{"id":1442,"date":"2013-10-13T20:58:09","date_gmt":"2013-10-13T20:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/2013\/10\/vijaya-dashami\/"},"modified":"2020-07-15T19:17:36","modified_gmt":"2020-07-15T18:17:36","slug":"vijaya-dashami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/?p=1442","title":{"rendered":"Vijaya Dashami"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>NHSF (UK) Learning Team<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><i>14th October 2013 (10th Aashwin in the Hindu calendar)<\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Vijaya Dashami, also known as Dussehra, is celebrated on the 10th day of Aashwin. The festival is celebrated all over India as a symbol of the victory of good over evil. <!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>Origin<\/h2>\n<p>There are many different origins to the Vijaya Dashami:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>On this day the Goddess Durga defeated the demon Mahishasur after a nine day battle. This nine day period is known as Navratri.<\/li>\n<li>The day marks the victory of Lord Rama over the evil king, Ravana. Ravana had abducted Lord Rama\u2019s wife, Sita, and kept her imprisoned in Lanka where she was eventually rescued by Lord Rama.<br \/>\nMelas and gatherings are set up where Rama Leela is performed, and the account of Lord Rama\u2019s triumph over Ravana is read and enacted over the nine days of Navratri. Effigies of Ravana with 10 heads, his brother Kumbhakarana and son Indrajit (Meghanada) are created by devotees and shot with arrows of fire. Many chant \u2018Shri Ramachandraji Ki Jai\u2019 as the effigies burn.<\/li>\n<li>Arjuna picked up his weapons on this day, which were hidden in the Shami tree and went to battle. He fought Duryodhan to retrieve Virat Raja\u2019s cows. All instruments; pens, pencils, knives are worshipped on this day as they can be used to fight against injustice, ignorance and evil. Objects such as cars and machinery are also worshipped as they represent progress and prosperity. The leaves of the Shami tree are distributed as a symbol of God and goodwill.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Significance &amp; Scriptures<\/h2>\n<p>Vijaya Dashami is victory of good over evil and of one\u2019s self over one\u2019s mundane indriyas (five sense faculties).<\/p>\n<p>One forever wishes to be victorious over others and over creation. This triumph of victory leads one to luxury and extravagance, to one\u2019s detriment. Hence, scriptures advise us to attain victory over the mind. \u2018One who has not conquered the mind has not conquered anything.\u2019<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Shankaracharya has described this succinctly in the \u2018Maniratnamala\u2019:<br \/>\n<i><b>\u2018Jitam jagat kena, mano hi yena.\u2019<br \/>\n<\/b><\/i>\u2018One who has conquered his mind has conquered the world. For this, one needs to imbibe Dharma.\u2019<\/li>\n<li>Ved Vyas muni espouses the following words on an a number of occasions throughout the Mahabharata:<br \/>\n<b><i>&#8216;Yato Dharmastato jayaha&#8217;<br \/>\n<\/i><\/b>\u2018Where there is Dharma, there is victory.\u2019<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The true Vijaya Dashami is in consolidating this sentiment in our lives!<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Vijaya-Dashami-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3250 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Vijaya-Dashami-2-300x187.jpg\" alt=\"Vijaya Dashami 2\" width=\"494\" height=\"308\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Vijaya-Dashami-2-300x187.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Vijaya-Dashami-2-600x375.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Vijaya-Dashami-2-64x40.jpg 64w, https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Vijaya-Dashami-2-700x437.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Vijaya-Dashami-2.jpg 945w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 494px) 100vw, 494px\" \/><\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NHSF (UK) Learning Team 14th October 2013 (10th Aashwin in the Hindu calendar) &nbsp; Vijaya Dashami, also known as Dussehra, is celebrated on the 10th day of Aashwin. The festival is celebrated all over India as a symbol of the victory of good over evil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":3249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[715],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-utsavs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}