Pictures of India

I received an email from my Indian friends. They are telling me that Tamil Nadu is celebrating a feast, that will last a few days. They sent me a few pictures that show a mandala and the celebration of light, people praying and the support given to the poorest, in this case mainly old people, by distributing food and blankets (it seems that the weather is cooling down and rain is still falling). In this post, you can see a picture of a mandala: Mandala is Sanskrit for circle, polygon, community, connection. It is a symbol of man or woman in the world, a support for the meditating person, often illustrated as a palace with four gates, facing the four corners of the Earth. In the centre is a light resting on a bed of petals.
In the next place are the walls of the palace (in this case: bricks) with gates towards the four corners of the earth. The gates are guarded by smaller lights.
Usually these drawings are used to meditate, or simply to wish a good day to the family, when they are made outside the houses.