Latest update June 25th, 2026 9:38 AM
Of lights and life
Last night the Hindu community celebrated the national festival of Diwali. Motorcades of extraordinarily illuminated vehicles had heralded the occasion over the last week all across the country. And finally came the dénouement: the private family worship to Lakshmi, the Goddess of light followed by the decoration of the houses and the surroundings with lighted diyas, and of recent, with electrical lights.
The worship that is integral to the festival should remind all that the festival is, at its core, a religious occasion. And it most certainly is. In fact, Diwali delivers the essential message of the ancient way of life summarised as “Hinduism”: the universe, including mankind, is engaged in a constant struggle between the forces of evil (represented by darkness) and the forces of good (represented by light). Diwali is commemorated on the longest night of the year, after the ancient originators of the festival would have noticed that the nightly ever-increasing darkness always had a limit. In analogous fashion he would have noticed (or be reminded by historical accounts) that the evil/darkness in the world was always brought under control by the forces of good.
One of the common misconceptions about Diwali has been the notion, fostered by the slogan “Good will triumph over evil”, that the triumph is somehow automatic and inevitable. The Hindu sacred texts (“Shastras” not “Scriptures”) however, are replete with aphorisms, anecdotes and stories that emphasise that it is anything but.
The question of free will comes into play, for if the inflexible law of Karma (cause and effect) is to hold, people will have to make choices and perform actions for which they earn merit or demerit. For the “good” to triumph, individuals will have to stand up and confront the forces of evil. There are no impersonal “forces of history” working through the world according to Hindu philosophy.
It is an important point for all Guyana to reflect on at this juncture of our history. There are many that assert there are numerous evils besetting our society. They rant and rave about these evils but in their own lives do nothing to counter them. They expect others to go into battle. That is not the message of Hinduism in general or Diwali in particular.
Each individual is expected to do his bit in the struggle against identified evil. Just speaking about it while standing still is not even neutral – it earns demerit for the “man of words”. It is for this reason that Hinduism has a completely different take on “intellectuals” that the west, including Guyana. Here the “intellectual” deals with “ideas”, including those about evil but sees no need to take concrete action.
He is admired for his fancy rhetoric. In Hinduism, intellectuals – in the fashion of its most towering intellect Shankara – plunge into the world of action to test the truth of their assertions otherwise they are dismissed as mere speculators.
The second point about “good” defeating “evil” raises the question of ends and means. One cannot use evil means to accomplish good ends and still expect to earn merit. Means inevitably become transformed into ends and not only taint the latter but have a debilitating and insidious effect on the actor.
There are countless stories in Hinduism about well-meaning individuals that succumbed to the temptations of the expedient rather than the principled option and ended up destroyed. Today we see many that engaged in criminal violence to pursue putatively laudable ends have had their just comeuppance.
Finally, Diwali should give all of us hope. There is no such thing or person that is completely and unalterably evil. We are all admixtures of various tendencies and everyone has some light within him/herself. This circumstance presents us the omnipresent possibility of the power of moral suasion to try to deflect evildoers.
Hinduism advises us that sweet words rather than rancorous slander is always advisable in making such arguments. We hope that the prayers offered last evening for Diwali redound to the happiness and prosperity of our Guyanese nation.
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