दशहरा - Dussehra - Destroying The Ravan Within
A Special Message on Dussehra this year 2023.
A Godly message to overcome the five vices (lust, anger, greed, ego, attachment) which we call Ravan (Ravana), and to re-establish the inner kingdom of peace, purity, love, joy, and spiritual power. When the Soul who has fallen in the well of these five vices will now recognise its true spiritual identity as a child of the Supreme Soul (god) and thus receive spiritual knowledge from the Father (Shiv Baba).
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So let's explore the truth behind the celebration of Dussehra (Dushera) after the nine days of Navratri and why is Ravana burned on the 10th day? What does it mean? What does 10 heads of Ravan signify? Who are Sita and Rama? You will know them in this article. To read many such useful articles, visit our Articles section.
Who is Sita?
In the old days, the saints and sages used to explain the wisdom of life and living by telling a story and then relating it to individual life. These then became our religious scriptures. One of the most revered religious scriptures of ancient India is "Ramayana", which is the life story of Lord Rama, the king of Ayodhya.
As the story goes, Sita (wife of Lord Rama) who was residing in a forest was kidnapped by Ravana (an evil-minded king of Lanka). How does that happen? Well, a great wisdom of life is understood just from this incidence. The very scene in which the kidnap of Sita happens is full of spiritual meaning.
Now we will explain the significance of the story while narrating it...
Apharan of Sita
Story: Sita was residing in a forest, along with Rama, and his brother Lakshman. One day, Rama went into the deeper forest to fulfill a wish (desire) of Sita, which was to get a deer which she saw and found very charming. After a while, when Rama did not return, Lakshman also followed him. Before that, he drew a 'Rekha' (a line), famously known as 'Lakshman Rekha' around the hut in which Sita stayed. This rekha would protect Sita from any danger.
Meaning behind it:
Observe how the names of characters taken here signify the meaning. Laksh, which means 'aim and objective' of our life. And lakshman-rekha would mean - the line of our principles (the Hindi word is Maryada). And when Sita, who represents us, the souls crosses our 'rekha' (line of Maryada) of values and principles, then the Ravana (representing the 5 vices) would take control on us (saying kidnap us) and take us to Lanka (representing a world of sorrow). As long as Sita was inside the line of values and principles, Ravana was helpless and could not do anything... But as soon as Sita crosses the line of Maryada, Ravan could easily take the control.
The message we get here is:
We all souls are a Sita who lives in this body. Rama, is our spiritual father, the supreme soul (Shiv Baba). As long as we stay in our Maryada (stick with our principle moral values), we are safe from the vices... If we become careless and cross our line of maryada, then the vices (lust, anger, greed, ego, attachment) would enter and take us to the world of sorrow (that is; our life becomes a misery). In order to free us souls from sorrow, God himself (Ram) has to cross the ocean (explaining that the Supreme soul lives in the soul world, while we live in this corporeal world, and hence in order to free us, he has to cross this ocean/border). Cross the ocean and enter the Lanka. In order to take us back to home, he has to first finish the Ravan (5 vices). And how does he do that? The story also describes that. Lord Rama targets the arrow (the Hindi word is bana) at the Navel (Nabhi) of Ravana and he falls down. Victory is achieved. Here, the navel (nabi) is taken as the 'root', which signifies that 'body-consciousness' actually is the root cause of all vices. Aim to finish body-consciousness and you get rid of all those 10 heads (5 vices both in male and female), and you get the victory. This victory of us souls over our own weaknesses (in the form of vices) is celebrated year after year. But when would we actually get this victory?
Answer is: In order to overcome our weaknesses, we derive powers from our father, whom we have called God, the supreme soul. How? Through Yog (connection with God). This which we call RajaYog Meditation.
✱ Watch this video where BK Sister Shivani explains the meaning of Dussehra ✱
Victory over Weaknesses (Dussehra Significance): BK Shivani
Dussehra celebration across India
Many interesting and famous mythological stories of Dussehra or Vijayadashami, that celebrate the victory of righteousness over evil, are present in the world. On this day, a portrait of Ravana is created every year and is burned by a person who forms himself as Lord Rama. After this, a celebration is made to signify that we have burned the evil and a victory is achieved. This is celebrated across India in similar ways.
As God, our spiritual father himself has revealed in the Murlis, we the souls were originally a sparkling star-like point of living energy, full of peace, purity, and bliss. When we spiritually powerful souls first came onto the world to play, our purity was naturally seen through the physical body, in the form of divine qualities like love, happiness, and joy. Refer to: World Drama Cycle. Slowly as we came in the cycle of birth and death, we started falsely identifying our-self with this physical body and forgot our eternal identity of that of a soul. We started getting attracted to the five senses and sense objects. The golden deer which had attracted Sita in the Ramayan is a symbolic representation of these material attractions (which we see today), while the internal stage of soul-consciousness is shown in the form of the Lakshman Rekha which Sita had crossed. This led to her getting kidnapped by vices and getting distanced from Rama (God).
✦Essence
The episode of the kidnapping of Sita by Ravan refers to the kidnapping of the soul by the forces of Evil or the five vices namely lust, anger, greed, attachment, and ego. Ram comes in the world to free all the Sita from the lanka of Ravan (the five vices).
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Read our article on Navratri Message.
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