AYODHYA (the State of No Conflict)

This is my wife and her twin sister's (see www.grewaltwins.com) abstract take on Divali - the celebration of lights, the ten-headed demon of Raavan, and the state of Ayodhya which we conceptualised together, with my photography. This was released in November 2016 and the following caption draws light on our motivations behind this piece.

Diwali is one of the most important festivals in the Hindu calendar and is known as the 'Festival of Lights'. Many of us are familar with the story of Diwali and the central message of good conquering evil, and light conquering darkness.

Some may call the story of Diwali a myth, after all, how could there ever be such a thing as a ten-headed demon God (Raavan), a golden deer, and an army of flying monkeys? But this story is actually more of a beautiful metaphor than it is of an unbelievable myth.

Ram killing Raavan (the ten-headed demon God) in the thick of battle is not just a nice story of good conquering evil; it represents the very battle within us which we are fighting daily between our Divine Light (Ram) and our Ego (Raavan). Diwali is therefore the story of recognising our inner Light, Awareness and Conciousness. Diwali is also the story of us battling with our vices, and recognising the many faces of our Ego, which more often than not is successful at rearing one of it's many ugly heads each time we end up in 'Yodh' i.e. conflict with our Truth.

This story of Ram & Sita and Diwali is far from a myth; we only need to look at the state of destruction, distraction and deception within ourselves to see how true a story it really is.