From the very name of to-day’s festival (Deepavali), it can be seen that the Divine effulgence is manifest in it. ‘Deepavali’ means ‘the array of lights’. tamaso ma jyotirgamaya (Lead me from darkness to light, is an Upanishadic prayer). This means that where there is darkness light is needed. What is this darkness? Sorrow is one form of darkness. Peacelessness is another. Loss is another. Disappointment is one form of darkness. Misery is yet another. Lack of enthusiasm is another. All these are different forms of sorrow. You have to light the lamp of happiness. To dispel the darkness of disease, you have to install the light of health. To get over darkness of losses and failures, you have to usher in the light of prosperity. (SSS Vol.24, p. 140)

However, the lights lit on Dipavali day remove only the external darkness and not the darkness within man. Even when the sun shines brightly, his light cannot dispel the inner darkness. For this purpose, you have to learn a lesson from the external light. For instance, if you want to light a lamp, you need a container. You have to fill it with oil and place a wick in it. You need a matchbox to light the wick. Only when you have all the four accessories can you light the lamp. The lamp cannot be lit if any one of them is lacking. This lamp dispels the external darkness. As the wick burns, the oil is consumed. When the oil is exhausted the flame goes out. Saint Ramadas compared human life to a lighted lamp and declared in one of his songs that when the oil of life ebbs away, neither the wick nor the light will follow the departed. (SSS Vol.24, p. 141)

If the darkness of ignorance is to be dispelled, man needs a container, oil, wick and a matchbox corresponding to what an external lamp needs. For man, the heart is the container. The mind is the wick. Love is the oil and vairagya (sacrifice) is the matchbox. When you have these four, Atma-jyothi (the Divine flame of the Spirit) shines effulgently. When the light of the Spirit is aflame, the Light of Knowledge appears and dispels the darkness of ignorance. (SSS Vol.24, p. 142)

(See – Beginning, Co-Exist, Deepavali, Lamp, Narakasura)