Wishing you and your loved ones a very Blissful Diwali and a prosperous New year

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Wishing you and your loved ones a very Blissful Diwali and a prosperous New year Posted: 23 Oct 2014 12:15 AM PDT Om Sai Ram Om Shree Ganeshaya Namaha!  Om Namah Shivaya! Jai Maata Di !   If for some reason you are not able to see , or download the below pictures or click to the below links - Please go to http://debu7370.blogspot.com/ You can also have access to all the previous  Shri Shirdi Sai speaks mails at the above link. And if any of you would like to receive these messages directly to your mailbox everyday-- Click Here to Subscribe to Sai Picture Gallery via Email   Why do we light a lamp? In almost every Indian home a lamp is lit daily before the altar of the Lord. In some houses it is lit at dawn, in some, twice a day – at dawn and dusk – and in a few it is maintained continuously (Akhanda Deepa). All auspicious functions commence with the lighting of the lamp, which is often maintained right through the occasion. Light symbolizes knowledge, and darkness, ignorance. The Lord is the "Knowledge Principle" (Chaitanya) who is the source, the enlivener and the illuminator of all knowledge. Hence light is worshiped as the Lord himself. Knowledge removes ignorance just as light removes darkness. Also knowledge is a lasting inner wealth by which all outer achievement can be accomplished. Hence we light the lamp to bow down to knowledge as the greatest of all forms of wealth. Why not light a bulb or tube light? That too would remove darkness. But the traditional oil lamp has a further spiritual significance. The oil or ghee in the lamp symbolizes our vaasanas or negative tendencies and the wick, the ego. When lit by spiritual knowledge, the vaasanas get slowly exhausted and the ego too finally perishes.The flame of a lamp always burns upwards. Similarly we should acquire such knowledge as to take us towards higher ideals.    Whilst lighting the lamp we thus pray: Deepajyothi parabrahma Deepa sarva tamopahaha Deepena saadhyate saram Sandhyaa deepo namostute I prostrate to the dawn/dusk lamp; whose light is the Knowledge Principle (the Supreme Lord), which removes the darkness of ignorance and by which all can be achieved in life. Wishing you and your loved ones a very Blissful Diwali and a prosperous New year Sai bhakt Deepa H and Family