In plain words
Darkness and Light
Every holy day, too, is a divine sign that alerts us that Divinity is in man himself. “O ignorant man! Though the divine principle of the Ātma is in you yourself, you put it out of mind, put your faith in the world and waste your humanness,” declare the śāstras of Bhārata.
In the very name of today's festival lies the divine form of light. “Dīpāvali” means a multitude of lamps. Where it is dark, there light is needed. That is exactly why they said, “Tamasomā jyotirgamayā”. What is this darkness? Sorrow, loss, unrest, despair, dejection: all these are like darkness. If the ‘darkness’ called sorrow is to go, you must light the ‘lamp’ called joy. If the ‘darkness’ called disease is to go, you must light the ‘flame’ called health. Yet this joy and sorrow are only an evenness, each harmonising the other; they are not separate things.
The Month of Kaumudi
The inner meanings of these holy days are one thing in the worldly way and another in the spiritual sense. Yet an evenness lies within both. Fools who cannot understand this imagine a difference, invent all sorts of meanings, take up what is harmful and lose sight of what is real. When we examine the inner meaning of this festival from the side of science: long ago the people of Bhārata lived in the region of the South Pole. Here it is dark for six months and light for six months. On the day of “Meṣa Saṅkrānti” the sun rises; on the day of “Tulā Saṅkrānti” the sun sets. The time between this Meṣa and Tulā is six months. For these six months it stays light. After these six months, darkness begins in the sign of Tulā. This is the caturdaśī and the new-moon day of the month of Kārtīka. This very month got the name “Kaumudi”. From this day on, the dwellers in the South Pole region of that time would begin to light lamps. Because they had to spend their lives in unbroken darkness, they named this flame that they lit the “Nityajyoti”.
The Destruction of the Planet Naraka
Five thousand years ago there were certain planets. From time to time these planets come to an end of their own accord. Once a planet called “Naraka”, along with the planet Moon, was circling the sun very near. After some time this planet called ‘Naraka’ came close, about to strike the earth. Then the dwellers on earth had to suffer great sorrow from extreme fear and dread; all of them together prayed to God. They begged God to save them from that peril and to grant them the gift of their lives. Then Kṛṣṇa destroyed that planet Naraka by His Prajñā-śakti. They have always called this very Prajñā-śakti of Śrī Kṛṣṇa “Satya”. That is, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, together with Satyā, destroyed the planet Naraka. Then, on the occasion of their escape from this trouble, the dwellers on earth lit lamps in joy and delight, and that day they celebrated this festival gaily.