Spiritual Message On Dussehra – October 5th (cont.)

In the Ramayan it is shown that during the 14 year exile of Shri Ram, Shri Lakshman and Shri Sita in the forest, one day Shri Sita sees a beautiful golden deer with silver spots close to her hermitage. The golden deer is actually the demon Marich whom Ravan has sent in the form of an attractive deer to deceive Shri Sita. On seeing the deer, Shri Sita gets attracted to it and she sends Shri Ram in search of it. Later she sends Shri Lakshman to protect Shri Ram, when they both hear Shri Ram’s cries for help. These cries are actually Marich’s. Marich changes his form from deer to demon and mimics Shri Ram’s voice, after Shri Ram shoots the deer with his arrow in the forest, far away from the heritage. He does this so that Shri Lakshman can leave the hermitage and come to rescue Shri Ram. Marich gets killed by Shri Ram’s arrow. Before leaving the hermitage, Shri Lakshman draws a Lakshman Rekha around the hermitage which no one from outside can cross and instructs Shri Sita not to cross it, so that she remains protected inside the hermitage. When Shri Lakshman also goes away and Shri Sita is alone in her hermitage, Ravan comes to her hermitage disguised as a saint, asking for alms. Shri Sita does not recognize Ravan in his disguise. Ravan tries crossing the Lakshman Rekha, but he is unable to do so. Also, at first Shri Sita does not cross the Lakshman Rekha, which Shri Lakshman has drawn for her and gone. She starts serving Ravan without doing that. But she is cleverly deceived by Ravan, who persuades her to serve him with more respect. In order to that, she crosses the Lakshman Rekha to serve him and she gets kidnapped by Ravan, and he takes her away to his kingdom.

In real life, the essence of this story is that when we get attracted to body-consciousness (shown as Shri Sita getting attracted to the golden deer), we become disconnected from God and we become alone (shown as Shri Ram leaving the hermitage). When we forget God, we do not recognize different forms of evil (shown as Shri Sita not recognizing Ravan) and we cross the boundaries of Godly purity and conduct (shown as Shri Sita crossing the Lakshman Rekha) and perform negative actions. Then evil imprisons us and we become sorrowful (shown as Shri Sita’s kidnapping by Ravan). God rescues all Sitas or souls from evil’s rule and control and gives them Satyug or the Golden Age as a gift, in which they live happily full of peace, love, purity, health and wealth.