A smile on his face, tied to the ropes, 10 heads and considered one of the most intelligent man, Ravana is standing in front of me. He is about to die. He is about to be "killed" actually by a man who was exiled, saving his wife and one of the greatest leaders in mythological history who led millions to the other country for this event.
For those of you outside the boundaries of India, Dussehra is a festival celebrated in India.
Coming back, I am standing with hundreds others. They are celebrating, eating street food and enjoying with their family and friends. It has been like this for the past hundreds of years. It has been like this for the past 23 years of my life. But today, I am alone looking at him and his brothers and wondering a small thing. Why are we celebrating this festival? Every festival has a meaning, a lesson which is moral and some reason to be happy and celebrate. You must be having your own festivals with all these characteristics. But what about Dussehra?
All my life, in all the speeches and in all the shows focussed specifically on Dussehra I have heard one simple sentence. Dussehra is celebrated to remind us that Truth Wins over Lie. Good wins over evil. I get it. Ravana was a bad man, kidnapped a woman and although I believe he had no reason to be killed (thinking the intensity of his crime in today's respect), it's okay he was. Dussehra was born. Although this is all mythological, I still get it. But do we have a reason to celebrate dussehra today?
The first reason which I can write about is the justification people have in their mind. Truth wins over evil. Long long back someone kidnapped a woman, did not touch her, still gets killed. Today, it is not necessary for me to waste words on the crime rates. India witnesses much severe cases than Ravana's and still the judgement is not as severe as that. Maybe that was the win, today it is almost the opposite. Not talking in the gender respect, in every respect evil is progressing at a rate greater than Ram would have thought. 13 pages out of 16 are filled with scams. Corruption is at its peak and reservation to the elite is still a charm. People think about the shorter way today than the harder way to get things done. This is at the highest level a country can witness. Is this reason a true justification to celebrate Dussehra in 2018? Maybe not.
The second reason is the amount of pollution done on the Dussehra in India. I can see 3 statues standing upright almost every 3 km. Extend this intensity to the country level. Burning a statue to ashes just to celebrate some event in mythology is a mere stupidity. This is not to hurt anyone's religious sentiments. Is this reason not enough for us to think about future rather than the past? Today, when crematoriums have become electric to save air and environment (referenced to Hindu funeral rites), constant monitoring is done to preserve environment, we feel proud and happy and joyous in watching a wooden structure burn to ashes.
The religious sentiments are the final reason that forces me to think about this. It is good to be religious and believe in your religion. Believe in your mythological stories and one of them being Ramayana of Hindu religion. In Why I Am a Hindu, I came across Ramayan's chapter where the author tells how every moral lesson has been turned to a story. This is done for a purpose. A religious man ,I believe, should also be an intellectual one. Doing things with a blindfold is nothing but ignorance and stupidity. It is good you believe in Ramayana as it has a good moral lesson and a perfect literature material. Is it really good to perform practical of those stories every year with such aggression? I mean, truth wins can also be shown in hundreds of other peaceful ways. Try to execute many criminals with death penalty on this day to spread the message. We have changed the system according to us and attached them to our religious sentiments. Diwali was celebrated first time with ghee diyas. Today there are firecrackers all over the country and if you ask the reason, it hasn't changed. We have made advancements in showing off our religious importance and seriousness at a level bigger than anyone can imagine. This has been done without thinking about our future and the future of this planet. Celebrating Dussehra is a good thing, a very good indeed. It reminds us that even though the evil power is greater in strength and genius through mind, truth will always win. But a man smiling at this statue is the same man who will steal a bike tomorrow. No one cares about the moral lesson or the religious importance of a festival today. People just care about spreading the word how great their religion is. They just care about the holiday they get and enjoy with their family. Nobody can stop burning this wood structure because "it might hurt religious sentiments".
Dussehra is not about burning something and showing anything to the world. Dussehra is a moral lesson, a teaching to the world, a day to remember that truth always wins, a day to introspect yourself, a day to enjoy. I wonder if this story was recited thousands of years ago by the great intellects to see this day. I wonder how everything has changed or has been changed by people according to themselves. But this is what I think, I would definitely love to hear your opinion.
Thank You
For those of you outside the boundaries of India, Dussehra is a festival celebrated in India.
Coming back, I am standing with hundreds others. They are celebrating, eating street food and enjoying with their family and friends. It has been like this for the past hundreds of years. It has been like this for the past 23 years of my life. But today, I am alone looking at him and his brothers and wondering a small thing. Why are we celebrating this festival? Every festival has a meaning, a lesson which is moral and some reason to be happy and celebrate. You must be having your own festivals with all these characteristics. But what about Dussehra?
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| Google Image just for reference |
All my life, in all the speeches and in all the shows focussed specifically on Dussehra I have heard one simple sentence. Dussehra is celebrated to remind us that Truth Wins over Lie. Good wins over evil. I get it. Ravana was a bad man, kidnapped a woman and although I believe he had no reason to be killed (thinking the intensity of his crime in today's respect), it's okay he was. Dussehra was born. Although this is all mythological, I still get it. But do we have a reason to celebrate dussehra today?
The first reason which I can write about is the justification people have in their mind. Truth wins over evil. Long long back someone kidnapped a woman, did not touch her, still gets killed. Today, it is not necessary for me to waste words on the crime rates. India witnesses much severe cases than Ravana's and still the judgement is not as severe as that. Maybe that was the win, today it is almost the opposite. Not talking in the gender respect, in every respect evil is progressing at a rate greater than Ram would have thought. 13 pages out of 16 are filled with scams. Corruption is at its peak and reservation to the elite is still a charm. People think about the shorter way today than the harder way to get things done. This is at the highest level a country can witness. Is this reason a true justification to celebrate Dussehra in 2018? Maybe not.
The second reason is the amount of pollution done on the Dussehra in India. I can see 3 statues standing upright almost every 3 km. Extend this intensity to the country level. Burning a statue to ashes just to celebrate some event in mythology is a mere stupidity. This is not to hurt anyone's religious sentiments. Is this reason not enough for us to think about future rather than the past? Today, when crematoriums have become electric to save air and environment (referenced to Hindu funeral rites), constant monitoring is done to preserve environment, we feel proud and happy and joyous in watching a wooden structure burn to ashes.
The religious sentiments are the final reason that forces me to think about this. It is good to be religious and believe in your religion. Believe in your mythological stories and one of them being Ramayana of Hindu religion. In Why I Am a Hindu, I came across Ramayan's chapter where the author tells how every moral lesson has been turned to a story. This is done for a purpose. A religious man ,I believe, should also be an intellectual one. Doing things with a blindfold is nothing but ignorance and stupidity. It is good you believe in Ramayana as it has a good moral lesson and a perfect literature material. Is it really good to perform practical of those stories every year with such aggression? I mean, truth wins can also be shown in hundreds of other peaceful ways. Try to execute many criminals with death penalty on this day to spread the message. We have changed the system according to us and attached them to our religious sentiments. Diwali was celebrated first time with ghee diyas. Today there are firecrackers all over the country and if you ask the reason, it hasn't changed. We have made advancements in showing off our religious importance and seriousness at a level bigger than anyone can imagine. This has been done without thinking about our future and the future of this planet. Celebrating Dussehra is a good thing, a very good indeed. It reminds us that even though the evil power is greater in strength and genius through mind, truth will always win. But a man smiling at this statue is the same man who will steal a bike tomorrow. No one cares about the moral lesson or the religious importance of a festival today. People just care about spreading the word how great their religion is. They just care about the holiday they get and enjoy with their family. Nobody can stop burning this wood structure because "it might hurt religious sentiments".
Dussehra is not about burning something and showing anything to the world. Dussehra is a moral lesson, a teaching to the world, a day to remember that truth always wins, a day to introspect yourself, a day to enjoy. I wonder if this story was recited thousands of years ago by the great intellects to see this day. I wonder how everything has changed or has been changed by people according to themselves. But this is what I think, I would definitely love to hear your opinion.
Thank You
Beautifully explain the real meaning of dussehra. 🙂 Yes we all have to think that what is really good and what is exactly evil. The day we celebrate only as enjoying with see the burning woods when in fact, we have to burn real desructive thoughts and deeds of our own.
ReplyDeleteVery thoughtful. Thanks a lot.
Deleteits subtle thing to say what is evil n what is good , but yes burning ravan on dusshra is like meeting just ends with unjust methods
ReplyDeleteThe meaning is true and great. The method is too grand, been developed without thinking about other parameters. I hope it changes sometime in the future.
Delete