Happy Diwali ! Don't buy crackers !!

When I was 15 years old, I stopped buying crackers for Diwali. This happened 40 years ago, in 1978. I was just 15 then, but had the realization that celebrating Diwali with crackers is nothing but adding to environmental pollution. I also observed that many people suffered regularly from breath related problems just around Diwali time. So, I used to reject the offer of my parents asking me to buy crackers. Since then, I have been constantly trying to enhance the awareness among all around me not to buy crackers and increase the air pollution. Very few understood me, others teased me and some others considered me to be a miser. Nevertheless, I firmly remained with my understanding. 

I do celebrate Diwali, but in a different way. I just light lamps in my house and sit in silent meditation as long as I could. This is how I celebrate my Diwali. I have been doing this for the past 40 years.

Recently, Supreme Court has ruled prohibiting the manufacture of crackers that emit heavy smoke, terrible sound and chemicals into the air. It also laid down that bursting of crackers should be resorted to from 8 PM to 10 PM. Immediately the Crackers Manufacturing Association of Sivakasi in Tamilnadu has rejected this ruling as untenable. I had a belly laugh after reading this news.

Who cares for law in this country? The honorable judges of Supreme Court may be right in thinking that their ruling will be automatically followed by everybody in the country. Sadly, it is not the fact. In India, everybody has his own set of rules. Nobody cares the courts and no institution can enforce the ruling of the court on people who are unwilling to follow them, all the while heading towards destruction. Not even he who is suffering from Ashtma and gasping for a breath of fresh air will stop celebrating Diwali with crackers. He is blissfully unaware of the fact that his Ashtma has its roots in the air pollution caused by bursting of crackers. Neither will he understand on his own, nor will he listen to sane advice. People of India are such !

The pollution generated by our country by bursting of crackers during Diwali time is badly affecting the environment of other countries too. This has been confirmed by satellites. The chemical smoke released into air, mixed with dust, plays havoc with the health of citizens by creating many respiratory problems. Environmentalists have been rising a hue and cry over this issue sing long, but who cares in this country? It is certain that we are heading towards some kind of mass destruction.

In my childhood, I felt somewhat skeptical after reading the Kala Jnanam (Predictions) of Saint Veera Brahmendra Swamy. He gave a gory picture of mass destruction that will happen in India by disease and war. Seeing the advancements in science and technology, I could not believe that his predictions will ever come true. However, after growing up a little and looking around the people of our society, I was convinced with the predictions of the saint. I understood that even intellectuals with Ph.Ds were grossly ignorant on many issues other than their fields of research. They are not open in their thinking. When this is the condition of the so-called intellectuals, what to speak of common men of our society who are no better than animals? Ignorance and adamant nature - these two demons are killing our society. When I observed their presence everywhere around me, I thought the saint was right in picturing Apocalypse-like events in his Predictions. He was true, we are certainly heading towards mass destruction !

There is a family in our vicinity. Their children reside in USA but visit India every year during Diwali. To exhibit the power of Dollar, they burst heavy crackers laying them on the road across two full lanes. These crackers keep on bursting for 10 to 15 minutes at a stretch with heavy sounds. Idiotic fools gather in large numbers to see this spectacle. I feel ashamed of myself to be a part of this idiotic society. But what can we do? The entire Indian society is such. For people like me who tend to think a little, the only choice available now is to leave this country to settle in a country which has a better society.

All said and done, we need to do something to better our society. So I am requesting all the members of Panchawati group to desist from buying crackers to celebrate Diwali this year. I also request my disciples who are in USA not to burst crackers during Diwali festival. Please keep that country clean, atleast. 

Please celebrate Diwali as I do. Light the lamps of awareness and meditation in you. Live totally fulfilled lives. Don't just live like animals.

Those who say they are following me should follow my way of life. Let us put forth a small effort to lessen the air pollution that is going to devour India during Diwali time. Are you aware that every year thousands of people including small children were dying with breathing problems in India, just after Diwali time? And the crackers you buy and burst are the culprits ! Don't become killers ! Become human beings !! Stop crackers during Diwali !!

I think this is a small gift that we can give to the idiotic society that we are living in !!