Deepawali, Crackers and Earthen Lamps

Wish you all healthy, wealthy and fun-filled Diwali preparation :).

I do not support high decibel noisy crackers but I certainly suggest sulphur rich crackers + castor oil lamps to purify environment harmlessly. Must if you are living in village growing monsoon crops.

It is much better pest control and epidemic control than toxic pesticides and antibiotics needed to cure humans in post-Autumn time.

Please read below note by Dhongi Baba :
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Diwali, the festival of lights is around the corner.

We live in the Kalyuga and every Yuga brings with itself its own parvartri, it’s own inherent nature, it is but natural that in Kalyuga we have the rise of Tamsik parvarti (the demonic attitude) and we discard traditions which are for the betterment of the society, the environment and the health and well being of the people.

The Rishis (holy men) of Sanatana Dharma were not just run of the mill holy men, they were individuals who had carried out a lot of in depth and exhaustive research on various topics, it would be futile for this mad man to go on about Algebra, Trigonometry etc which and many more were gifts of these Rishis to us.

Diwali is not just a festival of lights to just mark the return of Lord Ram from his exile. It is also a festival which marks the autumn month in India.

Every change of season brings with it a lot of climatic and other environmental changes which are then countered by the diet and changes in lifestyle. This was very well known to the great Rishis of Sanatana Dharma.

India is an agrarian society and the main food crop is rice; apart from the Northern states of Punjab and Haryana where rice is not the staple diet, the rest of the country has rice as its staple diet, as in rice is used daily.

Now during the autumn months in India because of the change in weather there is abundance of an insect called the ‘tiny leafhopper’ of the cicadellidae family. These insects feed on plant sap and can transmit plant-infecting viruses and bacteria. They are also a serious threat to the standing rice crop (paddy) This family of insects if not controlled and let to multiply causes serious damage to the paddy crop and then as a further result then give rise to another types of insects which then cause various diseases and flus to humans and also harm cattle and the plants.

So what can be used to control these insects? Sulphur, Yes Gandhak (In Hindi/Sanskrit) So how do we then get this sulphur in the environment? Spray it on the plants as if do not have enough chemical sprayed on the plants already, spend millions if not billions by hiring choppers to spray these chemicals all over the country? And when this spraying will be done it will still be sporadic as how do you cover each and every nook and corner of the country’s land? The effort and cost required would be astronomical. Hence the fire crackers are used, they all have sulphur and there was hardly any corner in the country where people did not use crackers on Diwali days and lit small oil lamps.

Why diyas (oil lamps)? Because the vapours from the oil lamps then go and mix with the environment and get rid of the excess sulphur in the environment, very well planned I would say, wouldn’t you?

The sulphur fumes are light, they rise fast, they rise and mix with the natural gases in the environment and envelop the lower strata of atmosphere thereby eradicating most of these insects, however the oil lamps vapours are heavier and stay lot lower and by the time harmful residue of the sulphur fumes settle down they then are controlled by the oil vapours. A win-win situation?

Moreover the clay oil lamps (diyas) are bio-degradable, they are not like the harmful plastic flashing lamps which are harmful in every which way for the environment.

Also thousands of people and mostly not very affluent people depend upon the fireworks industry and the oil lamps for a living, do not harm their living which is the most environmentally friendly occupation.

Please do not discard and get rid of your customs and traditions just because a certain business lobby says it is harmful for the environment, please do not dilute the culture which is a result of thousands of years of wisdom!

You want to know what is bad for the planet? Cattle farming, yes rearing animals for food is the biggest cause of pollution and food scarcity on this planet! The billions of watts of energy spent on fancy lights that are lit on Diwali for a couple of days in India and then lit for more than a month if not two in all of Europe and the western world for the commercial festival of Christmas, to mark Christmas shopping and sales to boost the retail revenues every year cause a lot more pollution, the slaughtering of thousands if not millions of animals for various religious festivals, let it for Id or for the Hindu festivals is bad for the environment, the unmarked increase in the usage of pesticides to control the insects cause pollution, the marking of new year by most of the western countries by having fire work displays of huge magnitude in every city and town cause pollution. The cultivation and cutting and transportation of so called Christmas trees world over cause a lot more pollution. The artificial rearing and slaughter of hundreds of millions if not billions of turkeys over the Christmas period causes a lot of pollution. The list is endless.

Please do not get rid of your customs and traditions, they are not born of some commercial tactics, they have a lot of meaning which is good for this planet.

One last thing before this mad man ends his rant, I hope and pray to all the ladies, Please do observe Karwa Chauth festival, do not call it Karwa Chauth if you do not want to, do not do it for your men if you do not want to, call it something else, but please do observe the fast, it is very good for your health and is related to your menstrual cycles and your hormonal well being. I wish and pray that may we all be granted wisdom to analyse the benefits and ill effects of our actions. May we all be steady on the path of Karma.

ॐ श्री महालछ्मयै च विदमहे विष्णु पत्न्यै च धीमहि
तन्नो लछ्मी प्रचोदयात् ॐ ||

“Om Shree Mahaalachhmyai Ch Vidamahe Visshnnu Pat`n`yai Ch Dheemahi tan`no Lachhmee Prachodayaat` Om”

Om Prem Shaanti