Boom Boom Diwali: Where Devotion Went Missing

By: Salil Gewali

Every burst of a firecracker by children today stirs something deep within me. It brings back a flood of cherished memories from my childhood, days filled with innocent mischief, wide-eyed wonder, and the pure joy of celebration. As small kids, we would feel quite down as Durga Puja celebration would over. However, one joy always kept our spirit up.  That was Diwali which fall little more than a fortnight away. Our excitement of buying toy pistols overwhelmed us. We rushed to buy a pistol and tiny “tikli bombs” with a few rupees (dakshina) lovingly slipped into our palms by visiting relatives during Durga Puja. Back then, we couldn’t afford many crackers or their other varieties, so we would search for half-burst ones, take out leftover gunpowder, and share the thrill of lighting them with friends, both Hindu and non-Hindu. However, it was innocent fun and frolicking, never meant to disturb anyone at all. We never heard people complain about being woken by the sound of bombs at 2 or 3 AM as these days. The elderly always taught us to be mindful, to never cause discomfort to others while bursting fireworks. For sparse population, pollution was not a serious issue then.

Well, fun and joy aside, we were also nudged by our parents toward the rituals, helping us understand that puja was not just about fun and celebration, but about reverence and devotion -- a spirit we find painfully absent these days. We would offer special food items to crows, dogs, cows, and oxen, which deepened both our joy and our sense of devotion. After all, Diwali is meant to illuminate the soul, a celebration with profound spiritual significance, not to turn the midnight hour into a battlefield of explosions.

Many are asking, with growing frustration, why some people feel compelled to burst firecrackers at all hours-- midnight, two, three, even five -- causing sleepless nights. Many are distressed by choking pollution that makes it hard for the elderly and the sick to breathe. As many articles have appeared in several dailies, regional and national, both for and against the bursting of various types of firecrackers, with some portraying Hinduism in a very poor light, I feel compelled to share a few reflections drawn from my personal experience and studies, especially about Laxmi Puja and other sacred Hindu festivals and their primary objectives.

Of course, as I grew older, I began to understand more clearly what our ancestors truly meant by the festival of light. True, there is no scriptural mention of firecrackers in these celebrations, as columnists have rightly pointed out.

It should be borne in mind by one and all that Hindu scriptures speak again and again of one’s inner ignorance, from which arise countless problems. Because of this, people struggle to tell right from wrong. The ancient scriptures also remind us with emphasis that the real obstacles to human growth do not come from outside, but from within. The Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, Puranas and even the Yoga Sutras echo this truth: one who conquers the mind and its vices becomes the master of all external adversities.

Indeed, our effort in decorating our homes with oil-diyas, a symbolic representation of spiritual knowledge, is deeply meaningful. Today, we also adorn our spaces with dazzling electric string lights, adding to the festive glow. All this is done in celebration of the joyous return of Lord Rama, Sita, and Lakshman to Ayodhya after fourteen years of exile and their victory over Ravana -- a tradition that continues to exhilarate hearts across generations. But the true emphasis, however, should be cultivating inner purity and reverence through fasting, keeping away from the sensory world, offering ritual with extreme devotion, not in setting off crackers with reckless pride. Please take no offence; this is not to say that we must abandon fireworks altogether in celebration, but we may enjoy them in moderation, provided the laws of a particular place allow, with mindfulness and within the “bounds of dharma.”

Waking up sleeping neighbors with thunderous bangs and songs and dances does not summon divine blessings. Causing ear-splitting noise, frightening innocent animals, and disturbing the sick cannot, by any stretch of imagination, be considered an act of worship by the Hindu scriptures -- which I will discuss below. Those who are blindly obsessed with bursting crackers, putting others’ health at risk or disturbing their sleep, should turn to the holy texts for guidance.

One of my neighbours retorted, “how can we call it a puja celebration when the asthmatic next door cries for breath, or sleeping babies and elderly people are shaken out of sleep, terrified by deafening blasts at midnight --or even at one, two, or three in the morning?”

Amidst this noisy cacophony, it is equally painful to hear many non-Hindu friends passing negative comments about Hindu culture, which they feel has been increasingly distorted in recent times. These non-Hindus are people who always hold their religion as a “sacred path” and naturally feel disillusioned when they see their Hindu friends getting caught up in unethical excesses under the guise of religious practice. I therefore feel bound to touch on a few fundamental dos and don’ts, and also wisdom, laid down in Hindu scriptures, to help dispel these misunderstandings.

Emphasis on Ecology in pujas not to be undermined

Yes, before setting off on a long journey we carefully check whether a vehicle is fit or not, making sure the engine runs smoothly, the four-tyre are in good condition, the brakes/accelerator function properly, and all parts are in working order and so on and so forth. Exactly in the same way, prior to commencing any Hindu rituals, be it Durga Puja, Laxmi Puja, Krishna Janmashtami, Vishwakarma Puja, name any, Hindus are traditionally required ---as a prescribed necessity ---to ensure that everything is in perfect order, not just externally but within oneself. For this reason, they are required to recite an “invocation” known as the “Shanti Path,” (peace chant) that begins with “oṃ dyauh shantir antarikṣaṃ shatih…..”, which all perform; many may have overheard it being chanted by priests, without ever understanding its deeper meaning and purpose.

Among the many peace chants in the Vedas and Upanishads, this particular peace invocation is a solemn call for universal harmony that encompasses ecological, cosmic, and spiritual dimensions. It seeks peace in the physical world, including nature and all living beings, peace from divine or cosmic forces that are beyond human control, and peace within oneself, in both mind and soul. Only when such harmony is genuinely invoked can one enter the heart of devotional rituals with utmost sincerity and focus. In fact, pujas are primarily intended to cleanse the inner self and nurture spiritual growth, helping one rise above material cravings and worldly distractions in pursuit of self-realization.

If this is the sacred intent behind Hindu pujas, then turning them into spectacles of noise, filling the air with pollution from unchecked fireworks and indulging in outrageous sensory excess, is nothing less than a sinful act, a distortion clearly warned against in the teachings of the Gita -- especially in verses 3.37 to 3.41, where desire and anger are named as the soul’s greatest enemies.

Incidentally, there is a deeply intriguing and quietly proud truth about this ancient “peace chant”—its call for purity in action, clarity in thought, and ecological balance—which I must not fail to mention here. While the West was beginning to toy with the idea of ecological interdependence only in the 19th century, the sages of India had envisioned, many, many millennia ago, the universe as one vast, interconnected family. This vision is echoed in numerous peace chants and other texts that proclaim everything, from living beings to inert matter, from planets in solar systems to galaxies beyond count, as being intrinsically woven into an infinite cosmic web.

What makes this even more remarkable in modern times is that Alexander von Humboldt, famously regarded as the “father of ecology,” was profoundly moved to discover the hint of this very worldview, and a call for ecological harmony and interconnection among all forms of existence, through a secondary source --- the Sanskrit poet Mahakavi Kalidasa’s famous drama ‘Meghaduta’. The German pioneering environmentalist Humboldt was so amazed that he spoke of it with deep appreciation in his seminal five-volume work “Cosmos”. To Humboldt, this poetic rendering of nature’s interconnectedness was not merely literary; it carried the force of revelation and immensely inspired his further research.

Let me touch upon an even more profound fact. Many of us probably know that ‘The Waste Land’ was the most widely read and celebrated poem of the 20th century. Amazed by the depth of Indian philosophy, and particularly its “quest for truth”, the Nobel

laureate poet T. S. Eliot thought it most fitting to end his epic poem with the ancient peace chant “Shantih Shantih Shantih.” What’s more, to sum up the poem, Eliot included the profound ideas of “self-restraint, charity, and compassion” in three verses drawn directly from the Upanishads, using the Sanskrit words ‘Datta, Dayadhvam, Damyata’ in the final section of ‘The Waste Land’. The poet was deeply concerned about the rise in moral and spiritual bankruptcy after the First World War, emphasizing the need for both inner and outer harmony. Eliot was not alone in this quest for deeper truths from India; W. Butler Yeats, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau also sought to enrich their works with the cosmological wisdom of ancient sages.

There can be no greater irony than the fact that while the East once showed the West the way to “Shanti” (peace), some in our own country now embrace mindless revelry, noisy indulgence, and confrontation, putting themselves and others in “Ashanti.”

Come what may, let us fear the bomb, not the light of knowledge; let us reject hatred, not the brilliance of wisdom. True knowledge, free from prejudice, purifies the heart and makes prayer possible for peaceful coexistence. Unity in diversity remains a fundamental law of nature. Shatih! Shatih! Shatih!

About Writer: A writer and researcher based in Shillong, Salil Gewali is best known for his research-based work, ‘Great Minds on India’, which has earned worldwide appreciation. His book has been translated into fifteen languages and edited by a former NASA scientist, Dr. AV Murali of Houston, USA. Gewali is also a member of the International Human Rights Commission Zürich, Switzerland.