Making sense of collectively lighting diyas on April 5 and other practices

We all look at homes as a place of solace, love and togetherness. And the lockdown is may be a good opportunity to reinforce this feeling. Besides making our homes clean and beautiful by choosing the best furnishings bed sheets, curtains, cushions, furniture and tableware, let us look at a few practices that are encouraged in our homes and in our culture, in general, and understand if they help make our lives and homes better: 

Lighting diyas collectively at 9 pm on April 5

Switching off electricity and lighting up our homes with diyas would make our homes look even more beautiful, but besides that there is science behind it. On this day, around 9 pm, the Earth passes between Mars and Venus, thus making our planet's magnetic forces more strong. When there is current of electricity, these magnetic forces lead to high blood pressure. We can combat this problem of high blood pressure by curbing electricity flow during this interval when Earth changes its orbit. Also, diya uses ghee and smoke from ghees fire purifies air, something we need in a situation like the Corona outbreak. 

Prayer, chanting and other religious practices 

People relate praying, chanting mantras, hymns, verses or certain words like Amen, Om etc to religion. It is prescribed by religion, but the reason is rather spiritual, beyond religion. It is for physical healing through spiritual healing. Chanting has spiritual significance. E.g., Om, frequently found in Buddhist and Hindu hymns and verses, is a sound said to have healing capacity. Similarly, there are many other religious or general customs, which pass down from generation to generation, but we seldom dig into the logic behind it  which comes from basic laws of nature, are in sync with sciences like Physics, Chemistry and Geography of the region the customs belong to. 

Hygiene of physical spaces and bodies 

Almost all religions prescribe hygiene of bodies and our surroundings as much as they do for the hygiene of the soul. We might believe that physical hygiene is needed only when we visit a shrine or sit down to pray, but this is not the case. We need this in general, even more when there is risk of spread of illness. E.g., in case of the Corona outbreak, we need to take some extra precautions in terms of sanitation. 

This is just a small set of practices that we hear about in our daily lives but miss to fathom. So, when you next hear someone talking about lighting diyas or any other thing that does not seem to have much significance, consider looking at it logically, and a means to make your life better. 

Solidarity and Finding Oneness with all 

The Cosmos is so big that not everything can fit into the logic square hole of our brains. Some of us may not find any logic to it, but we all agree that coming together and doing something, easily do-able like lighting up our homes, will re-enforce solidarity among us all. It will re-enforce that WE ARE ONE. It has been so many days under lockdown and many of us may be feeling lonely and depressed. So coming together and doing something collectively will enhance a simple fact that whatever the situation may be: We are not alone.