English
Diwali: Shri Rama Returns to Ayodhya
Source: Valmiki Ramayana, Yuddha Kanda (closing sargas)
The war in Lanka was over. Ravana had fallen, Vibhishana had become king of Lanka, and Shri Rama had Sita by his side once more. Now it was time to go home.
Vibhishana adorned the Pushpaka vimana, the flying chariot, and offered it to Rama. Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, Vibhishana, Sugriva, Hanuman and the chief heroes of the vanara army climbed aboard and flew towards Ayodhya.
Along the way Rama showed Sita all the places they had passed: this is the bridge, this Kishkindha, this Lake Pampa, this Panchavati, from where you were carried away… Sita's eyes filled with tears.
But a worry weighed on Rama's mind. Fourteen years earlier, at Chitrakoot, Bharata had told him, “Brother, if I do not see you on the very day the fourteen years are complete, I will enter the fire.”
The fourteen years of exile were about to end. Rama brought the vimana down at the hermitage of the sage Bharadwaja at Prayag and bowed to him. The sage told him that Bharata, wearing matted hair, was running the kingdom like an ascetic from Nandigram, with Rama's sandals placed on the throne.
Rama called Hanuman: “Go to Nandigram at once. Tell Bharata I am coming, and watch closely what his face shows when he hears it.”
Hanuman flew with the speed of the wind. Reaching Nandigram he saw Bharata, clad in bark, thin and worn from fasting, sitting before Rama's sandals…
Hanuman folded his hands and said, “Shri Rama, for whom you grieve, is well. Having slain Ravana and won back Sita, he is returning with Lakshmana and his friends.”
Hearing this, Bharata fainted with joy. When he came to, he rose and embraced Hanuman, and said in a voice wet with tears, “What can I give the one who brings me such dear news!”
Bharata told Shatrughna, “Decorate the city.” The streets of Ayodhya were sprinkled with water and strewn with flowers, and banners fluttered from the houses. The queen mothers, the ministers and the citizens all poured out to welcome Rama.
Bharata walked ahead carrying Rama's sandals on his head. Then the Pushpaka appeared in the sky, shining like the moon, and all Ayodhya cried out with one voice: “There is Shri Rama!”
The vimana landed. Bharata bowed at Rama's feet. Rama lifted him up and held him close. Fourteen years of separation melted away in tears in a single moment.
Bharata himself put the sandals back on Rama's feet and said, “Brother, I return to you the kingdom you left in my keeping. By your grace the treasury and the army have grown tenfold.”
Then the guru Vasishtha crowned Rama at an auspicious hour. Valmiki writes that in Rama's reign there was neither disease nor famine; everyone lived happily, steady in their own dharma.
Popular tradition says that on that night the people of Ayodhya lit lamps of ghee in every home to welcome their lord. Valmiki's Ramayana does not describe these lamps, but that same feeling has burned in the lamps of Diwali for generations.
What this story teaches
For fourteen years Bharata treated the kingdom not as his own but as something held in trust. This reunion of love, sacrifice and waiting is the true light of Diwali.
On Diwali evening lamps are lit in every home and Lakshmi and Ganesha are worshipped, and in North India the day is also celebrated as Shri Rama's return to Ayodhya. The reunion with Bharata and the coronation are described in the Valmiki Ramayana; welcoming Rama with lamps comes from popular tradition.
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