Guiding Light: The Spirit of Deepavali

Deepavali is our festival of lights. The light of lights is love.The world, today, suffers from a famine of love. Our greatest need is self-sacrificing love.There were two lovers who each wanted to give to the other a Deepavali gift. They were poor in the wealth of the world, though rich in treasures of love. The girl had long, silken hair. She sold it and bought a silver chain for her lover’s watch. In the meantime, the lover sold his watch and bought a set of tortoise-shell combs with jewelled edges for his beloved’s lovely hair.When the two met each other, they found that the hair was gone, the watch was gone. At first they wept. Then they smiled and said: “We still have our most precious possession— and that is our self-sacrificing love.”It is this love which transforms whatever it touches and makes it beautiful and bright.It breathes hope into discouraged hearts, strengthens the weak and sets the spirit of man aflame. It kindles the light that is undying, the light that can never be extinguished.To love is to give. Give to those who love you, as also to those who do not love you. Give to the fortunate and to the unfortunate. Give hope, give happiness, give encouragement, give appreciation, give a smile, give a kind word. To give is to live. Those that give, live. Those that do not give are no better than dead souls.We cannot all be great scientists or artists or musicians or writers of books. But we can always send out love and friendly thoughts to all men and creatures.We can always be on the look out for opportunities to be of some little service to those in need.We can kindle little lamps of love and compassion. Then, indeed, will every day be to us a Deepavali. Dada J P Vaswani is a humanitarian, philosopher, educator, acclaimed writer, powerful orator, messiah of ahimsa, and non-sectarian spiritual leader

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