The Spiritual Significance of Vijayadashami: Lessons from Lord Rama and Ravana During Navratri

Vijayadashami: More Than the Burning of Ravana

On Vijayadashami, effigies of Ravana are burnt across India, and the day is celebrated as the victory of good over evil. That is true, but it is only the outer story. The Ramayana was not given to us simply so that we could cheer for the winning side.

When God descends to this world, everything He does, and everything done by those who come with Him, is meant to draw our minds towards Him. The Shrimad Bhagavatam says so directly:

anugrahāya bhūtānāṁ mānuṣaṁ deham āsthitaḥ |

bhajate tādṛśīḥ krīḍā yāḥ śrutvā tat-paro bhavet ||

“To bless all beings, the Lord takes a human form and performs such leelas that whoever hears of them becomes devoted to Him.”

Shrimad Bhagavatam 10.33.37

Swami Ji often explained that this is why the leelas are told and retold. They are not lessons in history or good manners. They give the mind something to hold on to, so that it can stay with God. Read in this way, even Ravana has something to teach us.

Those Who Come With the Lord

God does not descend alone. His eternal associates come with Him and take whatever part the leela needs. Some come as His parents, some as His friends and servants, and some as His enemies.

Lord Rama’s parents are one example. In the Ramcharitmanas, Tulsidas tells how Svayambhuva Manu and his wife Shatarupa spent long years in austerity, asking only that God be born as their son. The Lord granted it, and in the Treta Yuga they became King Dasharatha and Queen Kausalya.

His adversaries come in the same way. Jaya and Vijaya were the gatekeepers of Vaikuntha, the Lord’s own abode. When they stopped the four Kumaras, Sanaka and his brothers, at the gate, the sages cursed them to be born as demons. The Bhagavatam records that the Lord could have cancelled the curse but chose not to, because it was His own wish. The two were born three times as His enemies: as Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha in the Satya Yuga, as Ravana and Kumbhakarna in the Treta Yuga, and as Shishupala and Dantavakra in the Dvapara Yuga. Each time the Lord Himself ended their lives, and after the third birth they returned to Him.

Did Ravana Know Whom He Was Fighting?

Tulsidas suggests that he did. When word reaches Ravana that Khara and Dushana, each as strong as he is, have been killed with their whole army by a single prince, he reasons it out alone:

र रंजन भंजन महि भारा। जौं भगवंत लीन्ह अवतारा॥ 

तौ मैं जाइ बैरु हठि करऊँ। प्रभु सर प्रान तजें भव तरऊँ॥

“If God has descended to gladden the gods and lift the burden from the earth, then I shall go and make Him my enemy by force. Leaving my body to the Lord’s arrow, I shall cross the ocean of birth and death.”

Ramcharitmanas, Aranya Kand

When the end came, Tulsidas writes, the light that left Ravana’s body entered the Lord’s face, and Shiva and Brahma rejoiced to see it. Whatever Ravana said and did on the battlefield, he kept to his part until the last.

Why the Unfavourable Role Is Harder

It is easy to play a part that earns praise. It is far harder to accept one that will be condemned for thousands of years. Think of Kaikeyi and Manthara. Few parents would name a daughter after either of them.

Yet Tulsidas tells us that the gods, needing Rama to go to the forest, begged Saraswati to turn Manthara’s mind, and that she did so, making the maid “a basket of infamy”. Nor did Rama hold Kaikeyi’s part against her. When he returned to Ayodhya after fourteen years, he saw that she was ashamed and went to her palace before anyone else’s:

प्रभु जानी कैकई लजानी। प्रथम तासु गृह गए भवानी॥

“Seeing that Kaikeyi was ashamed, O Bhavani, the Lord went first to her house.”

Ramcharitmanas, Uttar Kand

A true devotee wants nothing for himself: not praise, not a good name, not even liberation. Swami Ji calls this selfless love, in which the devotee’s only desire is the happiness of his Beloved. If serving the Lord brings him blame, he accepts the blame and asks for nothing in return.

Admire the Role, Never Imitate It

A line has to be drawn here. Jaya and Vijaya are eternal associates of the Lord, acting within His divine leela. We are not. Our actions bind us through karma; theirs do not. When King Parikshit asked how the Lord could seem to set aside the rules of dharma, Shukadeva answered:

naitat samācarej jātu manasāpi hy anīśvaraḥ |

vinaśyaty ācaran mauḍhyād yathā ’rudro ’bdhijaṁ viṣam ||

īśvarāṇāṁ vacaḥ satyaṁ tathaivācaritaṁ kvacit |

teṣāṁ yat sva-vaco-yuktaṁ buddhimāṁs tat samācaret ||

“One who is not the Lord must never do such things, even in the mind. Whoever does so out of folly is destroyed, as anyone but Shiva would be by drinking the poison that rose from the ocean. The words of the great are always true; their conduct is right for us to follow only at times. The wise follow whatever in their conduct agrees with their words.”

Shrimad Bhagavatam 10.33.31–32

Swami Ji tells the same rule in plain words: follow the instructions of the saints, and never copy their actions. Whatever Ravana was within, nothing in his story permits us to copy his conduct. Pride, cruelty and the desire for what belongs to another are adharma when we act on them, and they will bring us the ruin they brought Ravana in the story.

A second lesson follows. We cannot judge anyone by appearances. If an associate of the Lord can appear as Ravana, we cannot tell from outward behaviour who stands where with God. Shri Maharaj Ji counted fault-finding with saints among the gravest offences on the path of devotion, and he warned against finding fault with anyone at all, since we cannot see another’s heart and the habit spoils our own.

The Ravana Within

Navratri ends on Vijayadashami. For nine days devotees worship the Divine Mother, the power of God Himself, and the tenth day celebrates victory. The victory that matters to a devotee is the one won inside, over desire, anger, greed, pride and envy.

These enemies are not defeated by resolve alone. They belong to maya, God’s own power, and maya gives way only to Him. In the Gita, Shri Krishna says:

daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā |

mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te ||

“This divine maya of Mine, made of the three gunas, is hard to cross. Those who take refuge in Me alone cross over it.”

Bhagavad Gita 7.14

Swami Yugal Sharan Ji teaches that the mind becomes pure only by being attached to God. His practice for this is roopdhyan: lovingly picturing the form of God one loves (on this day, Lord Rama) while singing His names, and longing for Him as a child longs for its mother. To this he adds the habit of remembering God throughout the day and offering every task to Him. The grace that finally frees the heart comes through the Guru; our part is to keep the heart turned towards it.

The Message of Vijayadashami

So on this Vijayadashami, as the effigies burn, we might ask ourselves some different questions: not only whether we did good, but for whose sake we did it, and whether we wanted praise for it; whether we were quick to find fault in others and slow to see our own; and whether, at any point in the day, the mind turned to God.

Ravana’s part was to oppose the Lord, and he played it to the end. Ours is simpler: to remember Him, to want His happiness, and to leave our good name in His hands.

Jai Shri Ram! May the Lord’s grace guide us towards dharma and devotion this Navratri and always.

Radhe Radhe