Dussehra or Vijayadashmi is celebrated on 10th day of the Hindu autumn lunar month of Ashvin. Navratri celebration culminating with Dussehra is an artistic carnival of great meaning and has great significance for all. Dussehra is celebrated in many ways. However, it is all about the feminine goddess or the feminine divinity.
Navaratri is symbolic of conquering evil and wanton nature, and worshipping all elements of life.
Dussehra too has its own unique meaning. It marks the victory of good over evil. The word ‘Dussehra’ is formed of two words, ‘dus’ meaning ten and ‘hara’ meaning cracked. So Dussehra stands for the day when the ten evil faces of Ravana were destroyed. These ten heads of Ravana symbolise ten evils of the soul — envy, anger, ego, selfishness, jealousy, injustice, materialism, attachment, greed and lack of humanity.
Dussehra is also celebrated as ‘Vijayadashmi’, which marks the end of Durga Puja. Idols of goddess Durga are immersed in rivers to honor the departure of the goddess to her husband Shiva’s home in the Himalayas. The most beautiful part of immersion of the idols is that it signifies a journey of the goddess from the shapeless to form and then again to formlessness, bringing a stability in the cosmic energy.
There is a constant fight between the superior and the evil at the physical, mental and emotional level. On the auspicious occasion of Dussehra let us all take an oath to blaze the vice growing inside us and spread pure and unconditional love so the good within us wins and leads us to a light of eternal happiness.
The writer is an alternative medicine practitioner
