By Kendrick Brown

Students and community members entered the ballroom of the Adele H. Stamp Student Union to celebrate Diwali, one of the most important Hindu holidays on Tuesday, Oct. 28.

Hosted by the BAPS Campus Fellowship, part of the grander Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, which focuses on fostering Hindu values across the globe, the event was split into two sections.

The first was a 30-minute section where guests were greeted at the door with a circle of booths, each focused on the grander application of the beliefs of the Diwali traditions, before they sat down and waited for the second section to start.

The second section was an hour-long program that explained the history of Diwali and why the beliefs it represents are important not only on the holiday but every day.

The meaning of Diwali, also known as the festival of lights, could mean something different for every person.

Some people would express the importance of the tale of Ramayana, where Lord Ram returns to Ayodhya following a 14-year exile and his defeat of the demon king Ravana.

Volunteer Shvuti Bhatt believes the holiday to be “a reminder to pause and to reflect and to see … decisions and things I’ve made in the last year, good or bad, and where I can improve.”

When asked what Diwali meant to her, Haley Patel, another volunteer at the event, said, “It’s such a common question, but I feel like anytime I answer it, I have a different answer.”

However, one volunteer, Nishtha Patel, a freshman information systems major, spoke on an overarching theme in all of these answers: forgiveness.

The importance of the Ramayana to the holiday is not in Lord Ram’s actions but the fact that he was allowed to come back to Ayodhya after exile.

Forgiveness is especially key in the broader application of the beliefs.

Patel hosted a booth at the front of the event, focused on the Japanese practice of Kintsugi, the art of replacing the cracks in an object with gold. This gold, when applied to Diwali, represents how the mistakes one makes in life are something that can be forgiven, and these flaws are just as valuable to making up a person as good qualities are.

Diwali is not just about forgiving others, but forgiving others for yourself.

During the second section of the event, a speaker, Swami Ghahmaran Das, brought up a story about the late Pramukh Swami Maharaj, a former leader of BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, and how he forgave terrorists who attacked his temple.

“He didn’t turn to look to who did, but he stopped and he prayed,” Das said.

Maharaj and his successor, Mahant Swami Maharaj, believe these are actions of God and thus there’s no value in hating people for their transgressions against you. Hanging onto the transgressions and hating others will only lead to these actions repeating themselves through the cycle of violence.

Das ended the event by saying: “if we are able to forgive, if we are able to move on and look towards the future, then we will be able to light the diyas (lamps) in our hearts and look through it into a brighter, more peaceful future.”

Featured Image: Diwali in the ballroom of the Adele H. Stamp Student Union on Oct. 28. Photo by Kendrick Brown.