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Posted by Harsh Nevatia Oct 10, 2006 |
This year on the 2nd of October Hindus celebrated the festival of Dussera, also known as Vijayadashami. It was on this day that Rama slew the evil Ravana and freed his wife Sita, as narrated in the epic Ramayana. Every year Dussera is celebrated as the anniversary of this event. In every city and town of India huge paper effigies of Ravana, his son Indrajit and brother Kumbhakaran are erected. At the appropriate moment in the enacting of the Ramayana, ‘Rama’ shoots arrows with burning heads into the effigies and they go up in flames, much to the delight of the young and old alike.
The event symbolises the victory of good over evil. Ravana was terrorizing the people of the earth. When their endurance was breached they approached God Vishnu for his intervention. Vishnu promised to take birth as Rama and in that incarnation he would slay Ravana. Rama was born as the prince of Ayodhya. After getting rid of many minor demons Rama finally faced Ravana and in a fierce battle killed him, thereby ridding the earth of evil, at least for the time being.
Today we are engaged in playing God and busying ourselves trying to eradicate the evil around us. We fail to realise that we are not God and that, to a lesser or greater extent, there is evil within us. I believe that a more relevant interpretation of Rama killing Ravana is slaying the demon within. If we all try to do that sincerely then the world will become a more peaceful place.