How can Lamps and Lanterns be useful to us?
In our waking life today, stress and workload dictate our state of being. Having some time for ourselves or even just some time to unwind is a pleasure many seek. However, it is very important that we take out some time by ...
How can Lamps and Lanterns be useful to us?
In our waking life today, stress and workload dictate our state of being. Having so...
How can Lamps and Lanterns be useful to us?
In our waking life today, stress and workload dictate our state of being. Having some time for ourselves or even just some time to unwind is a pleasure many seek. However, it is very important that we take out some time by creating healthy boundaries and indulge in self-care and nourishment because, without a healthy mind and body, no work can ever be accomplished.
Thus, if you are someone who is taking time out or wishes to take time out to unwind and have a peaceful rest once in a while, you must be familiar with or you can try the concepts of warm baths, evening walks, long drives or even just listening to music. But a quick, low-effort but highly effective practice that you can try is, to experience warmth and calmness through the power of light.
Lighting candles, lamps, and lanterns are a great source of calm, warmth, protection, and positive energy. Lighting maps and lanterns are known to bring about positive changes. So let’s learn a little about the significance of this practice, religiously and spiritually.
What is its religious significance?
Lamps and lanterns are our primary source of creating positive light energy within our home space and/or office space, and Light is of great importance, especially in Hinduism.
Light is considered to be a form of Fire, which is an important element of the Panchtatwas, making it nothing short of sacred. Fire stands for our zeal and zest, motivation, passion, and also our creative energy.
Darkness is considered to make one go directionless and is associated with ignorance and evil, but light energy is what enlightens one’s soul and shows the way. It thus symbolizes prosperity, sanctity, abundance, spirituality, and auspiciousness.
Light energy is so important in Hinduism, that we cannot miss out on mentioning the famous festival of lights, Diwali. The modern world might see a greater emergence of rice lights and other kinds of stringed lights during Diwali, but the tradition of diyas, earthen lamps, and burning lanterns hasn’t gone away. No puja begins without lighting a lamp or diya and such is the power of burning lamps with tea light candles or just having a live source of Agni (fire energy).
What is its spiritual significance?
When lamps are lit with Ghee, the ghee along with the flame is considered to signify the goddess of wealth, aka, Goddess Lakshmi. The brightness is considered to showcase Goddess Saraswati who helps us with education and knowledge and finally, the heat from the lamp is said to be representing Goddess Durga, the destroyer of all that is evil.
Alternatively, the ghee or oil in lamps is said to be the negativity inside us. The wick is considered the ego. Lighting the wick means to light it with spiritual knowledge. This helps our negative tendencies to gradually exhaust and for the ego to slowly die out.
The smoke is believed to be good for our energy centers within and improve our bio-magnetic fields, which is why people for generations lit up a lamp during the morning sunrise and during the evening sunset.