 Diwali is not a religious festival, it's got something to do with our geographical location on this planet. They created a science as to how one should behave to pass through winter months without getting sick, without getting depressed. You need music, you need lamp light so that you don't sink down and do not become susceptible to various negative forces. This is Deepavali time. What is the significance of this? This is a festival which always comes in the month of Kartika as per the lunar cycles. On the thirteenth day, which is called as Trayodashi, the thirteenth day of the Kartika month is the festival. Traditionally, the science behind this is on this day everybody worships. On the Deepavali day, everybody is supposed to worship Dhanavantri, the deity dedicated to one's health and well-being. Today the word Dhanavantri has almost become synonymous with the doctor. Dhanavantri or the deity Dhanavantri is supposed to be the source of Ayurveda, the science of long and healthy lives. So I don't know when they did this because the nature of the language is like that. In northern India, most people speak Hindi language and the last syllable, they'll cut it off. If you say dhyanalingam, they'll say dhyanalingam. If you say Shiva, they'll say Shiv. If you say Rama, they'll say Ram. The language has the habit of cutting off the last syllable always. Almost everything. Krishna, Krishna, Deepavali, Diwali like this. So someone cut this Dhanavantri and Trayodashi and made it Dhanthira. What was about health became about wealth. Dhan means money. Now everybody thinks Deepavali is about money. Why it is about health is, for those of us who live in the northern hemisphere, it is from this day onwards certain things change from the Trayodashi of Kartikamasa. In a way, there is a slowdown of life. So for the winter months, how, what you should do with yourself, what time you should wake up, what you should eat, how your food habits should change, how your practices should change, for all this traditionally they created a science as to how one should behave to pass through winter months without getting sick, without getting depressed, without losing your sense of balance and purpose in life. How to do this? For this there was an entire science. Lighting of lamps and bursting of crackers was one of those things so that you don't slip into a slowdown. The evolutionary memory within us thinks that as winter months come, whether it actually got cold or global warming kept you warm, that's not the point. The changes have happened. The distance between the planet and the way the planet and the sun are positioned has changed. Because of that, slowdown of life happens. If you were a bear, I believe you were sometime ago, you would be hibernating. So there is a tendency for the body to hibernate. If you do not know this, the seed doesn't sprout. Nobody plants a seed from this season to 14th of January in India because the seed will not sprout fully or will not sprout at the same speed as it would in other seasons. Everything life slows down in the northern hemisphere. Because life is slowing down, we are preparing to do more energetic things around us so that we don't really slow down and become a part of that. In a way, we are trying to assert our evolution. Yes, if we were some other creature we would go and curl up somewhere, but now we have become human, we have transcended our biology. See, I'm assuming too many things. You are supposed to have transcended your biological tendencies. So to transcend this, there's a whole lot of activity created so that you don't go into a hibernating kind of state. Physically slowdown, mentally little bit of depression could easily happen in everybody because the season is like that. In colder countries, definitely people experience this. Yes or no? And this is so in the Nordic countries also, because things have slowed down within you. In the northern hemisphere, not just you, everything has slowed down because our relationship with the sun has changed, which is the basic source of life. The basic source of energy on this planet is sun. Not because you came up with the solar panel, it's always been so. Now, because the northern hemisphere, its relationship with the sun has changed, you're looking away from the sun. There is a slowdown from this month, the thirteenth day of this lunar month, which is called as the Kartika Treyodeshi. So to make up for this, in India there are various things done from this month onwards. Normally, traditionally the roles of males and females are interchanged at this time. For example, it is a part of daily activity for a woman, not anymore. In rural India still, that first thing in the morning, she cleans the front of her house and draws some geometrical figures. Today she knows only one design, unfortunately. She keeps putting the same thing or she got it painted or she has a template and she puts it. Otherwise, she is supposed to use rice flour and every day, Monday, Tuesday, like this every day of the week, she is supposed to draw a specific design, geometric design, to attract a certain kind of energy into her home. If it's a full moon day, a certain kind of design, if it's a new moon day, a certain kind of design. So, twenty-eight patterns were there, which people knew on which day what to put. So, during these months, it will become the duty of the men to do this. And this is the only month where men are supposed to go out singing on the street in the morning. Early morning, they're supposed to go singing on the street. Even today, a small number of people are doing this. In rural India to some extent, in urban India, once again a little bit of revival is happening. In Mysore city, a group of dedicated people have revived this once again. That early morning, by the time sunrise happens, at that time, they're walking on the street with the drum and singing because the entire town needs this. Today we've become very large cities, otherwise if you lived in a village, everybody who lives there needs this beat of drum and music to reverberate in their system so that they don't hibernate, so that their dough systems don't slow down. All music festivals happen at this time. If you do not know this, the greatest music festival in the world, the largest in the world happens in Chennai with over 1,800 concerts in 45 days. 1,800 plus concerts happen in 45 days. All this is done so that people don't become sedate. People, your cellular activity does not become hibernative because this will lead to various other complexities in one's life. So, Deepavali is about that. If you cannot see the light, that's why the crackers so that you anyway wake up. At 4.30 in the morning, they will start bursting crackers all over the town so that everybody wakes up and everybody becomes alive because it is important in the winter months that you come up before the sun. The first ray of sun should not hit a blade of grass or some other worm or insect. The first ray of sun must hit you. This is a commitment that is why before sunrise everybody is out to receive the first rays of sun upon themselves, not upon the ground. So, the significance of the festival has largely been ignored, but still people are singing a bit and bursting crackers a bit. It is time to bring this back, especially in colder weathers. This would be wonderful if some of these things are revived because Diwali is not a religious festival. It's got something to do with our geographical location on this planet because we are in the northern hemisphere. These changes are happening to us, to our bodies, to the plants, to the animals, everything it's happening. You see everything slows down, but if you slow down within yourself, mentally if you slow down you will become little dim. Physically if you slow down you will become susceptible to various other ailments which you may not be susceptible if your body is vibrant in the life. If this body is vibrant or alive, there are thousand infections within you right now, but you don't get sick because body is alive and vibrant. If little slowdown happens, all these little little things become major problems within you. This is why the whole thing about the Anavantari, the science of health and well-being that it must be kept alive till 14th of January, everything must be kept alive. You need music, you need more light, you need lamp light, you need all kinds of things to keep the atmosphere alive for yourself so that you don't sink down and do not become susceptible to various negative forces which are always working upon us. It is just that some are sailing above it, some are sinking into it. So this is the significance of Dipavali. It is the Anavantari's Treyodeshi.