Dussehra – Victory in the inner war

Thank you Hare Krishna on the occasion of Dussehra we have the opportunity to meditate on how this ancient and historical and transcendental event has great and immediate relevance for our lives Dussehra was the day as most of us know when Lord Ram finally in the dreadful and fateful battle against Ravana's Rakshasas on that final battle Lord Ram killed Ravana the demons in the Lord's pastimes are are creatures who have existed long ago and along with that they also represent the Anarthas that are present in our art so Ravana represents lust and Lord Ram's arrow which eventually destroyed him that represents the Lord's mercy by which the demon of lust is destroyed so in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna describes in the qualities of a Brahmana Shama and Dama Shama is peace of the mind and Dama is control of the senses so the idea is by these two one lives a regulated life Shama is that one doesn't let the mind get agitated one doesn't let the mind go towards negative thoughts and Dama is that one doesn't let to oneself act on bad thoughts but Shama and Dama both are referred to in the Bhagavatam also just before the Ajamil pastime and it is described that all of these are not enough to purify our hearts ultimately one needs pure devotion and that is manifested through the pure chanting of the holy names so the Ravana's killing is representational, symbolic in many ways Ravana had many ten heads and Lord Ram cut off the heads again and again and yet they all grew back so that cutting of the heads is like Shama and Dama Shama and Dama is we get lusty desires and we try to avoid getting those thoughts only and even if we get those thoughts we try to avoid acting on those thoughts but still the desires keep coming again and again and we keep getting agitated so Lord Ram's final arrow which was shot into the heart which killed Ravana permanently that refers to the process of bhakti especially the chanting of the holy names so that chanting revives our original pure love for Krishna and when that love is revived then lust automatically gets redirected because it is the same desire when the attraction for others is directed at the bodily level towards a sexually attractive partner that is lust and when that attraction is directed towards Krishna that is love so when we chant the holy names every holy name we chant is like the arrow being shot into the demon of lust who is there in our heart and we do other things also during the remaining 22 hours of our day apart from chanting we focus on doing devotional service doing various worldly responsibilities and we try to live a pure life as much as possible trying to avoid bad thoughts and trying to avoid engaging in bad activities so that is the period of shama and dama both of them are important but what will ultimately destroy the demon of lust is bhakti and the time when we chant that is the time when we are actually shooting these arrows so dasara is not just an event that happened thousands of years ago, we want it to happen in our own heart and we may sometimes feel discouraged that oh my chanting is not pure that's why it's not having effect, but we can think about it in a converse way and think that even with my impure chanting there has been a significant decrease in my material desires even the improper chanting of the holy name has benefits so if the proper and pure chanting is there how much more benefit will be there so let me chant wholeheartedly and let me try to develop my love for Krishna, take shelter of Krishna through his holy name and then when Krishna chooses that final arrow will come from our tongue, go through our ears into our heart and destroy the demon of lust that will be the dasara that will free us so that we can return to yodhya we can return to the kingdom of God to be eternally and joyfully reunited with him forever and ever Ramachandra Bhagwan ki Sri Harinam Prabhu ki.