The tenth and final day of the Indian festival Navaratri is celebrated as Dussehra. The name Dussehra is derived from the Sanskrit language where “dasha” means ten and “hara” means defeat. The legend has it that on this day Rama, an avatar of Lord Vishnu defeated the demon king Ravana who abducted Rama’s wife Sita. To mark this day Ravana’s effigy is burnt to signify the victory of good over evil.
Ravana was regarded as the most intelligent and knowledgeable man of his times. A great scholar, he had over a dozen of texts to his credit which include Arkaprakasha, Kumaratantra, Indrajala, Prakrata Kamadhenu, Prakrata Lankeshvara, Ravana Samhita, Rigveda Bhashya, Ravanabheta, Krishna Yajur Veda among others. He is known to have compiled Sama Veda and his Shiva Tandva Stotra is considered the most popular hymn ever sung in praise of Lord Shiva. Albeit his genius he is remembered for the evil traits that he exhibited. The negative interpretation of Ravana’s ten heads are the ten emotions or senses in a human which are namely : KAMA(LUST), KRODHA(ANGER), MOHA(DELUSION), LOBHA(GREED), MADA(PRIDE), MATSARYA(ENVY), MANAS(MIND), BUDDHI(INTELLECT), CHITTA(WILL) and AHAMKARA(EGO).
The ten heads are believed to control his actions that ultimately led to his destruction. Ravana, the king of Lanka became a slave to his senses and these emotions got the better of him. Despite being such a genius he couldn’t harness his powers as these very senses consumed him. There are many a lessons to be learnt from this. We as humans have a tendency of being overwhelmed by these very emotions every now and then. To be honest with oneself and introspect is the need of the hour as these emotions are the root cause of all our misery. All these emotions do is infect us like pests from within and make things worse for us physically as well as psychologically. Let’s imbibe the spirit of Dussehra and KILL THE RAVANA WITHIN and make this life blissful for us and everyone around.
Over the past few days i posted poems regarding some of these, it’ll be worth going through them while it’s fresh on your minds.
LUST https://lifein22yardsandbeyond.com/2019/10/05/lust/
GREED https://lifein22yardsandbeyond.com/2019/10/03/greed/
NAVARATRI https://lifein22yardsandbeyond.com/2019/10/01/navaratri-nine-nights-arent-enough/
ANGER https://lifein22yardsandbeyond.com/2019/09/14/anger/
EGO https://lifein22yardsandbeyond.com/2019/07/28/trip-over-the-ego-trip/
22 YARDS and beyond..... 