- Pratick Baral

Namaste,

I am here today to wish you all a very happy Vijaya Dashami 2065. We are here today to celebrate a glorious thing: the day when Bhagwan Rama defeated Ravana. We should all learn important lessons from this celebration. The word “Dusherra” refers to the cutting off the ten heads of Ravana, or our EGO. The ten heads represent passion, pride, anger, greed, infatuation, lust, hatred, jealousy, selfishness and crookedness. As we celebrate this holiday, we think to ourselves, has the Rama in us defeated the Ravana in us? Is the good in our hearts conquering the evil? Have we annihilated our own ego? It is imperative that today is not only the time for celebration, but also the time to examine ourselves.

When Rama showed Sita the battlefield, he did not say, “This is the place where I slaughtered Ravana”. Instead, he said, “this is the place where Ravana died.” Let us take this beautiful lesson and remain humble, pious, and selfless.

Another lesson we should take is that Rama built a bridge to cross the ocean. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have been able to defeat Ravana. In our lives we must learn to make bridges between ourselves, and others, even those we call enemies.

So, at this holy time, let us pray to God for the strength to be selfless, pure, humble, accepting and loving every day of our lives.

May God bless us all, Happy Vijaya Dashami!

Thank you.