Happy Dussehra Festival (Vijayadashami)
Every Indian festival has wonderful spiritual meanings behind it. Hence today, let’s explore the spiritual significance of the divine festival of Dussehra / Vijayadashami, which is the essence of Ramayana!
It’s shown that Ram became victorious over Ravan on this day. And Ravan denotes vices & weaknesses, while Ram denotes purity goodness & virtues. Hence, Vijayadashami is symbolic of the victory of good over evil, the victory of original virtues over acquired sanskars.
It’s shown that Ram invoked the Shaktis before the war which helped him gain victory. Hence, it denotes emerging the powers lying hidden within us through meditation (i.e., connecting to God), by the pledge of purity, and by remaining awakened to eternal truths i.e., in the awareness of the direct spiritual knowledge being shared by God.
It’s shown that when they would cut any one head of Ravan, it would again re-emerge. But when they attacked the seed point, all heads broke off… This denotes the fact that we don’t need to work too much on each weakness, rather when we focus directly on soul-consciousness i.e., the awareness that I’m a soul full of divine virtues, it automatically starts finishing all weaknesses (because body-consciousness is the root of all weaknesses, hence soul-consciousness automatically finishes them all!)
We see the festival of Diwali follows the festival of Dussehra (and residents of Ayodhya are also shown lighting lamps i.e., Diwali to welcome the victorious Ram)… This signifies that life becomes a celebration every moment (Diwali), when we first win over our weaknesses (Vijayadashami!)
First, it’s very important to acknowledge the Ravan i.e., weaknesses residing within… Not to accept these uncomfortable emotions of anger hurt stress etc as natural or distract ourselves from them, but win over them with determination.
The weapons used in becoming victorious over negative emotions are the weapons of spiritual knowledge & meditation (the bow & arrow can also be interpreted as a pure intellect & points of spiritual knowledge inculcated in it respectively!)…. Indeed, the weapons shown in the hands of deities are not to be taken literally (since deities can never be violent towards others), but are actually symbolic of these subtle weapons to become victorious over the weaknesses within!
Ravan is shown most wealthy intelligent religious & powerful yet was defeated due to his ego greed & attachment. This illustrates that just external achievements are not enough, we also need inner virtues (& be free from vices) through Spirituality to lead a truly happy life.
On the other hand, Ram is shown victorious inspite of having an ordinary army of monkeys because they were full of God’s love, faith & determination. These qualities help accomplish great tasks (shown as crossing the Indian Ocean with just stones, & even heavy stones starting to float). Also because the main supporters of Ram were Lakshman (Lakshya + Man i.e., the one having a clear aim in mind), Hanuman (denoting a soul completely surrendered in God’s love) & Angad (power of determination)
After becoming victorious, it’s shown they rescued Sita from (A)shok Vatika…. Hence, when we become victorious over ourself, we’re also able to save other originally pure innocent souls (Sita) from the clutches of negative emotions & vices (Ravan), thus freeing them from sorrow (shok)!
Ravan’s kingdom is shown on the golden island of Lanka, but actually the whole landmass on earth is like an island (surrounded by water)… Hence, we understand that although we’re making lot of external material progress, the whole world in under the rule of negative emotions & vices today, hence being God’s loving supporters we need to free everyone around us from negativity!
Indeed, let’s become like Hanuman, who’s shown completely pure, having One God’s love in his heart, who realises & awakens to the immense powers within by just being reminded of them, hence not only becoming victorious himself but also freeing many other souls, thus helping in God’s great task of world transformation!
Conclusion [ Happy Dussehra Festival (Vijayadashami) ]
Hence, by inculcating the weapons of spiritual knowledge and emerging inner powers through meditation, let’s become victorious over the weaknesses within, hence making the experience of our original virtues victorious always… This makes each moment of our life a celebration, each day a festival, the way life was meant to be!… And we also become instrumental in illuminating other souls around hence the entire world too in the same way, bringing the Land of Happiness Satyuga once again!
Om Shanti!
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