Happy Dussehra (aka Vijayadashami) – Festival of Good vs Evil on October 6, 2011

(CHAKRA) Dussehra is a major festival in Hinduism celebrated mainly in India, but also all over the world like Nepal, Trinidad, Guyana, Canada, USA and the United Kingdom.

Dussehra is celebrated on the tenth day of the Hindu autumn lunar month of Ashvin, or Ashwayuja which falls in September or October of the Western calendar. The first 9 days are celebrated as Navratri and culminates on the 10th day as Dussehra.

In India, the harvest season begins at this time and so the Mother Goddess is invoked to start the new harvest season and reactivate the vigor and fertility of the soil. This is done through religious performances and rituals which are thought to invoke cosmic forces that rejuvenate the soil. Many people of the Hindu faith observe Dussehra through social gatherings and food offerings to the gods at home and in temples throughout India and abroad.

Dussehra is the festival of Victory of Good over Evil. There are many variations to this feat, that are believed all across India.

In this day in the Treta Yug, Rama, also called Shri Lord Ram, the seventh incarnation of Vishnu, killed the great demon Ravana who had abducted Ram’s wife Sita to his kingdom of Lanka. Ram, his brother Lakshmana, their follower Hanuman and an army of monkeys fought a great battle to rescue Sita. The entire narrative is recorded in the epic Ramayana, a Hindu scripture.

Lord Ram had performed “Chandi Homa” and invoked the blessings of Durga, who blessed Ram with secret knowledge of the way to kill Ravana. On the day of Ashvin Shukla Dashami, Ram’s party found Sita and defeated Ravana. Thus it is termed as Vijaya Dashami. Based on the inferences from Balmik’s Ramayana, Kalidas’s Raghuvans, Tulsidas’s Ram Charit manas, and Keshavdas’s Ram Chandra Yas Chandrika as well as common perception in India, Ram, Sita, and Lakshmana returned to Ayodhya on the 30th day of Ashvin (19–20 days after Vijayadashmi). To mark the return of Lord Ram, in the evening, the residents of Ayodhya lit their city with millions of earthen lamps (called Deepak). Since then, this day is celebrated in India as Deepawali or Diwali.