The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad gives us one of our oldest and simplest prayers:
“तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय”
“Lead me from darkness to light.”
Looking around today, that darkness feels very real. We see it in wars that refuse to end, a fracturing world order, deep economic complexity, and technology advancing so fast that the future feels harder to read than ever. When the world is this uncertain, it is natural to look outward and wait for the fog to clear.
But perhaps the deeper teaching of Deepawali is that this prayer is not a passive wish—it is a call to action. Darkness does not recede on its own. When the path ahead is unclear, we cannot just wait for the light to appear; in many cases, we have to become that light ourselves.
Through clarity of thought, steadiness, and right action, we build our own bridge forward. This Diwali, remember that we need to become the light to dispel the fog of darkness around us.
