Burning of The Demons

It is Dushera again -a time to burn Ravana.

Ravana – a much-loved king in his own land, reputed for his high intellect, worshipped not only in Lanka but also by small groups within India was vanquished on this day.

Publicised by the fight between Good & Evil, the more I learn I realise that from another perspective it could just be a fight between two people were right in their own way. It just depends on which side you viewed this from. For both in the Ramayan & Mahabharat, stories (regarding women) stranger than abducting other men’s wives were considered acceptable and did not cause major wars.

But today I’m blurring out the details of logic & fact and taking the philosophy forward – I think this day is about addressing the demons in our heads and vanquishing them.

As we live life, our head gets filled up with unpleasant experiences and remain in the background adding a tense diffused buzz. On this day once a year, I engage in the deliberate exercise of fishing them out, addressing & confronting them and attempt to vanquish them with the arrows of sharp analytical  thinking,  a viewpoint from the adversary’s side that might allow me to forgive and a determination to let go of the issue.

It is time to burn the demons!

Click to view an earlier photo-essay on the Ram Leela & the burning of Ravan at Dasera n Mumbai (2011).

By Jaina Mishra

By wovensouls