Vijayadasami - The Day of Victory
Saturday, October 20th, 2007October 21st is Vijayadasami, one of the most auspicious and celebrated days in the Hindu calendar.
Mythologically, Vijayadasami is the day that Ram defeats the demon king Ravena in the epic Ramayana. Ravana is the principle of attachment itself.
Every time we let go of a limiting attachment in our lives: to situations, concepts, experiences, objects, and emotions, we are Ram defeating Ravana.
In his battle against Ravana, Ram is assisted by his wife, Sita, and by the Monkey God, Hanuman. Taken together, these three represent the capacities needed to Self-realize: spiritual warriorship, persistence, compassion, modesty, constancy, and devotion.
Ravena is a highly intelligent being who undertakes difficult sadhanas, or spiritual practices, and gains siddhis, or powers. Despite his intelligence and persistence, he lacks devotion, modesty, and so on. Once he becomes powerful enough, he begins to wreak havoc on human communities.
Just so, our fixations and attachments display great intelligence and persistence in perpetuating themselves. They have a lot of power. Think of how difficult it is to be victorious over even one small habit!
It is also true that exceptionally powerful beings, including humans with many accomplishments, can be highly ignorant of their true nature and be operating with an extremely small-self View. Thus they cause much damage to themselves and others.
During such times, the world manifests special teachers and spiritual warriors, such as Ram, whose job is to bring more balance back to human life.
In the Ramayana, Sita, or Shakti, is imprisoned in the Southern island of Lanka, while Ram resides in the north. In order to restore balance, Sita must rejoin Ram. She must be returned to him just as Shakti returns to Shiva, or as kundalini rises. After her return, the indivisible Reality of Shiva/Shakti finds its home in the heart - the seat of wisdom and devotion.
The story of Sita, Ram, Ravana, and Hanuman is both one of world recovery and of the individual sadhika’s (spiritual practitioner’s) journey of Self-realization.
Vijayadasami is the tenth day after the festival of nine nights of the Goddess - Navaratri. All over India, Vijayadasami is celebrated with ritual, dance, processions, and great joy. Now that the demons of the ego have been defeated, humans can rejoice and everything is possible.
For this reason, Vijayadasami is considered to be an excellent day for new beginnings, and especially for spiritual initiations.
Freedom from attachment is the greatest wealth. The reward of having realized such wealth is the opportunity to give generously and fearlessly.
In my lineage, Vijayadasami is a day when the fruits (prasad) of practice are distributed to one and all. These fruits take the form of prasad from the worship of Devi, of a huge feast, of tangible gifts to students and other community members, of initiations, and of performances offered for the enjoyment of all.
These gifts of the lineage to students and all community members are a reflection of the open and unstinting generosity of the world, a generosity that becomes fully apparent as the binds of attachment and fixation fall away.
In Ma’s love,
Shambhavi
Firefly Multimedia