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Diwali motorcades begin
The Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabdha has begun a series of countrywide motorcades to celebrate the Festival of Lights – Diwali.
The motorcades were first started in 1974, after the Sabha’s president, Reepu Daman Persaud, thought that the festival of Diwali was too significant an occasion to just be restricted to the lighting of diyas on Diwali night.
Children dressed as the God Vishnu and the Goddess Laxhmi at the West Demerara Diwali motorcade
Speaking with Kaieteur News yesterday, Persaud said that he desired for the festival not to remain static.
The motorcades have grown over the years to include artistic depictions of Hindu gods and goddesses, namely Mother Laxhmi, hailed as the goddess of light.
This year’s series of motorcades commenced Friday evening, when the West Demerara Prant of the Sabha hosted its parade, which eventually converged at the Uitvlugt Community Centre Ground, West Coast Demerara.
Persaud said the motorcades bring out the creativity of Hindu adherents, with every year, the lighted vehicles are decorated more beautifully. Almost all of them feature some representation of Diwali, with the most common attraction being a lotus flower with a little girl decked out as Mother Laxhmi.
Motorcades have been scheduled for East Demerara and several in Berbice. The largest motorcade is held on the eve of Diwali at the LBI Community Centre Ground, East Coast Demerara.
Diwali is celebrated as a national holiday in Guyana. This year the observance would be celebrated next Saturday.
On the night of Diwali, Hindus light diyas – small clay pots filled with oil and a cotton wick – to signify victory of good over the evil.
In Hinduism, across Guyana, Diwali is the homecoming of Lord Rama after a 14-year exile in the forest and his victory over Ravana.
Children from Cornelia Ida depict a Hindu God and Goddess at the West Demerara motorcade Friday evening
In the legend, the people of Ayodhya (the capital of his kingdom) welcomed Rama by lighting rows of lamps.
While Diwali is popularly known as the “festival of lights”, the most significant spiritual meaning is “the awareness of the inner light”.
Central to Hindu philosophy is the assertion that there is something beyond the physical body and mind which is pure, infinite, and eternal, called the Atman.
Just as one celebrates a birthday, Diwali, for Hindus, is the celebration of this inner light, in particular the knowing of which outshines all darkness (removes all obstacles and dispels all ignorance), awakening the individual to one’s true nature, not as the body, but as the unchanging, infinite, immanent and transcendent reality.
With the realisation of the Atman comes universal compassion, love, and the awareness of the oneness of all things (higher knowledge). This brings Ananda (inner joy or peace).
Diwali celebrates this through lights, flowers, sharing of sweets, and worship.
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