Happy Diwali!

My friend Toral sent this email yesterday. I asked her if I could share it because I found it informative and intriguing. So, to Toral and our other Hindu readers, Happy Diwali! I'm going to light some candles...

Hi all,
I just wanted to send you a quick note to let you know that this week, I am celebrating one of the biggest Hindu Holidays. It is called Diwali. It marks the end of our calendar year and so, tomorrow will be New Years!! During this time of the year, the whole of India celebrates for about 10 days. It is also called the Festival of Lights and we mark this occasion by lighting as many candles as we can throughout the house and outside.
HAPPY DIWALI and a Happy New Year!!!
The Diwali festival marks the victory of good over evil, and uplifting of spiritual darkness. Symbolically it marks the homecoming of goodwill and faith after an absence.
While Diwali is popularly known as the 'festival of lights', a more appropriate significance is 'the new year of luck and wealth'.
Central to Hindu philosophy is the assertion that there is something beyond the physical body and mind which is pure, infinite, and eternal, called the Atman. Just as we celebrate the birth of our physical being, Diwali is the celebration of this Inner Light, in particular the knowing of which outshines all darkness (removes all obstacles and dispels all ignorance), awakening the individual to one's true nature, not as the body, but as the unchanging, infinite, immanent and transcendent reality. With the realization of the Atman comes universal compassion, love, and the awareness of the oneness of all things (higher knowledge). This brings Ananda (Inner Joy or Peace).
--Toral