The Killing of Ravana on Dussehra day and after

PIC: post.jagran.co

The Dussehra or the Vijayadashami is a major Hindu festival in India and Hindu community across the world. The festival is celebrated as a concluding day of nine day “Navratri” festival every year in the month of Ashvin as per Hindu calendar which falls in the month of Sepember-October. Dussehra is celebrated since ancient times and is symbolically dedicated to the victory of good over evil.  As a part of concluding day of Navratri, the festival Dusshera is celebrated to mark the victory of Goddess Durga over the buffalo demon king Mahisasura (may also read http://www.indianspiritualityandpolitics.com/2017/09/devi-katyayani-mahisasuramardini.html). The festival is also a celebration to mark the victory of Lord Rama over Lankan king Ravana who had kidnapped Rama’s wife Sita when they were in exile and put her in his captivity in Lanka, again a victory of good over evil. Ramleelas (dramas to recreate the life of Lord Rama) are held for ten days during Navratri at public places to remember the virtues of Lord Rama and the defeat of the evil force, Ravana through Rama’s hands. On the 10^th day, the day of Dussehra every year large effigies of evil king Ravana, his evil brother Kumbhakaran and son Meghnath are burnt to mark the end of the evil. The Dussehra is followed by the biggest Hindu festival of Diwali or Deepavali (the festival of lights) in about twenty days time in remembrance of Lord Rama’s return to Ayodhya after fourteen years of exile and killing of Ravana. The Diwali day is also remembered as the day on which the ideal governance system called Ramrajya had commenced in the kingdom of Ayodhya.

PIC: businessworld.in

The people of India and people of Indian origin across the world have been celebrating the festival of Dussehra and Diwali every year through ages. The purpose of any celebration and festivity is to remember the virtues and noble deeds associated with the great characters. But, could we succeed in wiping out the evil from the face of humanity through these celebrations. Perhaps, not, very sadly! The reason is simple, the festivals have just become rituals, one after other, we worship the deity, enjoy the festival, eat good food, sing and dance, burn the effigies of evil forces but within, we remain the same persons. We do not burn the effigies of evil within. We don’t introspect ourselves; we don’t root out the evil within and expect a Ramrajya to be established in the country. How is it possible with such behavior of double standards? We say something and do the reverse. We become selfish when we commit injustice to others to gain personally. We become selfish when our near and dear one is involved in an evil and we jump to save him/her. We become selfish to bribe a policeman, a Neta (leader) or a clerk to get our worked done. We become selfish when injustice is committed by society to others and we remain silent. We become selfish and a silent spectator when a daylight crime is committed against our neighbor and we hide ourselves inside our closed houses. In New Delhi the prime minister of India and other dignitaries assemble at the Ramleela ground on Dussehra day in the evening and shoot burning arrows at the effigies of Ravana, Kumbhaklarana and Meghnath but while shooting the arrows towards evil of corruption and many social and political evils, their hands start trembling. The political leaders are silent when they or their own men are involved in monumental cases of plunder and loot. They become selfish and silent when sub-standard material is used in construction of roads, buildings and bridges by their cronies to get in return a part of the loot. They become selfish and silent when the people die due to accidents on potholes, poor road and lack of medical facilities. They become selfish and silent when people or workers are sucked into drains to die due to flooding. They only shed crocodile tears and condemn the accidents and mis-happening but do little on the ground to arrest the trend. Yesterday, in Mumbai, twenty two people were killed due to stampede on a narrow railway foot over bridge. How does it affect the mighty, powerful and corrupt people who did nothing when they were supposed to act? Life of people has become so cheap that anything can happen anywhere to a common man and the leaders think that their job is over once they express sympathies and sometimes throw few lac rupees from public money as compensation.

The land Rama has become the Land of Daama (the bribe) and the land of Harishchandra (a legendary king who never compromised on honesty and truth) has become the land of Bhrashtachandras (corrupts).

The real problem of India is that we don’t kill the real Ravanas. We don’t punish the Ravanas of corruption. We don’t catch the Ravanas of inefficiency.  We don’t punish the Ravanas who commit the crimes & monumental plunders and throws dust in the eyes of public to fool them. Our governance system incentivizes the big tax evaders and punishes small men for irregularities of a penny.  India has witnessed a large numbers of scams involving lacs and lacs of crores of rupees but how many have been penalized? Practically none! The need is to catch the real Ravanas and shoot them with burning arrows to wipe out the evil permanently. The need is to catch the kings of corruptions and not small foot soldiers to eradicate evil. The foot soldiers of corruption will be automatically refined once the big Ravanas are put behind the bars.

Awake India awake! Else, we can go on burning the effigies of pseudo Ravanas year after year and allow the real Ravanas to grow larger and larger.