The B.K. Learning Center for Peace glittered with a thousand lights and the atmosphere was festive last Saturday night as more than eighty people gathered together to celebrate the beautiful and ancient Indian festival of lights – Diwali. True to the mission of the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organization, the program offered music, skits, laughter and dance as a backdrop for its delivery of a unique and powerful spiritual interpretation of the meaning of Diwali. The program was sponsored by the Boston branch of this international organization, whose meditation center is located at 75 Common Street in Watertown MA. The next day, two additional programs brought the important message of this festival to participants in both Rhode Island and New Hampshire.

The Watertown program opened with a traditional Indian dance called “Shudhnritram”, performed beautifully by Stephanie and Padmani Buchan, which set a colorful cultural tone for the coming events of the evening. The dance was followed by a humorous and informative skit performed by members of the Learning Center for Peace. Through humor, the actors reminded us that Diwali honors the return of true spiritual wealth into the world. Next, Mario Barros, the Cuban humorist from Boston, provided further fun and showed through his music and stories that the message and feeling of hope is universal around the world- a way to unite us all with laughter and joy.

The candle-lighting ceremony brought representatives from temples and religious groups around the city together as they honored the light within each of us, the light that makes us all brothers and sisters, the light of the soul.

The guest speaker, B.K. Dolly Lal, coordinator for the B.K. centers in New Jersey, shared spiritual insights. Sister Dolly reminded us that as human beings we have a right to happiness, peace, fun, ease and comfort. We often give up these rights in the face of the negativity and stress of today’s world.

“Everyone wants peace,” she says. “If I become the negative circumstances and situation, then I forget that I am peace…. Diwali is a memorial of many things, but especially it is a reminder that we are the light and that we create light externally as well.”

She further encouraged us to take up the positive authority to maintain our own happiness as she continued, “Everything else in me except happiness is false. Let me be that happiness.”

The evening ended with a beautiful guided meditation, led by Sister Dolly, which ignited and strengthened the flame of the soul in each of us. Sister Dolly spread her message even further as she traveled to Cranston RI and Nashua NH the next day. The location may have changed, but her special message of love and light touched the soul just as deeply.    

The Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organization acknowledges the intrinsic goodness of all people. It is a worldwide family of individuals from all walks of life who are committed to spiritual growth and personal transformation and believes inner growth and change are essential for the creation of a peaceful and just world.

For more information about the programs offered by the B.K. Learning Center for Peace, or to learn the simple but powerful method of Raja Yoga meditation, please visit its website, www.bkboston.org, or call 617-926-1230.

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