Candlelight imitates the Deya

Candlelight 

Many religions of the world lights a candle for numerous reasons on various occasions or by ritualistic traditions. It is becoming synonymous with the Hindu lamp (Deya) which has symbolized sacrifice, energy, knowledge and a medium of communication with our creator. A flame, then, represents the energy vibration which will ultimately communicate with our creator for its final verdict or blessing. Hence, this tradition contains a wealth of intellectual and spiritual significance. The world will unite with a candle light which simply contains the matter that mother earth had been formed with. The candle has grown up to be a symbol of enlightenment; it illuminates spirits, minds and hearts in every culture, scripture and mythology. Candles emit positive energy and convey to the universe your intentions.  It is composed of mineral wax and the cotton fiber.

Candles

A candle is an ignitable wick embedded in wax or another flammable solid substance such as tallow that provides light, and in some cases, a fragrance. It can also be used to provide heat, or used as a method of keeping time. Candles have evolved parallel to the human settlements and finally science has given it a more acceptable place in history.

In the mid-1850s, James Young succeeded in distilling paraffin wax from coal and oil shales at Bathgate in West Lothian and developed a commercially viable method of production. Paraffin could be used to make inexpensive candles of high quality. It was a bluish-white wax, burned cleanly, and left no unpleasant odour, unlike tallow candles. By the end of the 19th century, most candles being manufactured consisted of paraffin wax and stearic acid.

It is employed to birthdays, romantic dinner parties, death rituals, worshiping of the Lord, light in darkness and in celebrations like Christmas and other religious holidays. The burning of candles for religious causes goes back to ancient times.  Many spiritual worshipers believe that the flame of the candle pierces the veil between the physical and the spiritual world and creates a passageway that allows the participants to be more readily received by those from whom assistance is requested. A candle has been the witness of Religion, Rituals and Romance with the beginning of time.

Birthday cake candles

The candle found its rightful position in the western world on a birthday cake. The birthday celebration is a yearly event that has been enjoyed with a very interesting ritualistic act. On a cake stood a candle or candles and to commence the ritual act, the candle was lit and all the well-wishers singing a wishing lyric for the birthday. The candle or candles were blown out by the birthday celebrator with a huge applause; cheering sounds were echoed for the birthday celebrator by the party gatherers. With the happy cheers, a piece of the cake was given as an offering to the well-wishers and then the rest of the party continued.

One of the Vedic students pointed out as a statistic that the western birthday celebration was a perfect ritual to have acknowledged Agni dev, having taken the blessings of the creator on a birthday. The candle gave out photons and produced a protective aura around the candle having blessed a longer and happier life for the birthday celebrator. The cake then became a blessed offering or Prasad as it stood right under it or in its aura (Urja). The cake was given out as Prasad or blessed offering to all the well-wishers. The only thing he did not agree with was the blowing out of the candle. If the western way of celebrating the birthday was more appealing, then he recommends to all Vedic and Indian followers to leave the candle on the table without blowing it out. Once lit, you must not blow on Agni deva to put it out but let it burn out.

The Vedic way of celebrating a birthday is to invite Agni deva via a Havan or a Yagna and thus Agni deva blesses the birthday celebrator with many types of photons produced by the offering to Agni Deva, called Ahuti. Agni Deva is thus the witness of your auspicious occasion as it leaves a protective aura around its surrounding and for the one who performs the ritual. The candle has now taken the place of the Havan or Yagnas in the contemporary society.

This would allow a portrayal of the creator itself in all our celebrations and performances. The Hindu ritual of lighting a lamp was inherited from Sanatan Vaidik Hindu Dharma and has convinced the populace of a heavenly force which is the custodian of this planet earth and still by lighting a candle makes the world obey the ancient customs and the cosmic reality, in the technologically advanced world. Ceremonies and celebrations are in a man’s blood. A celebration, sacrifice, worship or a ritual when turned inward means cosmic identification and awareness.

The light of a Hindu lamp (Deya) or a candle is a divine messenger of our creator, devoted to spiritual energy (Urja). Lighting a Deya or a candle daily in your homes, will invite the messenger who would be waiting to take the days massages to your creator or god. This will empower the sadness and happiness that you are to face with, giving you peace and joy for the day.

The Scientific Reality of a Flame

Flame

In quantum physics, light is described in a wave and a particle form. The wave particle duality has been contested and experimented by many physicist and have excepted the resulting results that light behaves in both forms, as waves and particles. Consciousness is the only witness to this reality.

If we were to find the different frequencies of light generated by different mediums then we will be able to find the different energies of the photons. It will be interesting to compare the ancient Hindu believe of different lamps and as to why?

 Formula: E = h f where: E = Energy of the photon (in Joules) h = Constant, actually known as Planck's constant, equals 6.62606957 × 10-34 m2 kg / s.. f = frequency of the light in units of per seconds (1/seconds)

Science of a flame

The candle flame is studied the most, and it is important to know its attributes as they are similar to the Deya or Deepam

Symbolism in Hinduism of a flame in a Deya

The Deya is the central theme of Hindu prayers and each part of the Deya is symbolised with the Vedic Deities and the Panchmahaboot. It is interesting to note how traditions and rituals promoted these Vedic teachings in symbolism. The Deya or Deepam or the Hindu lamp stood the test of time in the continuation of the Vedic teachings. In the study of the Deya it takes me back in the mystic past. The Indians knew some amazing things but just dint knows how to pass it on scientifically to the common man. So they made them into mythological stories .Mythology creates faith and makes the mind practical .Now it is just the way you look at it, Religious or Scientific.

 The five  tatvas, which we experience as qualities in the body and in all matter, are: Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether (Panchmahaboot). These five earthly tattvas are qualities in our senses and in the world. A Tattva is vibration of ether. Pancha Bhoota or Pancha Maha-Bhoota (Sanskrit: पञ्चभूत, पञ्चमहाभूत ) , five great elements, also five physical elements, is a group of five basic elements, which, according to Hinduism, is the basis of all cosmic creation.

In Hinduism, Shakti (Devanagari: शक्ति; from Sanskrit shak, "to be able"), also spelled as Sakthi, meaning "power" or "empowerment" is the primordial cosmic energy and represents the dynamic forces that are thought to move through the entire universe. Ghee or clarified butter is an element of Shakti and as a consistent energy source which is used as a fuel in the Deya

Prakṛti. Prakṛti, also Prakṛiti or Prakṛuti (from Sanskrit language प्रकृति,prakṛti), means "nature". It is a key concept in Hinduism, formulated by its Samkhya School, and refers to the primal matter with three different innate qualities (Guṇas) whose equilibrium is the basis of all observed empirical reality. All plants store energy and that stored energy can be used by burning it. The cotton fiber also has that stored energy which burns when lighted. The cotton fiber is thus an element of nature.

 Conduction Convection and Radiation is thermal energy and the flame persuades its scientific reality. The Hindus regarded this energy as Spiritual energy termed as URJA and is ritualistically dedicated to Agni Deva. The Deya or the Hindu lamp personifies a spiritual worship by representing the aura of the flame that would occupy the conscious mind, body and soul with the universal consciences.

URJA means Spiritual energy. The term energy has been widely accepted by writers and thinkers of various forms of spirituality and alternative medicine. Many references are made in conceiving this as   “fields” surrounding the earth, any living thing or energy and matter, supposed to be directly visible and accessible to the human mind as “auras”, “rays”, “fields” or “vibrations 

The original homogeneous energy from creation is often called Akasha in Indian philosophy and modern occult circles. This is the residence of Urja. In alchemy and other incarnations of the Perennial Tradition it is termed the Secret Fire ( Agni Deva). This elemental psychic energy is completely instinctual and unconscious and is heavily influenced by spiritual, psychic, and psychological phenomena. One of the major functions of the Secret fire is to increase human self-awareness. At the lowest level, this is the ego, at its highest, it is the Higher Self.

Meditation on a Flame in Jewish Mysticism

Nefesh , Ruach, Neshama Chaya and Yechida  describes the divine soul that involves in five ascending levels of consciousness

An ideal Hindu Deya

Diya

A Diya, Diyo, Deya, divaa, deepa, deepam, or deepak is an oil lamp used in Nepal and India, usually made from clay, with a cotton wick dipped in ghee or vegetable oils.

The Deya (Hindu lamp) thus consisted of three major components,

·         Cotton fiber,

·         Clarified butter or ghee, oil and

·         Earthen container

1 Cotton fibers

It is a vegetable fiber obtained from the mature capsule of the cotton plant. Science has confirmed that all plants have bio photons.  Cotton cultivation first spread from India to Egypt, China and the South Pacific. It was the only versatile vegetable fiber, then existing in India. The fiber has good absorbency, good durability, comfort and soft, cool retention and many more properties that were useful to mankind. The fiber of cotton can be also mounded into a wick. Virtually all parts of the cotton plant are used in some way, including the lint, cottonseed, linters, stalks and seed hulls. It was the single resourceful plant in the liveliness of the Hindus in the early stages of development.

2 Clarified butter or ghee

The clarified butter or ghee is a kind of oil (fat) used for religious purposes and for food. Ghee is made by melting butter, cooking off the water and separating the pure, golden butter fat from the milk solids. Another advantage of ghee is that it is under a longer shelf life than ordinary butter. Traditionally, ghee is always made from cow's milk. Milk is the most sacred liquid serviceable to mankind. The mammals produce milk for their offspring’s and it’s so nutritious that we are farming milk from cows feeding many undernourished people and children. Milk substitutes meat in all its values without killing the animals.

When the milk is kept longer, it goes sour following the law of nature. The curdled milk is used to produce butter. In olden days, the milk maids use to hand churn and collected the butter from the summit. It was the fat in the milk that was collected as cream. At every stage, the milk is good for mankind. A cow has remained a frequent companion throughout the civilization of mankind and many spiritual attributes are given to the cow in the Hindu religion. Ghee has served in every stage of Hindus life and the most recommended oil for devotional prayers and food.

From practical experiences Hindus concluded that different oils had dissimilar flames and held the ghee lamp to be the best that had divine qualities. Very convincing according to science, those atoms of different molecules will give dissimilar photons or light produced by different matter is not the same.

The oil lamp generates subtle armour of inferior quality around the worshipper while ghee lamp generates subtle armour of superior quality. The subtle frequencies emitted from the oil lamp activate the Mind-energy (Manashakti) of the worshipper whereas the subtle frequencies emanating from the ghee lamp activates soul energy of the worshipper.

 Though the use of ghee is recommended because of its capacity to emit maximum sattva frequencies, we can use sesame oil lamp if the use of ghee is not possible. The lamp with sesame oil is comparatively more sattvik. Sattvik is a quality of nature or matter or of components in the universe signified by purity to balance an action which is guided by cosmic wisdom and that which is of goodness developing real knowledge or truth.

3. Clay

Clay was the leading resourceful material used by early humans in their everyday life. Life on earth depends on matter and the use of matter in human life is not just the continuation but also of existence.  Potters accumulates the clay, removes all the gems and shapes it into the required pattern on the potter’s wheel. When sun dried, it is baked in a kiln at a high temperature, which removes all the water from the clay, inducing reactions that lead to enduring changes including increasing their strength and hardening and setting their shape. Around 5000 B.C., the potter's wheel was invented, probably by the Sumerians in the Tigris-Euphrates basin or the Chinese. Hindus picked up this art and made numerous useful artifacts that were used for worshipping the creator. Clay was the principal matter that again touched the lives of early humans. The Hindus believed that the finished shape of the clay lamp is blessed with the sun (Surya deva) and fire ( Agni deva)

The clay is replaced by pure metals like gold, silver or copper. Copper is the recommended metal for Hindu ritual ceremonies and prayers, alloys of cooper like brass is also used to give it the imitation look of gold. 

The birth of a Deya (Hindu lamp) 

   

When an individual chooses the three most informative and Sattvic ingredient, the cotton fiber, the ghee and rested in the earthenware, a lamp is fixed. With the help of Agni Deva, the tip of the wig will burn into a bright flame giving light. This flame is so unique and pure or sattvic that it has taken a place of God’s altar in worshiping the Creator. This ritual has stood the test of time and the Hindus confirm this, by lighting the lamp, as the most auspicious unit in their lives. The photons that are produced in this combination have many divine powers and it became a messenger to god or our creator. The aura of this flame is divine and is created as a blessed messenger of the creator.

Different Wicks made of Cotton, Lotus steam thread and Banana stem are also used for a Deya. It is prescribed to light up the lamp with cow ghee but  Sesame Oil ,Coconut Oil , Til oil and some mixtures of oils is also used to fix a lamp. Clay lamps are widely used for spiritual rituals and the significance of clay lamp is extreme in all kinds of prayers and devotional religious customs. Silver lamp, gold lamp, brass lamp and copper lamps are also commonly used.  But none of them use Iron and steel

With the pure cotton fiber, pure ghee (it still represents animal fat) and a vessel made with the element of mother earth, the purest of all is copper, would produce an illumination which will vibrate the universal consciousness with the Sattvic reality linking our creator to its life on earth (matter). Ghee lamp has also an ability to attract the sattvik vibrations present in the surrounding atmosphere and gives spiritual experience of all the Tatvas (Akasha Tattva, Vayu Tattva, Tejas Tattva,  Apas Tattva , Pritvi Tattva) to the worshipper motivating them to higher planes of consciousness.

Philosophy of the Deya (Lamp)

                                  

The Deya is philosophized to inspire the worshipers of its creation, preservation and dissolution. The cotton fiber and the ghee scarified themselves, giving light to many a dark night. Clay pot witnesses this sacrifice. It seemed as though only the mother earth's lap was available to receive the final abode with such a sacrifice.  It was this pure light that eradicated the darkness, offering services to those in need. Taking note of the fact that a lamp made of pure ghee gives a flame without soot and considered the most sattvic (spiritually pure) entity. The lamp is the greatest symbol of scarifies, instructing our lives that the true sacrifice springs from the recognition of the ego with the ultimate and thus represents the universal vibration recognized as AUM or OM arising from the voids of an agitated atoms by the heat of the fire.