Vijayadasami

The tenth day of navarathri ends with Vijaya Dasami.  Vijaya means victory.  It represents the victory of good over evil and the normal belief is that anything started on a vijayadasami day will prosper and progress well and generally be successful.  Actually on introspection we have to annihilate all the evil qualities in us and bring out the best qualities and carry on in life. All the evil forces normally align together and the Supreme power manifests  in the form  of energy or Shakti which we call Devi and destroys the asura shakti and restores the balance in nature. This is symbolically contained in the puranas in the form of allegory.  After worshipping Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswathi for 9 days on the 10th day Devi assumes the form of Mahishasuramardini, and ends the evil of Mahishasura, and saves the good force called Devas.

Interestingly  Mahisha was an asura who had all the obstinate qualities and revelled in torturing others for his pleasure.  Mahisha means buffallo, and many a times   it becomes very difficult to make the animal obey!

In India, all the days so many Devi stotras are chanted and one among them is Mahishasuramardini stotram. According to Devi Mahatmyham,  all the other forms of devis join together to kill the assistants of Mahishasura. Durga devi assumed another form of kali and killed  two assistants of mahisha called chanda and munda  and hence the title of Chamundi is given to this particular form. In Bengal Durga puja is celebrated on a grand scale. In Mysore, Chamundeswari is worshipped gloriously by the ruling dynasty and also by all the people.  We have even a hill called Chamundi Hills where devi was supposed to have killed Mahishasura.  Devi Chamundi called Chamundeswari is worshipped in the beautiful temple atop the Hills.

There is a place in the central Himalayas called Kali math, where another chief of Mahishasura called Raktha Bhija was supposed to have been killed and hence the name of Kali math for that place.  These asuras were very powerful  and  very fast and travelling from place to place should not have been a problem for them! Apart from historical and puranical evidences, there are also geographical evidences and these are beautifully connected by the day-to-day stotras we are chanting which we never realise!

Once when we were travelling through these madhya himalayas, a sadhu residing there near varanavath which has been there from Mahabharath times and where the lac house was situated and burnt,  explained one of the slokas which bore proof of this history.  When analysed there was a beautiful coincidence which I would like to share with you all.

Ayi Jagadamba madamba kadamba vana priya vasini rasa rathe
Shikhari shiromani thunga himalaya shringa nijayalaya madhya gate
Madhu madhure madhu kaitabha bhanjini kaitabha gaanjini hasa rate
Jaya jaya Hey Mahishasura mardii ramyakapardini shaila sute.

The second line explains that in the Central Himalayas, where the highest peak which is called Thunga is situated, there, very near that place Devi's temple is situated.

Most of us know about Kedarnath which is one of the siva temples situated in the himalayas and it is about ten to eleven thousand ft. high.  But there are five kedars one of which is called Tunganath which is the highest among the pancha kedars about 12,500 ft. high situated in the central himalayas. This is corroborated by the sloka! Below that the place called Kalimut is also there within close quarters.  Various sthala puranas quote the same stories but in different forms and many of our geographical names also coincide with the itihasa and purana names reinstating our belief in history and also the faith in the puranas!   Is it not interesting?