A day before Deepawali comes the festival of Narak Chaturdashi, also popularly called Chhoti Deepawali. Lamps are lit on this night as on Deepawali. The story goes that Krishna, along with his Queen Satyabhama, killed the tyrannical Narakasura and freed 16100 girls from his captive home, on this day.

Lamps were lit to celebrate their release. It is said that Narakasura was cursed to die in the hands of a woman. Fearing this, Narakasura imprisoned all the women in his kingdom. That is why Krishna killed Narakasura with Queen Satyabhama as his charioteer.

If you see the true meaning of this story, you will find that when a true seeker practices devotion, meditation and selfless work, then his divine power i.e. Satyabhama, emerges in the form of Devi Kali. This power, by moving upwards, destroys the sanskara of the mind with the help of Krishna in the form of self-consciousness, due to which 16100 desires of the mind are freed and the seeker is filled with divine energy. The lamp of knowledge burns within the seeker.