Dasara Festival, The Spirit of Power
Dasara Festival:
Dasara Festival is among the most important and fascinating festivals to the Hindus. It is celebrated in the lunar month of Ashwin from the Shukla Paksha Pratipada to the Dashami or the tenth day of Ashwin. This Dasara festival also celebrates in eastern countries like Java, Sumatra, Japan and others.
Dasara is a Sanskrit word. The meaning of Dasara is the combination of two words one is ‘Dasha’, and another one is ‘hara’. This means removing the ten. And Dasara Festival, called Vijaya Dashami, means victory on the tenth day. Dasara Festival is also known as Navaratri; in the first nine days, Goddess Durga is worshipped by the devotees in various manifestations of her Shakti. The tenth day is the honour of Durga Devi. Dasara festival also celebrates the principle of respecting all women because women are the family’s guardians, and with their activities, the culture and integrity sustain in the society. The festival also indicates the path of social justice, righteousness, equality, and divinity.
Exciting stories behind Dasara Festival:
There are two stories cause of celebrating the Dasara festival. According to the epic Ramayana, Rama was the eldest son of King Dashrath, and all the people and family beloved him and wanted him to be the next King of Ayodhya. One day King Dashrath wanted to retire from the throne and wished to make Rama the King of Ayodhya. But Dashrath’s other wife, Kaika, asked Dashrath to make her son Bharata the king and banish Rama from Ayodhya for fourteen years of exile. King Dashrath accepted her wish with squeezed heart and requested Rama to take his unfortunate situation. Then Rama gladly accepted his stepmother’s wishes and left the palace and the kingdom with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana. This was known to Bharatha, who went to the forest and asked his brother Rama to comreturnowever; Rama felt happy for his brother Bharata and refused to return to the kingdom before the term expired. Lord Rama faced another problem in the forest: the demon-king Ravana kidnapped Sita and took her to his kingdom, Lanka. Rama and Lakshmana searched for Sita, but their attempts failed; the monkey king Sugreeva and his army helped him find Sita’s place. In this effort, Lord Hanuman finds Sita in Lanka. Rama invaded Lanka with the monkey army, killed the demon-king Ravana, and won back his wife. On the day of Dasara, Rama gained victory and killed Ravana; the day is also called Vijayadashami. With this victory, the central concept of the Dasara festival, honouring the woman, was fulfilled by saving Sita from the brutal hands of Ravana.
Another Story:
Another story about celebrating Dasara Festival, according to Hindu mythology, Mahishasura was an ailing and holy demon d who’d a long and hard penance to appease Lord Shiva. With his strong desire, Lord Shiva impressed at his devotion and blessed him that no man or deity could kill him and only a woman could kill him. Mahishasura felt very proud and intended that the women’s powers were less than men’s, so a woman could never defeat him. His thoughts made him very proud, and his lunatic nature was brought up in his mind. The arrogant Mahishasura started terrifying the people and killing them mercilessly. He did not step back to attack the gods’ adobe, conquered the heavens, and became the leader of angels and gods. He started touching the gods also; then, all the gods took refuge under Lord Brahma. Then Brahma took all the refugees to Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu. All discussed how to defeat Mahishasura and thought that the only solution left was creating a woman with the ultimate power to defeat Mahishasura. Then Pure energy blazed from the three Supreme Gods, and the energy formed as the pure energy of Godhood, all concentrated at one point that took the form of Goddess Durga.
Worshipping Weapons of Goddess Durga on Dasara Festival:
The gods gifted Her their weapons and other divine objects to help her to kill Mahishasura. She received a trident from Lord Shiva, a disc from Lord Vishnu, and a conch and noose from Varuna. Indra gave her a thunderbolt and received the sword and shield from Yama and Axe and armour from Vishwakarma. Himavat, the god of mountains, gifted her with jewels and a lion to ride on and many she received from the gods.
Battle with fierce Storm:
On the battlefield, Goddess Durga fights fiercely with the demons. No demon could fight her and win. Her gorgeous figure makes fear demons. All the monsters were defeated and captured by Durga. Mahishasura did not think about the power of Durga; he was very shocked after he looked at her fierce efforts to defeat the demons. He entered the battlefield by mounting a demonic buffalo. Then Durga’s Lion jumped on the buffalo and killed it. Then Mahishasura hid in the mountains; in the meantime, Durga drank the divine nectar, pounced on Mahishasura, pushed him to the ground with her left leg, and killed him.
Dasara festival is celebrated with much joy and happiness in the entire country. The festival celebrates the occasion of the triumph of Lord Rama over Ravana, the victory over evil. On the first nine days, tell Lord Rama’s life and stories and, on the tenth day, celebrate Vijayadasami. On the tenth day, the devotees prepare the colossal effigies of Ravana, Kumbakarna and his son Meghnad and place them in open spaces. Then the devotees arrived in the dresses as Rama and Lakshmana and shot arrows of fire at these effigies. The puppets are stuffed with crackers, and the lit light is an explosion of sound and light. Then the spectators shout of triumph over evil.