Why Diwali is celebrated on Amavasya having debilitated Sun?

Alternate Question: Why Diwali is celebrated on the Amavasya day when Sun also is debilitated and Moon doesn’t have Paksha Bala?

Somebody put up this point that Dipawali is the day when Sun is debilitated and Moon is also weak due to Amavasya, but that was the day when Ram Rajya started. He concluded, hence debilitation (neecha) doesn’t have any meaning in astrology.



Interesting question indeed and lots of people do not know the reason and hence come up with incorrect conclusion. I just want to clear this confusion out by sharing my thoughts.

Deepawali is celebrated on the day when Sun is debilitated (neecha). If a planet is neecha, it loses majority of its strength. Not only that, Moon is also weak because Deepawali is celebrated on Amavasya, the day when Moon is very close to Sun and doesn’t have paksha bala. For Moon, paksha bala is the most important strength and Moon is very weak without it. So the question arises why we celebrate our most important festival on such a day? Generally for any important work, we choose a day when the planets especially Sun and Moon are powerful, so why an exception here?

The reason lies in intelligence of our sages. Sun is the planet of light; Moon is the planet of wealth. On the day of Diwali, these two planets are weak and dark forces are very powerful. As these planets are weak and dark forces are powerful, we pray, we worship, and we light candles/ deepak to strengthen good forces. Good forces require support in terms of all the lighting and worshiping efforts. In other words, praying, worshiping, lighting candles are mass-scale remedies to support good forces against dark forces.

We remove tamas (dark) and bring Jyoti (good forces) back by defeating the dark forces. Our sages were very intelligent; they knew when this world needs mass scale remedies and made the festival on the day.

Diwali is not alone, our Sages has suggested puja and prayers on all amavasya by different names. So make sure that you light your world and defeat dark forces this Diwali.