Vrindavan widows to celebrate Deepavali

 The banks of the Yamuna river will come alive on Deepavali eve when thousands of “diyas” (earthen lamps) will be lit by aged widows of Vrindavan in a unique way of celebrating the festival of lights.

The three-day Deepavali celebrations will begin on Tuesday in Vrindavan, the land of Lord Krishna.  This will be the first such occasion when the river, which has become notorious for its high pollution content, will be given the pride of place on the occasion of Deepavali, in line with the government’s efforts to cleanse the river.

The widows will also take a pledge to ensure cleaning of the Yamuna, and their efforts will be twice blessed as a clean river bank will be all the more welcome for those performing “chhath puja” – (a festival during which the sun is worshipped in north and eastern parts of the country and rituals are performed on river banks and near water bodies).

For the Vrindavan widows,  this will be a record of sorts when they light the earthen lamps to ward off decades of darkness caved in their lives after they lost their husbands.
The widows will also sing bhajans there, said Bindeshwar Pathak, founder director of Sulabh International, an NGO active in the field of low-cost sanitation, which has adopted the widows in Vrindavan.

All the seven ashrams in Vrindavan, where these widows live, will be decorated with lights and earthen diyas during Deepavali. “Sulabh will continue with its nationwide campaign for welfare of widows,” said Pathak, while explaining the idea behind organising such rituals. He said that he intended to draft a bill and hand it over to Parliament to improve the plight of widows abandoned by their families. He urged all political parties to support the proposed bill.

In places like Varanasi and Vrindavan, hundreds of widows lead an isolated life to attain “moksha” or liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth. Living in small rooms in narrow alleys, they spend most of their time praying and looking for food, in the absence of family support.