Sadhguru: Good evening, good evening, everyone.
Today being Diwali, for those of you who are not familiar, Diwali essentially means “festival of lights”.
Light is very important for us, because our visual apparatus are made in such a way that without light,
we’re quite helpless. If we were made like an owl, we wouldn’t care for light.
But we are made like this, that without light, we are helpless.
So at this time of the year, towards the solstice, which is twenty-second of December, the planet gets positioned
in such a way that particularly the Northern hemisphere where we live, where at one time we believed
that land exists only in the Northern hemisphere.
In the Northern hemisphere, the Earth in position, in relationship with the sun,
is in such a way that everything slows down. Life gets into a state of inertia.
This is something that we have observed for a long time.
India being one nation or culture where there is over 12000 years of agricultural history,
probably the only place on the planet with over 12000 years, where they’ve been ploughing the same land.
So in this experience, they noticed that, during this time, from here onwards, ’til fifteenth of January,
a seed will not sprout at the same speed as it would in other times of the year.
Not just because of sunlight, simply because of the gravitational forces, the way they work.
The sun’s gravity, how it works upon the planet, brings a certain level of denseness
and inertia to the entire northern hemisphere.
So this is a time, when our own system slows down, mind can feel a little low, and depressed easily,
people can go into more depressed states during this time than any other time.
So normally you may be lighting… we’re talking about a time when people were using oil lamps.
Maybe you lit one or two lamps in the house, for your practical reasons.
So once this season comes, next one… one and a half months, or forty days plus,
you light up the entire house, as many lamps as you can afford.
You light it up because otherwise, it becomes depressive.
So the festival of lights has its origin in this understanding.
There are also other aspects attached to it.
Historical events which happened at that time, which are connected to the making of the festival.
So if you are not living a cracker of a life, at least burst some crackers (Laughter).
So today being Diwali, may this period of slow-down of life that normally happens on this planet
lead to contemplation, meditation, rather than depression.
Slow-down is fine, if it’s a positive slow-down.
Slow-down is bad if it’s a compelled slow-down, controlled slow-down from elsewhere,
but if you consciously slow down and make use of it to re-coop and rejuvenate ourselves, slow-down is fine.
So, may this period become a period of meditation, not of depression (Laughs).
It’s wonderful that all of you’re here today, on a Diwali day (Laughs).