Yesterday, across India, Bhagwan Rama’s victory over Ravana was celebrated as Dussehra or Vijayadashami. It is also the day that Maa Durga’s visarjan happens and till Deepawali its the auspicious time of “Bijoya” or victory over Mahishasura and Ravana. Beautiful celebration year after year to remind ourselves that our inner Ravana and Mahishasura have to be defeated !
We had the customary “Ravana Dahan” in our condominium complex. A short video of Ravana Dahan –
We had a lovely gathering. You can hear young kids loudly saying “Jai Shri Ram”. The effigies of Kumbhakarna, Meghnad and Ravana were smaller this year but the enthusiasm of the residents made up for it :). We had stalls serving chaat and other delicacies as well.
Now preparations begin for Deepawali across India and Karthigai specially in South India. I just love the festivals we have. They are meaningful and all about furthering one’s spiritual quest.
Do read what Osho has to say for Ravana and Rama in the following excerpt from the book “Nowhere to Go But in”. For the entire transcript click on this link – Chapter 6.
“……Ravana had no shortage of beautiful women, and it is possible he may well have had women more beautiful than Sita, but her devotion to Rama was so unique that it became a great challenge for Ravana to win her. You too experience the same sense of challenge all the time. Your interest is in the woman who is somebody else’s. This is a characteristic of Ravana’s consciousness – to be interested in what the other has, rather than in what you have yourself.
Rama has no interest at all in other women; it is as if in Sita is contained for him the whole world.
This is the nature of Rama’s consciousness – what you yourself have is all; what you have is the whole. You are in deep contentment, with no demand for what you do not have. In fact, you do not even see more than that which you have. In what you have, everything is contained, as though all the women in the world were contained in Sita’s womanliness. For Rama, to be with Sita is to be with all women.
Ravana’s consciousness, on the other hand, will not be satisfied until he has conquered all the women in the world, and there is no guarantee that he will be satisfied even then. Ravana has no reverence for the individual; the only things that he values are his own sensations – selfishness is his creed.”
“……Ravana is also obsessed with wealth. His city, Lanka, is called the golden city. Yet golden though it is, Ravana lusts after other kingdoms and other people’s riches. Rama’s Ayodhya is not made of gold as Lanka is, but still Rama has no interest in the cities and kingdoms of others. You, even if you are given a golden kingdom, will still be preoccupied with what others have. Even if you have palaces you will still be attracted by the cottages that belong to other people.
An individual with the consciousness of Rama, though he lives in a simple cottage, will be quite unattracted by palaces, because wherever Rama stays becomes for him a palace. But no matter where Ravana stays there will be no palace, only unhappiness, because Ravana only sees the palace that belongs to the other, the palace where he is not, the palace that has to be won.
We talk of Ravana’s ten heads. If we ask psychologists about this, they will say that everybody has ten heads, because everybody has to keep many faces ready for use. Between morning and night we change our faces many times. Maybe you are not aware of this, maybe you have never really looked at what you are doing. In the presence of your subordinate you put on one face, and in thepresence of your boss another. “
“…. Rama has only one face, whether you meet him in happiness or in unhappiness, whether he is sitting in his palace or in the middle of the jungle; he does not wear different faces. And whoever comes to have but one face becomes Rama. To have but one face means to have become authentic, to show your true inner face, not to mask your truth on the outside, not to be influenced by circumstances, but to let your face reveal your inner being. Rama’s face remains the same whether you blame or praise him; no mere circumstance can manipulate his features now. His face has become stable, and the name of this stability is Rama.”
“…..See yourself as you really are, and you will find that Ravana is hidden within you. Allow yourself to experience this truth – that you are a Ravana. That was exactly Ravana’s error, that he could not admit to being Ravana; he lived under the impression that he was a sage and a great scholar who could master Rama in his understanding of the scriptures. He had learned the scriptures by heart, and, just like all the ignorant who seek for power, had become the master of great siddhis. The ignorant man will do anything for the sake of collecting siddhis, and Ravana was no exception.”
Thank You Master …. every word hits home and hopefully changes the way we think. Also gives us the courage to see ourselves for who we truly are.
