What now… after Deepawali? 5 Steps to keep the lights on

What a great festival Deepawali is – festival of lights, celebration, and much more. Hopefully everyone had a chance to celebrate in the traditional ways.

WHAT NOW?  – What  happens now, with our lives … does the celebration stop, do the lights go out?  In the material sense we may not celebrate as much now, we may not light many lamps but….

do we need to stop celebrating who we truly are,  our chaitnnaya swarup, our connection to Satchidananda Parmatma?

We light up lamps and turn all the lights in our homes on Deepawali day.  The darkness of night is hardly noticed with these lights.

How about the darkness our mind – does that go away with exterior lighting?  Not a chance, only “Parmaatma Sri Ram, Param-Satya Prakaash Roop ..” [The Supreme Soul,  Sri Ram, is the matchless radiant and non-dual apotheosis (divine elevation) of Absolute Truth], as stated in Amritvani, can do that.

Can we know Him easily?  According to Saint-souls (Sant Mahatmas), for a vast majority of people it is not easy, rather it is extremely difficult.

5 STEPS TO KEEP THE LIGHTS ON AND GROWING SPIRITUALLY:

The following steps we need to take for our spiritual growth and to continue celebrating our connection to Sri Ram.   (The following 5 steps are based on/adapted from Maharajji’s pravachan: Deepawali Ke Shubh Awsar Par):

1. Pray to Sri Ram that with the glory and power of His Name, may our inner darkness may be removed.
2. May our material possessions not prevent us from our spiritual progress.
3. Take a pledge that one day at a time, we will not not speak ill of anyone, not think negative about anyone, and do no physical harm to anyone.
4. To do the step #3 above we will need the blessings of our Gurujans.
5. Lead a simple and pure life.

Let us all continue to celebrate the essence of Deepawali every day.   May Lord Ram and our Gurujans lead our path.