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Vijaya Dashami: Victory of Good Over Evil, Knowledge Over Ignorance
Today we are celebrating Dashain- known as Bijaya Dashami or Dussehra. This is one of the largest Hindu festivals, celebrated mainly in Nepal and India in the past; however, it has become an international festival celebrated worldwide, primarily by Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, and Sikh communities.
Festivals are not merely rituals, nor are they only occasions for merriment. They are mirrors, reflecting both the myth of the ancients and the meaning of our own minds.
Vijaya Dashami stands as one of those profound mirrors, a commemoration of the eternal truth that good triumphs over evil, knowledge over ignorance, life over death. Yet to leave it as a memory of gods and demons is to miss its deeper summons: it is a festival that calls each woman and man to war, not against an enemy outside, but against the Ravana within.
The mythology is radiant and ringing. Ravana, the ten-headed king of Lanka, a learned, mighty, and proud ruler, rose in arrogance against dharma. His ten heads, a comical multiplication of mind, signified ten vices: lust and greed, anger and jealousy, ego and delusion, hatred and selfishness, pride and…
