Diwali 2022

About the festival

The name of Diwali Festival (or, by its fuller name, Dīpāvali) means a chain of lights. The Sanskrit expression refers to a miraculous event, the return of King Rāma. On the day of Dīpāvali devotees not only in India but throughout the world celebrate the victory and return of a special incarnation of Kṛṣṇa, Lord Rāmacandra. The story, exemplary life and glorious victory of Prince Rāma over the forces of darkness has a significance not only for the approximately 600 million Vaiṣṇava believers, but also represents an eternal teaching for humankind, which is included in the most ancient epic Rāmāyana. Today, in 2022, just after a wave of pandemic, facing economic hardship and witnessing an armed conflict in our neighborhood, we can admit that we first and foremost need God’s blessing and prowess in our everyday struggle.

Prince Rāma appeared on the planet Earth tens of thousands of years before Jesus Christ as the incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in a city at the feet of the Himalayas. The young prince was a perfect heir to the throne: both his father and himself were loved by their subjects, abundance and peace pervaded the kingdom. Lord Rāmacandra appeared in the Sun dynasty and He himself was just like the Sun: effulgent, powerful, just and equitable: he gave shelter to the whole population. When his father intended to abdicate according to Vedic custom and wanted to return to the forest, he wanted to pass the kingdom to Rāma, his firstborn son. Because of court plot however, following an earlier promise, he had to change the succession to the throne and banish Rāma to exile for fourteen years. To save his father’s honour, Rāma accepted the exile without a complaint.

His beloved wife, Sītā and His Brother, Lakṣman also accompanied Him to the forest. They lived there a very simple, renounced life, living on fruits picked in the forest. Driven by lust and hunger for power, the ruler of Lankā, Rāvana abducted Sītā. To save his chaste wife, Lord Rāma led a war against Rāvana with his army of monkeys and other forest animals and recovered His wife from captivity. According to the tradition, Rāma suffered these seemingly unpleasant calamities to have a reason to relieve the Earth from the burden of the demon by killing him. Tradition has it that His enemy was put down at the end of the month of Asvini and he returned to Ayodhya at the time of Diwali, the new year. Their trip by air was marked by lights provided by the happy devotees of Lord Rāma, thence the reference to a string of lights.

Divali is the Hindu New Year

In India the festival of Diwali lasts 5 days. Millions of lights remind us that knowledge and righteousness always prevail over darkness, greed and injustice under all circumstances; it also reminds us that all souls who have left God will go back to Him eventually.

By lighting a lamp or candle on the occasion of Diwali, we can also invite love and success into our homes. The common belief in India is that in this way, we can also invite Lakṣmī, the wife of Lord Viṣṇu, who is the Goddess of fortune, riches, beauty and joy into our homes. She is indivisible from Light, the Supreme Lord, therefore She will follow the lights and be our guest as well.

On the festival of Dīpāvali we invite everybody to light lamps, to carry the Light. We invite you with affection to the Festival of the Light by giving you the light of life force, of the festival, of knowledge at once, maintaining the beautiful and rich tradition of India.

www.krisna.hu

Subject of the main presentation:

Krishna Valley was founded 29 years ago on an abandoned sheep run. At the time, many thought it was just a dream, a dream of a self-supporting spiritual community. Today it may be the only token of survival. The organic farm has become the largest ecovillage of not only Hungary but of Central Europe as well. Its inhabitants not only share a common faith but also the principle of self-sustenance.

For three decades, Krishna Valley has been the pinnacle of sustainability in Hungary. The gardeners, inhabitants of Krishna Valley find that, because of the changing climate, they have to rethink the principles of agriculture, of food production, of food security and the supply systems have to change together with consumption habits, which have a deep impact on our immediate and wider natural environment. The future already started yesterday! The armed conflict going on in our neighborhood, the ensuing energy and food crisis, together with the economic downturn caused by the pandemic add up to something much more than a limited, local difficulty to form an overall global challenge.

Our chief speaker will be Bālamodaka Dāsa, chief gardener of Krishna Valley, who has been living in the Valley for 15 years. On the occasion of Diwali, he will expound to the audience the possible responses to the global environmental and energy crisis and will suggest a complete change of paradigm. Besides, he will share some secrets of organic gardening with the audience. We believe that this festival will give practical ideas to many of the participants.