Why should oil lamps be lit regularly at homes and holy places?

 

Question: 

“During my younger age my grandmother taught me that I have to light up a lamp before puja. I follow it till date, but feel that its only an ancient custom to light lamps (as there was no electricity then), and is not relevant today.

Is there really any significance in my grandmother’s teachings?”

His Holiness Sri Sri Muralidhara Swamiji says:

By lighting the lamp, you are getting rid of your sins.

Let me narrate an incident from Shirdi Sai Baba’s life:

When Shirdi Sai Baba first came to Shirdi, he used to go from home to home and from shop to shop begging for oil in a tin cup. With that oil, he would light numerous lamps in the nearby mosque. Later some mischief-mongers created a problem concerning his religion, after which no one offered to give him oil anymore.

Then he filled his mouth with some water and went to the mosque and emptied the water into his tin cup. With the water, he lit all the lamps.

By then, everyone had gathered to watch this miracle.

Baba told them, ‘You people don’t realize why I light these lamps getting oil from you. I do it only for your sake.

I am burning your sins by lighting these lamps in the oil that you give!’

So don’t miss lighting the lamps. Continue your practice.

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