Diwali. It's a festival that illuminates the Earth and the skies with lights and brightness. It brings joy and happiness to swarm in this world. Diwali is a celebration when the whole of India transforms into a land of myriad lamps. Deepavali, the Festival of the Lights has all the grace, grandeur, and luster that can even irradiate our minds and hearts while encouraging much-needed peace, harmony, and brotherhood in society. It is a Festival that unites every religion, every home, and every heart.
The festival of Diwali has a deep spiritual meaning; it has its inner significance than merely lighting diyas, wearing new clothes, exchanging sweets, and bursting crackers. Imperatively it means the Recognition of the Inner Light. In a means, it is the celebration of the arousal and appreciation of the Inner Light that has the endowment to outshine dark and clear all hindrances in life.
Diwali is the festival of lights that brings good luck, happiness, and prosperity to all. The bright diyas not only illuminate the environment but also shake the gloom of poverty and ignorance. But the crucial question is, how far have we managed to understand and acknowledge the actual fact that we are moving away from the real spirit of the fiesta of light? The celebration is steadily but definitely, becoming one of the primary problems for the environment. And this is due to the carelessness of the people.
Fireworks and crackers have also become an addition to the festival. During the celebration, people avail numerous varieties of crackers. Nowadays, Deepavali has become the main festival of fireworks and burning firecrackers. A vast amount of people spend hundreds of thousand rupees on fireworks. Many do not apprehend the negative influence of fireworks on the environment.
Crackers contain toxic compounds like Copper and Cadmium; when they are busted, these compounds get released into the air. All this added to the change in the weather causes the particles/pollution to mix with fog and becomes smog, causing asthma attacks, bronchitis, and symptoms of allergic rhinitis: including runny nose and headaches. Smog worsens the situation by suspending the toxic particles in the air for a more extended period.
Diwali has gotten some extra sweet with the landmark ruling by the Supreme Court, an initiative to keep the city's ever-increasing pollution problem in control.
After many successful initiatives such as water-free Holi and Eco-friendly Ganesh Chaturthi, the majority's next hope is for a Green Diwali. Green Diwali is a plan to celebrate the festival with minimum consequences to the environment. With the bursting of noisy firecrackers, the pollution in the nation has risen to a critical level creating discomfort to the elderly people, children, and animals. It is high time that we people should understand the problem and create a roadway by which we can make a healthy and balanced environment. Let us come together and do a bit for society on this Diwali.
Let us take some steps ahead to make this Diwali an eco-friendly one:
Use locally manufactured earthenware diyas for decoration:
Avoid the cheap plastic lights for home decoration and go for the artisan handmade earthenware and diyas for decorating. This initiative will not only help the environment but will also help the poor artisan families.
Stop burning the firecrackers!
We all get mesmerized and captivated by the lights of the crackers. But the sad fact is that we do not pay any attention to the adverse effect of loud noise and pollution on the environment.
We are unaware that many teenage children are involved in the making of firecrackers. We look over the fact that these young children have to encounter these toxic substances, which put their health in grave danger.
Avoid noise pollution caused due to the use of firecrackers:
There is no logic in lighting these firecrackers that generate more than 65 decibels of noise. Even the law has banned the burning of noisy crackers, although it seems as if many of us are not interested in following these rules and regulations.
Show your creativity:
We can choose environment-friendly techniques to find alternatives for crackers. We can create a variation of Rangoli designs to decorate our homes. We can utilize beautiful flowers like lotus, rose, and hibiscus to add to the touch of creativity. Interestingly, these gorgeous flowers can be later used as natural composites for our garden.
Remember: Evade the use of chemical-based rangoli colors. Make maximum use of organic colors and dyes like rice flour, turmeric powder, kumkum, lime, petal, coal, and leaves.
Sweet Temptations:
Diwali is that festival when sweets proceed to tempt us throughout. If there is one celebration that boasts loads and loads of sweets, then it is unquestionably Deepavali which is just incomplete with sweets. Sweet boxes are enthusiastically exchanged among friends and relatives, in a way contributing towards friendly co-existence. We can enjoy our Diwali with sweets and gifts that signify brotherhood rather than crackers and fireworks that cause pollution.
The Eternal light burns inside us and all around us. Let this Diwali bring delight and happiness flourish for humanity by dispelling the darkness of ignorance and many more evils that are establishing havoc on humankind.
Let the Lights of Ecstasy spread across the globe.
It is all regarding exploring the understanding of our immense potential and dismissing ignorance.
As per the Vedanta, people have to fill their hearts with the oil of love, spark the wick with the knowledge of Truth and ward off ignorance. It further states that we can ignite a light in many hearts just like a Diya that can light many Diyas.
Sources: https://cdn.s3waas.gov.in/s3b6d767d2f8ed5d21a44b0e5886680cb9/uploads/2020/11/2020111138.pdf
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