Deepavali, Ganga, Cauvery and Advaita

One of the chief consequential tenets of advaita philosophy is that the Absolute para-brahman can and does (appear to?) manifest itself in any form whatsoever and so the various ‘Gods’ and ‘Goddesses’ of Hindu mythology are nothing but different saguna (with attributes) presentations of the same Absolute Reality. This needs repeated emphasis, particularly in the context of Hindu religion, because, both in the case of those who practise the religion as well as those who just observe the practitioners, there is always a slip-up in the understanding, caused by the glamour and paraphernalia of the religious observances and their rituals. It is with this background, the following account of the mythological significance and symbolism of Deepavali festival is written. All the matter found here goes back to an article (1966) attributed to the Kanchi Mahaswamigal, but later published in a Diwali issue (2001) of ‘Gopura Darsanam’, a Tamil magazine devoted to the promotion of spirituality.

The Mahaswami starts with what looks like a conundrum: ‘You have been traditionally told how the morning bath in hot water (after an oil massage) on Deepavali day is equivalent to a dip in the gangA. You also know that Krishna’s vanquishing of the demon Narakasura is the stated reason for the celebration of Deepavali. But do you know that Krishna himself on that day went all the way south to the kAveri river to purify himself by a bath in the kAveri?’

kAmAkhyA is the name of Goddess parA-Sakti located in the modern state of Assam. The state itself was known in old literature as kAmarUpa. When Lord VishNu took the manifestation of the boar, killed the demon HiranyAksha and redeemed the Earth from him from deep down somewhere, the location of the divine boar’s teeth that held the Earth was exactly this region of mountainous ups and downs of kAmarUpa. The Goddess of Earth thus had contact with the Lord and from this was born the demon Narakasura. He performed a great penance, pleased the Creator Brahma and got valuable boons of invincibility from Him. He made the city of ‘prAkjyotisha-puraM’ in kAmarUpa his capital and ruled the whole world as a dictator. He even went to the divine world and turned it into hell by his atrocities.  Because he was himself the son of the Lord he was not complained against by even the king of the divines.

Then came the manifestation as Krishna by Lord VishNu. One of the many great miraculous deeds done by the boy Krishna was to outwit and humble the creator Brahma himself – incidentally, Brahma, the first-born, is also a son of VishNu, because he blossomed forth from the navel-lotus of VishNu - by a miracle of parallel creation of the entire world of cows and cowherds of Gokulam for a whole year. Seeing this wonder and learning from it the lesson that Krishna has ‘na me dveShyosti na priyaH’ (gItA 9 – 29), that is, ‘I bear no enmity to anybody nor the opposite feeling of friendship’, Indra, the King of the Divines, made bold to complain against Narakasura, the other son of VishNu. Actually he made this complaint only when Krishna had settled in Dwaraka (in modern Gujarat) as a king with his two Queens, Rukmani (the manifestation of Goddess Lakshmi, also known as shrIdevi) and Satyabhama (the manifestation of Goddess bhUmAdevi, Goddess of Earth). So Krishna went on a war to conquer Narakasura , but this time he took his second Queen SatyabhAma with him and also Garuda, the divine Bird-seat of (Himself as) Lord VishNu.

Digression 1. (Note: Queen Rukmani was a quiet and peaceful lady. She was never taken to any war or fight fought by Krishna. Satyabhama has been mistakenly known as quarrelsome. Krishna took her to this war for showing to the world that she had such good qualities of objectives of world peace even though the obstacle to that peace had come from her own son, Narakasura. In the Ramayana King Dasaratha never took along his first wife Kausalya to any war. But he took his second Queen Kaikeyi. There she showed to the world how dutiful she could be).

After breaking through the mountainous barriers, and the barriers of Water, Fire and Air, all raised by the mantra sakti of Narakasura, Krishna Satyabhama and Garuda reached the armies of the demon, routed them all and finally killed Narakasura himself. The latter part of the night on which Narakasura was killed was the 14th day of the dark fortnight when the Sun was in the constellation Libra. That is the night prior to the day when we all celebrate Deepavali. It was bhUmA-devi, who made the request that this day be a festival day for the entire world and indicate from the passage from Darkness to Light (tamaso mA jyotir-gamaya). ‘Let my son be an eye-opener for this entire world. Let everybody have an oil-bath in hot water at this time of early morning and let them all who do so be benefited by all the merits of a bath in gangA’. This was the prayer of BhumA-devi, sanctioned by the Lord.

Digression 2. (Note: Remember advaita. The manifestation on planet earth by the Lord ‘coexists’ with the original divine from which it manifested. This is of course a condescension from the advaita pedestal of non-duality, but the condescension is of course mAyic, as everything else is, when you begin to talk with precision in advaita. So it is that Sankara goes to Kailas and gets lingas from the divine Lord shiva. Krishna goes to Vishnu’s world and brings back to this world his six elder brothers – who were killed by Kamsa as soon as they were born - for their father Vasudeva to have a look for once. So it is that BhUmAdevi comes down to request Lord Krishna for a boon on Narakasura, simultaneously when SatyabhAma, her own manifestation, is right there with Krishna.).

Digression over.

Note that usually after somebody dies, relatives and well-wishers take a bath in cold water in regretful memory of the deceased. But the bath on Diwali morning is not a ‘regretful’ memory of Narakasura. All ritualistic bathing is in cold water. But this is neither ritualistic nor regretful. It is a joyful memory of a great mother who sublated her mother’s affection for the good of the world.  Since it is a joyful memory, the bath is in hot water and not in cold water.

Buma-devi’s unusual request has deeper implications. An oil-massage-bath before sunrise is taboo in Hindu regimen.  She thus created an exception for this day, and made it a memorable exception by requesting that the great merit of a bath in gangA should accrue to those having this oil-massage and hot bath. Further she made another request that in that oil, Lakshmi, the Goddess of Prosperity should reside at that time, thereby giving prosperity to all who observe this formality. Note that Lakshmi’s manifestation (Rukmani) is the co-spouse of SatyabhAma (‘co-spouse’ is Indian English! It means one of the other spouses of one’s spouse) and this shows that bhUmA-devi as SatyabhAmA had no ill-will towards the co-spouse. The north Indian tradition of importance to Lakshmi on this day of Deepavali is significant in this connection. Another request of bhUmA-devi, also granted by the Lord, was to name this festival as ‘naraka-caturdashi’, both after the name of her son, Naraka and after the fourteenth day of the lunar month when it happened. But this name narka-caturdashi is found nowadays only in the almanacs.

The significance of gangA. When Vishnu manifested as the dwarf Vamana his divine feet was washed by the Creator Brahma. The water that dripped from this washing is the gangA of Space (AkAsha-gangA). This was what was brought down to the earth by the gigantic penance-efforts of King Bhagiratha (A great ancestor of Rama). When gangA poured down on the earth with great ferocity it was Lord shiva who received it in the curls of his hair. Thus gangA has its purification traced back to both Vishnu and shiva. gangA in that sense is considered to be a consort of shiva.  bhUmA-devi in enunciating this great boon for the welfare of the world and the celebration of her own son’s death, thus demonstrated that she had no ill-will towards either Lakshmi, the other wife of Krishna-Vishnu, nor towards gangA,the consort of shiva. Also to seek the benefit of the whole world through the merits of gangA-bath accruing to them all, she has shown her magnanimity and concern for the welfare of the whole world. Well, She is the world, after all!

Thus Deepavali is a great joyous festival, born out of a sad circumstance of the killing of the son whose mother herself was an accomplice to the killing!. gItA is a great enjoyable scripture, born out of a circumstance of terror of the killing of millions of human beings where brothers killed brothers, disciple killed guru, relatives killed elders, and so forth. So is not gItA a twin-sister of Deepavali? gItA is the Queen of all scriptures. Deepavali is the Queen of all festivals. And gangA is the Queen of all holy waters.

A verse of Bhaja govindam goes as follows:

Bhagavad-gItA kimcid-adhItA
gangA-jala-lavakaNikA pItA |
sakR^idapi yena murAri samarcA
kriyate tasya yamena na carcA ||

meaning, He who does study of a little of gita, drinks a drop of Ganges water and does once an offering to Vishnu, need not come under the jurisdiction of Yama the God of Death! Here the four items mentioned, namely, gItA, gangA, Vishnu and Yama all have a connection with Deepavali!  Probably Sankara had Deepavali in his mind when he composed this sloka.

Now comes the kAveri, the most holy river of South India.  Emperor Rama killed Ravana, the brahmin and so accrued for himself the demerit called ‘brahma-hatti’. To purify himself from this he established the shiva linga in Ramesvaram and offered puja to Lord shiva. (note the advaita here). Krishna killed Narakasura, and accrued for himself the demerit of 'Vira-hatti' – the sin accruing from the killing of a great Warrior. So He (Krishna) goes to Shiva and asks for a method of purification. And the Lord says, ‘Go to the kAveri and have your bath there immediately. You will be purified’. So not only Krishna, but a whole host of divines with him, namely, shrIdevi (Lakshmi), bhUdevi, and all the other divines went to the kAveri. Along with them shiva also went there. There the boon was granted by Lord shiva that the whole month when the Sun is in Libra, would be holy in the region of the kAveri.

On the particular day of Diwali, before sunrise, an oil-massage followed by hot water bath – thus bringing the merit of a dip in Ganges – and this followed after sunrise by a bath in cold water, brings to one the merit of both the Ganges bath and the kAveri bath and purifies all sins. Of course "Govindeti sadA snAnaM" is a permanent recipe. So all the time one should be immersed in the thought of the Lord – that is the prescription for moksha, release from the cycle of birth and death.



- From HH Sri Mahaswamigal's discourse.