From darkness to light: Don’t blow out, light up birthday cake

Letter from New Delhi

By Kul Bhushan

Everyone at the party shouts, ‘Happy Birthday’ and you blow out the candles to wild clapping, singing and hugging. This Western ritual has become the norm for almost all birthday celebrations all over the world. As you blow out the candles which also represent the flame of life, have you ever wondered if there is another way of celebrating birthdays?

Yes, there is. Just turn this ceremony upside down when you light up a candle instead of blowing it out. Let’s follow the ancient Hindu mantra – Tamso Maa Jyotir gamaya or Lead me from darkness to light. Just as the only remedy for darkness is light, the only solution to ignorance is knowledge. This prayer does not request health, wealth, status, or happiness, but rather the knowledge of our true nature. In essence, liberation.

Now all this may sound very serious but it’s not, especially the manner in which it is practised. Let’s try it. Just switch off the lights or dim the lights if it is evening. Then recite this short mantra in a sing-song style and light a candle or a lamp. As the light comes on, everyone claps and cheers. Hold on, it’s not over yet. Now all the other guests at the party have their chance. Each one gets a small lamp which he/she lights and makes a wish for the birthday boy/girl. Now it depends what you are wishing for: May you live a hundred years, may you enjoy robust health, may you find your true love, may you travel the world and so on and on. Here you need imagination after the obvious ones are over.

Now these small lamps are arranged around the cake before it is cut and shared by all. As the plate becomes empty, the lamps are still burning and so these lamps are taken to new spots to light up the entire party place.

Another unique aspect of this birthday celebration is that the cake is not decorated with the number of years that have already passed. Normally, the cake displays the figure(s) of the years gone by. Here the cake has the number of years left to celebrate the century of the person who is celebrating. In other words, everyone is looking forward to the number of years still to come, not counting the years gone by. This implies the good times ahead.

As this procedure was followed with cheers and laughter, almost all the guests were enthused and remarked that they, too, will start with this system to bring new energy into their birthday parties dubbed From Darkness to Light.

And musing over darkness, have you wondered how darkness disappears once light enters a room. Go into a dark room and no matter how hard you try, you cannot pull or push away darkness because you can’t grab it, drag it, pull it or push it out. Then light a candle or switch on the light and the darkness vanishes at once. It is the same for day and night as darkness takes over when the sun sets and remains supreme until the sun rises again.

Osho has the last word on darkness: “Gautam Buddha has called his ultimate state of being, nirvana. Even Buddhists have not thought of it as darkness, because the very word produces bad associations in us. But nirvana means exactly “darkness”; literally it means blowing out the candle. But what does it mean? Blowing out the candle, what remains then? Eternal deathless, abysmal darkness.” 

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 14 March 2025