BHAI-DOOJ:
This is the last day of Deepavali festival celebration. Let’s understand its meaning, its significance and recapitulate entire festival.
Bhai-Dooj observed on the second lunar day of Shukla Paksh (bright fortnight) of Kartik month of Hindu Lunar calendar. For some people it is the last day of Deepavali festival. There is very interesting story associated with this day. Yama and Yamuna are twins children of the Sun. Yama is the lord of death, justice, and ruler of Yamlok. He is responsible for escorting souls from earth to Yamlok. Since death can occur any day anytime Yamraj is always busy and cannot meet her twin sister Yami. Yami (Yamuna or Kalindi) is one of the wives of Lord Krishna and on her request Shri Krishna performs the duty of Yama on this day. So Yama can meet his sister hence this day is also known as Yama Dwitheeya.
Bhai-Dooj or Bhai-beej is very significant day. Among all the festivals this day does not represent victory of God but it represent Brother-Sister bond. It represents strong love between two opposite siblings without any romantic involvement.
In this story Shri Krishna took the responsibility of Yama, so he can be free for one day. Likewise in-laws should actively participate in the bond between their daughter in law and her brother. There is also tradition for Yamuna Snan. Yama is God of death but ‘Yamuna is lady of life’. It is believed that Goddess Yamuna is present on earth inform of river will free her devotees from their sins after this snan. It is very interesting to see that out of two siblings one represent death and one represent life. Both are equally important. And we all should celebrate the bonding of these two.
Another spiritual significance is that Yama shows his different aspect of his personality on this day. Tamas component of Yama decreases while Sattva component increases. As a result Yama becomes more gentle compare to his wrathful. He emerges Dharini and Poshini energies which are essential for sustenance so we should start our new year with these kinds of qualities (Sattva) and tries to decrease our Tamas qualities.
If you observed all these days including Bhai-dooj, you may realize that they are not stand alone festivals and they do not celebrate stand alone, polarized ideology but they are the pearls of the large necklace and represents wider connecting ideology. There is a simple tradition of putting Tilak on a forehead during Bhai-dooj, but on a spiritual plane this tilak act a reminder. On the day of Deepavali, we ignited lamps as a symbol of enlighten our soul to remove negative forces (darkness) from our body (house). Now, we have to remind ourselves that we are just one soul connected to ultimate soul (Paramatma). So when we interact with other this tilak will remind us that the other person is also a soul and connected with Paramatama the same way we are. During our majority of our life we have interacted with each other on the basis of our relation to them and most of the relations are not equal. There is always surge of power, love, or fear. For example, though parents love their children they demonstrate unconditional authority over them, same way children love their parents unconditionally but they also have to demonstrate the respect, fear and other emotions. Same goes to all the relations. On a longer run quantum of solace decreases if we interact with each other on the basis of relations. So this tilak remind us that with the beginning of new-year, we should also change our views and see each other as a soul. So we can give them same amount love, respect and warmness in spite of their age, caste, position in society, personal relations with us. This is the Vedic way of larger brotherhood.
उदारचरितानां तु वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम् ॥
-Maha Upnishad
So, Deepavali is not just festival of light and sound, every day of festival teaches the morals of the life. Every ritual has scientific rationing, and every small activity during the festival represents a small bit of large picture. Hopefully, we will understand the soul of this festival and celebrates it with igniting our soul by introspecting yourself and filled with love, compassion, empathy, respect, care, for each other and also setting new goals for oneself.