wish you a happy Deepawali!

 

(Btw a simply brilliant observation from a forwarded email long ago:
We can see RAM in Ramzan, and ALI in Diwali). So wishing everyone a happy Ramzan as well! 🙂

An underlying theme on Deepawali is the second line of
the Vedic hymn…

Om Asatoma Sadhgamaya
Tamasoma Jyotirgamaya
Mrityoma Amritamgamaya

that says “Lead us from darkness to light”.

So the question… who will lead us… 8)

Google returned some illuminating quotes on light…

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

~ Chinese Proverb

Light gives of itself freely, filling all available space.
It does not seek anything in return;
it asks not whether you are friend or foe.
It gives of itself and is not thereby diminished.
~Michael Strassfeld

People are like stained-glass windows.
They sparkle and shine when the sun is out,
but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed
only if there is light from within.
~Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Beauty is not in the face;
beauty is a light in the heart.
~Kahlil Gibran

Fear grows in darkness; if you think there’s a bogeyman around,
turn on the light.
~ Dorothy Thompson

An age is called "dark," not because the light fails to shine
but because people refuse to see it.
~James Michener

Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark
or the man afraid of the light?
~Maurice Freehill

As the Buddha was dying, Ananda asked
who would be their teacher after death.
He replied to his disciple…

Be lamps unto yourselves.
Be refuges unto yourselves.
Take yourself no external refuge.
Hold fast to the truth as a lamp.
Hold fast to the truth as a refuge.
Look not for a refuge in anyone besides yourselves.
And those, Ananda, who either now or after I am dead,
Shall be a lamp unto themselves,
Shall betake themselves as no external refuge,
But holding fast to the truth as their lamp,
Holding fast to the truth as their refuge,
Shall not look for refuge to anyone else besides themselves,
It is they who shall reach to the very topmost height;
But they must be anxious to learn.