I created and uploaded a short video onto my YouTube channel to wish you a Happy Diwali. (length: 1'47")
Happy Diwali !!! (Oct. 20, 2025)https://youtu.be/LAq7jaRTWTk?si=q3DOYpKpWq7btB_u
October 20, 2025, at home: Happy Diwali !!! In other words, Happy Hindu New Year !!! I wish you much happiness, health, and spiritual and financial prosperity during the new year !!!
My religion is Gaudiya Vaishnavism, also known as Hare Krishna, which is a sect of Sanatana Dharma, also know as Hinduism.
Diwali, also know as Deepavali, is the five-day Hindu "Festival of Lights" which is celebrated this year from October 18 to 22, 2025. The third day (today) is the main day of the holiday, marking the start of the Hindu new year. Diwali, my favorite holiday, falls on a different date every year.
Today, on this day, October 20, 2025, leave your doors and windows open, and put a candle in the window, so that Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth, can find you to bestow spiritual and financial prosperity during the coming year. My wonderful wife just purchased for me two battery-powered candles (typically used as Christmas decorations), which I will put into two windows of our home this evening. I used to use live candles, and then I switched to an electric candle for safety reasons.
Make sure your home is clean because Lakshmi visits the cleanest homes first.
On a practical level, businesses in India start their fiscal year on Diwali, so their fiscal year starts on a different date every year. Also, today is the only day of the year when gambling is permitted.
To celebrate, I will order Indian food for dinner from a nearby restaurant this evening, as I do every Diwali.
Incidentally, I brought two murti (small Hindu statues) with me into the operating room when I had my quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery on March 9, 2022: Lord Krishna, the main god whom I worship, for blessings; and Lord Ganesha, the elephant god, to remove obstacles.
PICTURE EXPLANATION: I found the picture below online. I liked it, so I decided to post it with this greeting. The "swastika" is a sacred symbol in the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain religions. It is ubiquitous in India. The word translates to "good life." It's an auspicious symbol of good luck and prosperity.
Each cup is called a "diya" which is a lantern/light. A wick (string) and a little oil are placed within the diyas and then lit to celebrate the Festival of Lights. Sometimes, the diyas are arranged in the shape of a swastika.
So, now, I bid you: Hare Krishna (two names of God, both part of the maha-mantra along with Rama, as the third name of God) and Namasté (meaning, "The God/Light within me honors the God/Light within you."
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