THE MEANING OF KARTIK
By Khem Jokhoo
Express Section 2
November 30, 2001
Pages 17 and 19
Kartik Snaan, locally called Kartik Nahan, is the last Hindu festival in the calendar year. It falls in the 8th lunar month named Kartik, usually in October/November. It is customary for people to go to the rivers or oceans to do pujas and take a bath (snaan). It is the general belief that your sins or bad karmas are washed away or forgiven when you perform this ritual.
In the path of devotion or bhakti, there are many stories and myths as to the occasion. The most common is giving thanks to Varuna, the water god, or Indra the god or rain or giving thanks in general for health and wealth.
However the deep underlying devotional feeling is that your difficulties and obstacles would be mystically removed. This is supported by the kartik full moon that is supposed to give some future signs because of its darker reddish colour.
The name 'kartik' is symbolic of the auspiciousness of the month and reflects the end of the dark ages, the conquest of good over evil, light over darkness and the return of peace, purity and prosperity. Kartik is synonymous with the word 'kalpa' which means change or transformation, but metaphorically kalpa represents a cycle in the world eternal drama. Its generic meaning is that of change or transformation but it has been completely lost and the use of the word 'kalpa' has been transformed to mean a period, era or cycle.
In the path of devotion, there is the story of how the gods and goddesses lost control of the world when they were overpowered by the demons. The story continues as to how goddess Lakshmi appeared from the ocean and with the help of Vishnu, the ocean was churned and the nectar obtained was consumed by the helpless gods who regained their strength to defeat the demons and resumed control of the world. This story is only symbolic. In the path of spirituality, this means to churn the 'ocean of knowledge' and imbibe the virtues and discard the vices often called 'poison'.
In the path of knowledge, the highest and purest civilisation existed in the golden age when both humanity and the environment enjoyed the highest and perfect stage of purity, peace and prosperity. The lowest stage of purity is at the end of the iron age when both humanity and the environment became degraded. The loss of purity of both the soul and the five elements reflected the equivalent accumulation of impurity, called maya. This is analogous to the two 'eternal and spiritual' laws of thermodynamics that state the world's energy resources is constant and any misuse becomes wastage that we called pollution or 'entropy'.
Orderly things become disorderly when not maintained or sustained and this is known as 'entropy'. The degradation of the environment is called 'physical entropy' and the impurification of the soul by the vices is called 'spiritual entropy'. This is the key to the understanding of the eternal world drama.
Kartik therefore is memorial of the transformation of this old iron-aged world to the golden-aged world. In the 30 days before Kartik, Nau Ratum, Ram Leela, Dasehra and Divali are celebrated. These festivals reflect how the 'shakti power' of the goddesses, worshipped at Nau Ratum, is used to destroy the ten vices or faces of Dasehra.
This culminates in the celebration of Divali, the memorial of light over darkness or good over evil. This entire month of Kartik is similar to the Christian 'Lent' or the Islamic month of fasting called Ramadan. In reality, the hidden revelation is that all the Hindu festivals in the year from Gita Jayanti in February to Kartik in November are but activities in that most auspicious event called Shivratri, Kartik being the last activity.
Shivratri is symbolic when God Shiva descends and incarnates at the end of the iron age in that auspicious confluence age called 'Purushottam sangam yug' to protect the virtuous, destroy the evil, reestablish righteousness and the golden age of satyug (Gita ch4 v7). The other revelation is that all the important festivals of the major religions are overlapping or cooperating to have their own confluence.
So the deep spiritual significance of Kartik is symbolic of the purification of humanity and the environment. Kartik represents the purification of all souls and the five elements. So the taking of this bath in the river Ganges or the ocean called 'Kartik Snaan' is in reality to bathe in the 'Ocean of knowledge' or 'Ganges of knowledge' to cleanse the soul of all the impurities or 'entropy' accumulated in the dark ages of copper and iron. This conquest of 'light over darkness' with the 'ocean of knowledge' is called the 'dance of knowledge', also called the 'dance of Shiva' or 'Naturaja'. The cooperation of the elements to cleanse themselves through floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and fires is the 'cosmic dance' also called the 'dance of Shiva'.
- Khem Jokhoo is a student of yoga and meditation