We celebrate Dussehra as the day on which Bhagavan SriRama killed Ravana in the Yuddha. In the Yuddha Kanda of the Valmiki Ramayana, Sri Rama had already defeated Ravana by destroying his chariot, charioteer, and the chariot’s flag, his bow and arrow, and rendering Ravana chariotless. Rama asked Ravana to return back to his palace and fulfill all his last desires.
Ravana, thus defeated by Rama, returned. The next day, Rama fought Ravana with his sharp arrows. At that time, from Svarga, Indra saw this and was not satisfied to see Rama fighting from the ground and Ravana fighting Rama from the Pushpaka vimaana. So, he sent a chariot, along with his charioteer named Maatali. Maatali came down towards Rama. The chariot was so divine that it felt as if the sun himself was coming down on the earth.
Rama rode the chariot, and both Rama and Ravana were fighting in the sky. To explain how fierce the war between Rama and Ravana was, the example of Rama and Ravana’s war itself is the only one, because no other example can suit the war between Rama and Ravana. For 7 days, Rama kept on cutting off Ravana's head, and it grew back again. At last, Maatali told Rama, ‘O Rama! Even when you know how to kill this wicked demon, why are you silent? Please kill this demon and free us from his torments.”
Hearing this, Rama took out the Brahmabaana given by Sage Agastya. In the Yuddha Kanda itself, when Rama was fighting Ravana, Sage Agastya had come there, and he asked Rama to chant the Aditya Hrudaya Stotra. This stotra is dedicated to Lord Suryanarayana, the indweller form of Lord Vishnu within Surya. So, Suryanarayana is Bhagavan Vishnu. Even Rama is Bhagavan Vishnu. So, both are the same. Rama was just praising Himself all this time by chanting the Aditya Hrudaya Stotram. After that, Sage Agastya gave the Brahmabaana to Rama.
Note that the weapon Rama used for Ravana Vadha was not Brahmastra but was Brahmabaana. Rama doesn’t need Brahmastra to kill Ravana, because He can even kill Ravana by a mere wish, or even with an ordinary arrow in His quiver. Even great devatas like Brahma and Rudra cannot stand in front of Rama’s one arrow, then what is this Ravana in front of Lord Rama? And these aren’t my words. Hanumanji Himself says this to Ravana during the Sundarakaanda, as stated by SriMadhvacharya.
Now, Lord Rama used that Brahmabaana, and that arrow pierced Ravana’s heart; it came out and entered Rama’s quiver. And then, the wicked Ravana fell down on the ground, dead. Thus, Rama killed Ravana and Dharma won against Adharma. To celebrate and contemplate this leela of Bhagavan, we celebrate Dussehra.
STORY OF MAHISHASURAMARDINI DURGADEVI
During the Saavarni Manvantara, there was a demon by the name of Mahishasura. He was very powerful because of the boon of Lord Brahma. Lord Brahma had blessed him with invincibility. Therefore, Mahishasura attacked heaven and fought with the devatas for 100 years, and defeated them. After defeating the devatas, Mahishasura became Indra, sat on his asana, and ruled Svarga.
After this, the devatas came down to earth and wandered like normal human beings. Then they approached Lord Narayana to kill Mahishasura. At this, Lord Narayana was very angry. Even Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva were present there. They too got angry. Not only that, but even the devatas led by Indra, Varuna, Agni, Vayu, Kubera, etc., all got very angry.
From their anger, a light came out from each devata. From Lord Vishnu, one light came; from Lord Brahma, one light came; from Lord Shiva, one light came. Like this, a light with great radiance and brilliance came out from the devatas. These lights came out and merged to form a bright and brilliant light, which spread throughout the whole universe.
That light was so big that it resembled a big lump of light the size of a mountain and was dazzlingly brilliant. From all those lights, a woman was formed. Now, what were these lights? These lights were none other than Durgadevi Herself. Durgadevi is present in each devata in the form of their power. But in Bhagavan Vishnu, She has taken refuge in Him, and He is Her power. She is Vishnu’s maaya. All these roopas of Durgadevi came out and merged to form the Mahalakshmi roopa of Durgadevi.
From the light, that came from Lord Shiva, Her face was formed. From the light that came from Lord Yama, Her hair was formed. From the light which came from Lord Vishnu, Her arms were formed. From the light which came from Chandradeva, Her breasts were formed. From the light that came from Lord Varuna’s body, Her thighs and lap were formed. From the light, which came from Bhudevi, Her hips were formed. From the light which came from Lord Brahma, Her legs were formed, and each and every finger in Her feet was shining with the radiance of the sun. From the light which came from the Vasus, Her hands and fingers were formed.
From the light which came from Kubera, Her nose was formed. From the light which came from Lord Brahma, Her teeth. From the light which came from the Agnideva, Her three eyes were formed. From the light which came from Sandhyas, Her eyebrows were formed, and the light which came from Vayudeva formed Her ears. Like this, from all other devatas, the light which came formed each body part of the Devi. The devatas, who were frustrated by the torments of Mahishasura, were satisfied on seeing Devi’s form, which spread all over the world.
Like this, every devata started giving their own weapons. Lord Shiva gave His trishoola. But how? From His trishoola, came another trishoola which went to Devi. Like this, Devi is present within the aayudhas/weapons of the devatas too. Within their weapon, Devi’s weapon is present. And those weapons were coming back to Devi. Lord Vishnu gave His Chakra to Devi. Varuna gave Her conch shell, and Agnideva gave Her Shaktyaayudha. Vayudeva gave the bow and arrow to Devi.
Indra gave his Vajra to Devi, and from Airavata came the bell which Devi held. Yama gave Her Kaaladanda; Samudra gave Her the celestial noose, which is known as Paasha. Lord Brahma gave Her japamaala and kamandalu. From the romakoopas (romakoopas means the holes in the body from which the hairs grow), Surya gave his radiance to Devi. Actually, Devi is present in the form of radiance in Suryadeva, which came out of him in the form of radiance and merged into Devi.
Kaaladeva gave Her sword and shield. From the Kshirasaagara came out Her clothes, ornaments, and divine garland, which never dried off. Even the choodamani and other ornaments came from it. A crescent moon was on Her crown. And then, each hand had keyura (which means baajuband). She had 18 hands. A beautiful necklace and anklets came out of the Kshirasaagara, and Devi wore them. In those 18 hands, each finger was decorated with a brilliant and radiant ring.
Vishvakarma gave Her an axe. Like this, all the devatas gave their weapons, which were indestructible to Devi. Devi wore a lotus garland that touched Her feet. Samudra gave Her a lotus. Himavaan gave Her a lion as Her vaahana and a lot of gold and jewels. Kubera gave the Suraa paana paatra to Devi. Aadishesha gave the mani that was with Him to Devi. Mother Earth gave Devi the Naagahaara. Like this, in Her 18 hands, She had various weapons.
The devas did naadaas, which were auspicious, and Devi did attahaasa (a form of laughter, wherein we laugh out aloud). With that attahaasa, the whole three worlds shook, and the devatas screamed, ‘Victory to the one who rides the lion’. The sages were very happy at this and bowed down to Devi, and praised Her. That form of Devi was spread across the three worlds. Her crown touched the sky.
And here, Mahishasura was ready with his army, which had more than crores of soldiers. He saw the gigantic form of Devi and was astonished. In anger, he said, “Ah! What’s all this?” His army was an army of 10,00,000 demonic soldiers. There were 1 crore chariots. The demon named Bidaala had 500 million chariots, with warriors riding on them. With such a massive army, Mahishasura came to fight Devi. There were some commanders in Mahishasura’s army. One was Chikshura, who was the main commander.
Second was Chaamara; third was Bidaala; another was Udgaara; another was Mahahanu; and others were Asiloma and Bashkala. All these armies of Mahishasura attacked Devi in different ways; some threw bhaala, some threw Shaktyaayudhas, and some threw other weapons at Devi, but Devi easily cut them off with Her sword. With one swing of Her sword, She killed several demonic soldiers effortlessly.
On seeing all this, the devatas and the devarshis praised Devi. Even the lion, which was the vaahana of Devi, fought valourously, killing the demons. Devi, with Her trishoola, and sword, started killing demons. For some asuras, Devi captured them in the paashaas and killed them. For some asuras, Devi killed them with Her sword. For some, She killed them by tossing the demons on the ground with Her mace.
For some demons, She killed them by striking them with Her trishoola. For some demons, Devi rained arrows and killed them. Devi beheaded many demons and cut them into pieces. For some demons, Devi divided their bodies in half by cutting them. Some had one eye, one ear, one nose, etc., and Devi killed them. Like this, Devi kept on killing the army of Mahishasura. On seeing all this, Chikshura, the senapati, came down to fight Devi.
Devi rained arrows on Chikshura, rendered him chariotless and killed his horses, and the charioteer too. And then, She destroyed the chariot’s flag and even Chikshura’s bow, and attacked him with sharp arrows. Seeing all this, Chikshura took his sword and shield and ran towards Devi to fight with Her, but then Devi with Her trishoola, struck him on his chest and killed him. On seeing Chikshura dead, Chaamara named demon, came to fight Devi, riding on an elephant.
Chaamara hurled a Shaktyaayudha at Devi, but with just a humkaara, Devi cut off that Shaktyaayudha. He took a shoola and, bow, and arrow, but Devi destroyed that too. The vehicle of Devi, the lion, with its slap, beheaded Chaamara. Then, after that, came Udagra and Bashkala, named demons, whom Devi killed too. Then the demon Ugra came, whom Devi killed with Her trishoola. Then came the demon Bidaala, whom Devi killed effortlessly.
On seeing the destruction of his own army, Mahishasura came there. Mahishasura came in the form of a buffalo and was harassing Devi's ganas. He attacked them with his horns, some with his legs, and all. Sometimes he would just exhale, and the ganas would fly away. Devi was very angry upon seeing this. She captured Mahishasura with Her paasha. Mahishasura left His buffalo form and assumed the form of a lion.
Devi beheaded that lion, and he left the lion’s body and assumed the form of a man, whom Devi destroyed with Her arrows. Then Mahishasura assumed the form of a buffalo again and then roared aloud. Devi said to Mahishasura, “O fool! Roar even louder! Roar even louder! When I kill you in this battlefield, the devatas will be the ones roaring in happiness!”
And there was a transition phase in which Mahishasura was getting transformed from the buffalo’s body back to Mahishasura, and his body from his head to his stomach was his original rakshasa body, whereas the rest of the body was that of a buffalo. At that time, Devi jumped upon Mahishasura, pressed him down with Her foot, and struck his neck with Her trishoola. While he was still only half-emerged from the buffalo's mouth, Devi beheaded him with Her sword.
All the demons were scared and were running here and there, making ‘HAA HAA HAA’ sounds in the battlefield. The devatas were very satisfied upon seeing Mahishasura killed. So, Devi fought with Mahishasura for 9 days and killed him. That’s why Navaratri is celebrated. And on Dashami, Rama killed Ravana.
Hope this helps!
Jay SriRam!
ShriDurgantargata SriRama Abhinna Krishnarpanamastu!