Victory over evil

The festival of Dussehra celebrates the victory of good over evil, symbolised in Indian mythology by the slaying of the demon king Ravan by Ram, and by the killing of the monster Mahishasur by Goddess Durga. Ravan is the personification of evil - a learned scholar who gave in to lust, anger, greed and ego. Rama is the personification of virtue, the Marayada Purush. Vijayadashami marks the victory of virtue over vice.

We celebrate Dussehra every year, but are we really becoming free of vices, or are the celebrations just another empty annual ritual? Far from overcoming vices, people are becoming slaves to them. This increase of vices is unwittingly reflected in the size of the Ravan effigies built for Dussehra, which grow taller each year.

Simply burning wood and straw effigies is not going to bring us victory over evil. That can be achieved only by spiritual effort. The story of the Ramayan is a parable of how God, personified by Ram, and humans represented by monkeys, together can rid the world of negative tendencies.


The battle described in the Ramayan is an allegory for the struggle that goes on in the mind between our higher Self and our weaknesses. God helps us in this struggle by giving us the strength to resist evil and the wisdom to avoid deceptions created by ignorance of our true identity.