#jai durga

[bolguru-com]

Jai Mata di! Chaitra navratri ki shubhkamnaye!!

[mypageforsparkle]

Dassera or Vijayadashami is celebrated all over India, with great pomp, on the tenth day of the bright fortnight, in the month of Ashwin. It is essentially a festival to celebrate the eternal triumph of good over evil. It is always in honour of Goddess Durga, who is called Dasa-Buja, or "having ten arms." In these festivities, she carries Shiva's trishul, Varuna's conch- shell, Shesha's snakes, Agni's dart and Vishnu's discus. These weapons of destruction signify that -- although the Goddess is a compassionate, loving mother-figure -- if rubbed the wrong way, she can destroy all evil doers, teaching them a lesson they will never forget for life. Then again, these weapons are used against various vices; e.g., ego must be destroyed by Varuna's bow, while jealousy is killed by the dart. Varuna's conch-shell symbolises the sound of silence, the word, the Naad-Brahma, often represented by the maha-mula-mantra Aum, the sound of creation (A), sustaining (U) and destruction (M). Thus, she is in charge of all moral order on the physical realms of existence - - and if she cannot restore it by means of a mother's kind compassion, she doesn't hesitate to bash up the baddies. If you see the etymology of the proper noun "Durga" in Sanskrit, it means "an enclosed place which is unreachable." She was evoked by the three Gods, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva (Maheshwara), for the sole purpose of destroying the demons. Now, the demons are an allegory for human vices like greed, jealousy, insulting behaviour, harming others, prejudice, etc. The Goddess always wears red. The lady in red symbolises destruction (hence the colour of blood) of all that is crass and base in human nature. She rides a tiger, denoting that she is fearless. She has other names such as Parvati, Kali, Narayani and Ambika. In Maharashtra, she is Goddess Bhavani, who was always invoked for her blessings by Shivaji Maharaj before he went for any battle. As a celestial mother-figure, she has all the feminine attributes. She bestows material prosperity and her knowledge is immense, which is why, for those seekers on the spiritual path, she gives tremendous protection -- so much so that if anyone hurts any of her children, she destroys that person completely. If used for good purpose, she bestows spiritual energy to her devotees and protects them from evil people. Today, Dassera has degenerated into street entertainment for nine nights or Navratri involving obscene amounts of money and obscenity among immature boys and girls. There's dancing, loud music, disco- dandyas and very little knowledge about the festival or the Goddess. Mother Durga watches all this with pain and compassion in her eyes!! SOURCE: Cybernoon, Mumbai. An editorial by well-known columnist and writer Ruby Lilaowala. Wednesday, September 27, 2006 10:58:46 IST URL: http://www.cybernoon.com/DisplayArticle.asp? section=features&subsection=guestcolumn&xfile=Sept ember2006_rubylilao wala_standard149&child=rubylilaowala SHORT LINK: http://flingk.com/8suzqjl