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. ... The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned." He prophesies a time of peace, brought on by a coming king, who "will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom," and bring honour to "Galilee of the Gentiles." And there the story lies dormant, for several hundred years – a ray of hope in the darkness of a world gone awry – "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." (John 1:5)

Bishop James Wong of the Anglican Church