navaratri dussehra

[Guest guest]

Namaskar,

Dussehra on October 26 is all about the victory of Dharam over Adharam. Burning

of Ravana signifies that. In Bharat violence was taken to for the purpose of

defending Dharma simply put as righteosness. On this festive occassion the

Maharashtra govt has asked all Dandiya mandals to stop their ras-garbha by 10

pm, noise pollution, quoting a supreme court order. But blaring Allah oh Akbar

five times a day from mosques 365 days a year is not pollution. The

loudspeakers can be heard kms away. But we are a secular country! Anyway lets

enjoy the festival. If yu like to know about Mysore Dussehra festival or Durga

worship mail in yr request.

love and om sanjeev

India is a diverse land. Himalayas in the North, desert in Rajasthan, forests in

the North East, plains in the South, rivers all over, beaches in the east and

west. Till recently our country did not have modern means of communication, yet

we find priests in Kathmandu, Kashmir, Assam reciting the famous prayer to the

Sungod, the Gayatri Mantra, in precisely the same intonation, accent, to the

very syllable, in which a priest in Kerala or Bengal would. And Gayatri is just

one of the thousands of mantras that have been handed down to us over the ages.

The festivals of Dussehra and Deepavli are a picturesque web into which so many

strands have gone, religious, social and cultural, cherished and preserved by

people in the north, south, east and west alike. There may be variations in

details, social values attached to it but the essence is one. For e.g. in

Maharashtra it also the commencement of the fresh crop year. But in the south

Maharashtra, western ghats the occasion is looked upon as the parting of

seasons and coming in of the sunny weather.

The mythology may be the same in north or south, although the emphasis may be

more on one aspect in some parts of the country. I cannot help but appreciate

the marketing genius of the rishis who invented these traditions. They used the

same festival to weave the country into one cultural unit and practiced the

popular MNC mantra, think global, act local, long before MNC’s ever existed. It

reflects their understanding of human psychology. India represented the world

while a region was local. It is similar to Hindustan Lever selling different

variants of Taaza Tea in the North and South catering to differences in taste.

Man is a bundle of desires. Everything that he does is with the intent of

satisfying them. The ancient rishis knew that to gain the state of Absolute

Bliss and Knowledge we have to look inward. Keeping this in mind they

introduced festivals through out the year to remind man of his supreme goal and

ideal. A spin off is the happiness and spirit of unity that festivals promote.

Navaratri, Dussehra.

Navaratri ( N ) is known as the Festival of Nights honoring the goddesses

beginning on the ninth day of the month of Virgo or on the first day of the

Hindu month of Ashwin. Total worship lasts for nine days out of which the first

three are dedicated to Durga ( the Goddess of Valor ), the next three to Lakshmi

( the Goddess of Wealth ) and the last three to Saraswati ( the Goddess of

Knowledge ). The images of God are created, worshipped and immersed in a sea or

lake. In Gujarat, Garbha dance is performed. In the South, houses are decorated

and toys by the name of Bomma Kolam are displayed.

The festival of Navaratri is popularly known as Durga Pooja in Bengal. After

these nine days comes the Dashami, the tenth day, which is the day of the

famous festival of Dussehra or Vijayadashami ( the tenth day of victory ). This

is the day Lord Rama had killed Ravana, signifying the victory of good over

evil.

I never knew about the respect that our festivals gave to women. Last month it

was Raksha Bandhan for protection of the sister and this month it is the

worship of Durga, Lakshmi and Sarawati. Inspite of this why is it that Indian

women do not enjoy the status that they deserve is a question that continues to

baffle me. It is quite possible that foreign invaders who made India their home

influenced the way we treat women. Traditions like Sati and Purdah were rarely

heard of prior to the eight century a.d.

( covering head is an Indian way of showing respect to elders and must not be

confused with purdah ).

Even though the basic mythology which is provided by religious scriptures is

same all over the country, still some aspects of it are more prevalent in some

parts of the country as compared to another. For eg in Mysore, Dasara is the

celebration of the victory of Goddess Durga ( Kali ) over the demon in the form

of a buffalo named Mahishasura. It is said that the Goddess took nine days and

nine nights to kill the demon hence the name Navaratri. The buffalo represents

the animal instincts in man in a aggressive form. The goddess represents the

nobler though aggressive tendencies in man. In the North, Dasara is remembered

as a day of victory of Lord Ram over Ravana. Here too it signifies the victory

of good over evil.

Parvati is also known as Uma. Her other forms are Durga and Kali.

The invocation of various goddesses is not without significance. Goddess Durga

is known as who killed the demons that terrorised devoted religious seekers. So

also in our minds are the monsters of passion, lust, greed, jealousy which have

to be annihilated before we can reach spiritual unfoldment. By invoking Durga /

Kali we are invoking our own power to destroy negative forces within. Its like a

salesmen who thinks he has lost the order even before even making a sales call.

Think positive and remove negative forces from your mind to achieve success.

Durga is a manifestation of an aggressively good person. Her basic nature is

good. She uses her intellect ( ability to discriminate between right and wrong

) continuously. Such a person studies facts, foresees consequences and reasons

carefully. I would compare her to a P & G who studies the market very

carefully, backed by research before deciding to launch a product. At times,

the actions of such a person might appear to be bad but none can doubt the

noble intentions.

Full of superstition and misunderstood tradition, some people believe that the

scriptures ask us to be docile, passive people. India has been ruled for a

thousand years due to such misunderstanding. The scriptures ask us to be

aggressive if the cause is noble. If protecting our country means we have to be

aggressive so be it.

Having destroyed the negative forces we should move to the positive aspects.

That is done by Shree Lakshmi Pooja. Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth. In our

country people worshipped wealth with religious fervor, and thus it is not

suprising that as long as the tenets of the Vedas were nicely prevalent in our

country India was the richest country in the world, attracting traders from all

over the world. ( post independence socialism has made profit a dirty word ).

However, the culture which asks us to respect wealth, also symbolically shows

the place of wealth in life. Lakshmi is shown sitting at the feet of Narayana

serving him. Wealth should be used for goodness and pursuit of the truth.

However, Lakshmi does not represent the external wealth only but the inner

wealth too, like the qualities of love, kindness, devotion, patience, charity

etc. At the end of the second phase of the festival, these divine qualities

should have replaced the negative thoughts.

Having developed these divine traits, next is the invocation of Saraswati, the

Goddess of Knowledge. It is only those who have eliminated the negatives in

their mind and inculcated some positive virtues that realization of truths and

facts is possible. The summum of Indian traditions, values, culture and

philosophy is to make everyone more awakened and knowledgeable. Knowledge alone

is the singularly most potent factor to make the real difference in our lives,

for our professional success and our inner contentment. Invocation of the

blessings of Goddess Saraswati involves concrete steps to pursue knowledge,

like going to the teacher, study of the Sastras, reflection and meditation.

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