Dassera - Durga Pastimes

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Dassera - Durga Lila

 

The story of the creation of this goddess is also very interesting.

The gods in heaven decided to create an all-powerful being to kill

the demon king Mahishasur who was ready to attack them. At that very

moment a stream of lightning dazzled forth from the mouths of Brahma,

Vishnu and Mahesh and it turned into a beautiful, magnificent woman

with ten hands. Then all the gods furnished her with their special

weapons. Those weapons and armour are very artistically carved in the

ancient sculptures of this goddess in Java. The image of Durga, the

Eternal Mother destroying the demon, Mahishasur on Chamundi Hills

near Mysore is symbolic of the final confrontation of the spiritual

urge of man with his baser passions. This goddess Durga as Lord

Shiva's Consort represents two forms of female energy - one mild and

protective and the other fierce and destructive.

 

As per our great epic Mahabharat, Pandavas after wandering in the

forest for 12 years, hung their weapons on a Shami tree before

entering the court of king Virat to spend the last one year in

disguise. After the completion of that year on Vijayadashmi the day

of Dassera they brought down the weapons from the Shami tree and

declared their true identity. Since that day the exchange of Shami

leaves on Dassera day became symbols of good, will and victory. The

founder of the Hindu Swarajya Chatrapati Shivaji before any military

expedition always invoked the blessings of Durga in the form of his

goddess Bhawani. The Sikh guru Gobind Singh introduced the worship of

Durga into his cult of the sword.

 

This festival has immense mythological significance. As per Ramayan,

Ram did "chandi-puja and invoked the blessings of Durga to kill

Ravana, the ten-headed king of Lanka who had abducted Seeta and had

charmed life. Durga divulged the secret to Ram how he could kill

Ravana. Then after vanquishing him, Ram with Seeta and Laxman

returned victorious to his kingdom of Ayodhya on Dassera day.

 

Therefore, the festival of Durgotsava and Dassera is celebrated

more in honour of Prabhu Ramchandra than Durgadevi in many regions of

India and recitations from Ramayan and dances and dramas depicting

the exploits of Ram assume great importance. These Ramlila shows are

very popular in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and to an extent in

Maharashtra and effigies of king Ravana, his brother, Kumbhakarna and

his son, Meghnath are burnt.

Kautsa, the young son of Devdatt, a Brahmin, was living in the city

of Paithan. After finishing his Siksha (education from) his guru

Varatantu, he insisted on his guru to accept "gurudakshina". However

rishi Varatanu said that his disciple's wisdom is his gurudaksina.

Kautsa was not satisfied with this answer and he wanted to give his

guru something. So finally rishi asked for 14 crore gold coins, one

crore for each of the 14 sciences he taught Kautsa. Kautsa went to

king Raghuraj, who was known for his genorisity and was an ancestor

of Rama. But just at that time he had emptied all his coffers on the

Brahmins, after performing the Vishvajit sacrifice. The king asked

for three days time to gibe that much gold. The king went to Lord

Indra and asked for the gold coins. Indra summoned Kuber, the god of

wealth. Indra told Kuber, "Make a rain of gold coins fall on

the "shanu" and "apati" trees round Raghuraja's city of Ayodhya." The

rain of coins began to fall. The king Raghu gave all the coins to

Kautsa, who gave 14 crores gold coins to his guru. The remaining the

king gave it to Kautsa who refused to take it. In those days honour

was considered more valuable than wealth. He asked the king to take

the remaining coins back. But the king would not. Finally Kautsa

lavishly distributed the coins to the people of Ayodhya city. This

happened on the day of Dussehra. In remembrance of this event the

custom is kept of looting the leaves of the "apati" trees, and people

present each other these leaves as "sone" (gold).