What do we celebrate in Dussehra (Navaratri) ?
Dussehra, or navaratri, is a festival of the victory of the good over evil. The word comes from dasa-hara, killing the ten. We celebrate the victory of good over evil. For a long time, I have wondered what to celebrate, when Ram killed Ravana. Yesterday was the first time, I realized the real import. The 10 days in the festival in reality stands for the 10 senses, -- five organs of action (mouth, hands, feet, anus, and genitals) and five organs of perception (skin, eyes, ears, tongue, and nose). A majority of our actions are driven through the ten sense organs. That’s why, Ravana had 10 heads (Dasamukha, the one who reveled in ten senses).
The general idea of the 10 days of Dussehra is to follow the pursuit of Bhramacharya towards the lord. The true meaning of Bhramacharya (it is actually moderation in everything, not bachelorhood), but controlling the senses. Control does not mean "not enjoying" or starving. The control is for the bondage and attachment we develop to the form of enjoyment experience that the senses provide and seeking repeated fulfillment of the same thing.
If our true purpose is to realize who we are (or yoga with the self), the most important step in life is to gain mastery over the 10 senses. That is why Rama was born to Dasaratha (the controller of 10 senses). Only by controlling our senses we can understand the meaning of the world around us and increase their perceptive powers. They are so essential in the continuance of our enjoyment and experience of the world in the right way.
Let us look at the sequence of the celebration. In order to achieve mastery over the senses, we need to give up the ego. To give up ego you need courage (Durga), wealth (Lakshmi), and Gyana or knowledge (Saraswati). The first three days, worshiping Durga helps remove our inner negative tendencies. The idea of courage is the focus on denial of what is not appropriate for inner growth.
The second phase is that of Lakshmi. The notion of wealth is not just having a lot of money, but a wealthy person is one who feels full all the time. Alternatively, noble virtues are also a form of wealth, probably harder to cultivate than getting money these days. You can be poor and still give -- kindness, understanding, love and still feel and communicate a sense of abundance. When we pursue these, we gain knowledge (Saraswati). Ultimately, knowledge is a key to self-realization and the destruction of our ego, the goal of life. What is this knowledge? We will explore these in future blogs.
On the 10th day, we symbolically declare victory over the senses, and our ego, and with the power of courage, abundance, and knowledge, we are on our path to self-realization or Moksha. Ravana, in this context, represents our Ego. That is why after Navaratri, we celebrate the "Vijaya Dashami" - the victorious 10th.
So this Dussehra lets resolve to not indulge, and realize what indulgence can do to us, and be like Lord Rama who had the courage to go to the forest for just keeping his word for 14 years, and had conquered his senses. He was dutiful to everyone and actually loved every one of his family to the extent that when he was coming back from killing Ravana, he sent Hanuman to check if he should go back and reclaim the kingdom. If his brother (Bharatha) was happy ruling, he was fine leaving the kingdom to him. The ultimate form of love, devotion, and conquering of senses. Specifically, he had no greed for the kingdom, no venom against his brothers, mother or any other member of the family when he returned. This is the mark of a truly contended, self-realized person who was still in the samsaric world. That is why Rama is idolized as a symbol of manhood, and family.
So each day of this Dussehra, let us remember one of the organs of action or senses. In doing so, let us realize if we are indeed indulging and know that life has a bigger purpose than just getting addicted to enjoying everything all the time. Not that enjoyment is bad !!! This is the true path of self-realization and the allegorical greatness of the Vedic culture.
PS: Credit for this explanation goes to a number of people who motivated the thought process. My colleagues in Balvihar who raised this question, and other explanations I have heard over the years from swami shantananda in his gita and upanishad lectures.
A revised iteration of this blogpost has some additional lines on from Swami Shantananda himself. I thank him for taking the time to look over the write up and offering some additional thoughts.
Appended notes (10/17/2016): The original post was written on October 3rd. Since then, I received a couple of notes from friends who have seen this in Facebook.
Dasha Hara is a Sanskrit word which means removal of ten bad qualities within you
Kama vasana (Lust)
Krodha (Anger)
Moha (Attachment)
Lobha (Greed)
Mada (Over Pride)
Matsara (Jealousy)
Swartha (Selfishness)
Anyaaya (Injustice)
Amanavta (Cruelty)
Ahankara (Ego)
It's also known as 'Vijaydashami' which means Vijaya over these ten bad qualities.
While the Dasahara and Vijayadashami seems to make sense, many of these qualities are attributed to the nature of the mind. For example, Kama (Lust), Krodha (Anger), Lobha (Greed), Moha (attachment), Mada -- also called asmita (Pride) and Matsarya (Jealousy) are typically attributed to qualities of the mind -- also called Arishtavargas.
On a completely different note, here is swami Chinmayananda's talk on this:
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cHe9Fyp16U
The general idea of the 10 days of Dussehra is to follow the pursuit of Bhramacharya towards the lord. The true meaning of Bhramacharya (it is actually moderation in everything, not bachelorhood), but controlling the senses. Control does not mean "not enjoying" or starving. The control is for the bondage and attachment we develop to the form of enjoyment experience that the senses provide and seeking repeated fulfillment of the same thing.
If our true purpose is to realize who we are (or yoga with the self), the most important step in life is to gain mastery over the 10 senses. That is why Rama was born to Dasaratha (the controller of 10 senses). Only by controlling our senses we can understand the meaning of the world around us and increase their perceptive powers. They are so essential in the continuance of our enjoyment and experience of the world in the right way.
Let us look at the sequence of the celebration. In order to achieve mastery over the senses, we need to give up the ego. To give up ego you need courage (Durga), wealth (Lakshmi), and Gyana or knowledge (Saraswati). The first three days, worshiping Durga helps remove our inner negative tendencies. The idea of courage is the focus on denial of what is not appropriate for inner growth.
The second phase is that of Lakshmi. The notion of wealth is not just having a lot of money, but a wealthy person is one who feels full all the time. Alternatively, noble virtues are also a form of wealth, probably harder to cultivate than getting money these days. You can be poor and still give -- kindness, understanding, love and still feel and communicate a sense of abundance. When we pursue these, we gain knowledge (Saraswati). Ultimately, knowledge is a key to self-realization and the destruction of our ego, the goal of life. What is this knowledge? We will explore these in future blogs.
On the 10th day, we symbolically declare victory over the senses, and our ego, and with the power of courage, abundance, and knowledge, we are on our path to self-realization or Moksha. Ravana, in this context, represents our Ego. That is why after Navaratri, we celebrate the "Vijaya Dashami" - the victorious 10th.
So this Dussehra lets resolve to not indulge, and realize what indulgence can do to us, and be like Lord Rama who had the courage to go to the forest for just keeping his word for 14 years, and had conquered his senses. He was dutiful to everyone and actually loved every one of his family to the extent that when he was coming back from killing Ravana, he sent Hanuman to check if he should go back and reclaim the kingdom. If his brother (Bharatha) was happy ruling, he was fine leaving the kingdom to him. The ultimate form of love, devotion, and conquering of senses. Specifically, he had no greed for the kingdom, no venom against his brothers, mother or any other member of the family when he returned. This is the mark of a truly contended, self-realized person who was still in the samsaric world. That is why Rama is idolized as a symbol of manhood, and family.
So each day of this Dussehra, let us remember one of the organs of action or senses. In doing so, let us realize if we are indeed indulging and know that life has a bigger purpose than just getting addicted to enjoying everything all the time. Not that enjoyment is bad !!! This is the true path of self-realization and the allegorical greatness of the Vedic culture.
PS: Credit for this explanation goes to a number of people who motivated the thought process. My colleagues in Balvihar who raised this question, and other explanations I have heard over the years from swami shantananda in his gita and upanishad lectures.
A revised iteration of this blogpost has some additional lines on from Swami Shantananda himself. I thank him for taking the time to look over the write up and offering some additional thoughts.
Appended notes (10/17/2016): The original post was written on October 3rd. Since then, I received a couple of notes from friends who have seen this in Facebook.
Dasha Hara is a Sanskrit word which means removal of ten bad qualities within you
Kama vasana (Lust)
Krodha (Anger)
Moha (Attachment)
Lobha (Greed)
Mada (Over Pride)
Matsara (Jealousy)
Swartha (Selfishness)
Anyaaya (Injustice)
Amanavta (Cruelty)
Ahankara (Ego)
It's also known as 'Vijaydashami' which means Vijaya over these ten bad qualities.
While the Dasahara and Vijayadashami seems to make sense, many of these qualities are attributed to the nature of the mind. For example, Kama (Lust), Krodha (Anger), Lobha (Greed), Moha (attachment), Mada -- also called asmita (Pride) and Matsarya (Jealousy) are typically attributed to qualities of the mind -- also called Arishtavargas.
On a completely different note, here is swami Chinmayananda's talk on this:
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cHe9Fyp16U
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