2010 Dussehra Festivities at Atlanta Vedic Temple

Customary zeal with a tinge of religiosity marks
2010 Dussehra Festivities at Atlanta Vedic Temple

Dusshera 2010 was celebrated - with traditional gaiety and a sprinkling of religious fervor - at the Atlanta Vedic Temple. Dusshera signifies the triumph of good over evil, the annihilation of the mighty king of Lanka - Lankapati Dashmesh Dashanand Rawan or more familiarly known as Raavana by Lord Sri Rama the exiled king of Ayodhya.

Raavana was depicted as a biologically impossible ten-headed person only to denote the degree of erudition he had acquired in the study of the Vedas and other scriptural texts and his profound spiritual wisdom. He was fully knowledgeable about the entire lofty content of the six Shastras and the four Vedas (amounting to ten). He represented in one physical body the combined wisdom of ten sages. But in a moment of weakness - uncharacteristic of him – sinful thinking clouded his sense of values and hence Lord Rama came to Lanka to destroy him.

Ardent devotees thronged the Atlanta Vedic Temple to be part of the Dusshera celebrations – some aware of the mythological background and others presumably out of sheer curiosity. Atlanta Vedic Temple had planned and made elaborate arrangements for all devotees to participate and enjoy a sense of belonging. Volunteers had worked tirelessly to structure yet again one of the most beautiful effigies of Ravan – arguably the most realistic in the entire South East.

With imaginative lighting arrangements, and meticulous planning for vehicle parking and location of stalls, the surging crowd of over 500 guests was managed with consummate skill. The evening had an eclectic feel to it. The weather was a perfect low 60’s nippy with low humidity and a gentle breeze wafting across. There was a wide variety of stalls that included caterers, traditional jewelry vendors and other vendors of multifarious merchandise.

One of the stalls that stood out was by the Atlanta Vedic Temple, displaying and selling books, audio and CDs on Vedas, Vedic Sanskaras, Hawaan, Satayarth Prakash - the Light of Truth by Swami Dayand Saraswati. The Arya Veer Dal – The Youth Wing of the Atlanta Vedic Temple had, truly reflective of the cultural values they had inculcated, erected a stall selling homemade Diwali Cards and gift box sets. They were busily engaged in helping guests, selling cards, dispensing drinks, and distributing laser tags.

A delightful entertainment for the crowd who were voraciously feasting on Samosas and Dahi Vaadas was the presence of Lord Shri Rama, Lakshman, Sita and Hanuman mingling amongst them! The crowds loved them and they were the most photographed personalities of the evening – not to speak of the all-pervasive effigy of Ravan. The volunteers of Atlanta Vedic Temple had donned the appearances of the mythological characters of the Ramayan and all of them looked stunningly real.

At the designated time a Raffle was held and generous prizes including gadgets from Apple were distributed. The crowd swarmed around Raavan at the appointed hour, and the Acharya delivered a short discourse on why we celebrate Dusshera and how it symbolizes the time to banish all our evil thoughts and inaction towards proper karma and reaffirm our pledge to work for the betterment of the individual and the society at large.

Accompanied by the dramatic background music of the classical Ramanand Sagar epic ‘Ramayan’ depicting the scene when Lord Ram shoots the fatal arrow, our Ram aided by the priest torched the navel of Ravan. The crowd demonstrated a significant feeling of relief as the massive effigy of Ravan was engulfed in flames.

As one young professional from Metro Atlanta, who witnessed the consignment of Ravan to the flames, said, the entire evening and the Ravan effigy and its burning was reminiscent of the same event annually conducted in New-Delhi’s famed Ram-Leela grounds.

The crowds lingered on in its bid to exhaust the remaining food and hot masala tea while the zealous group of volunteers regulated the traffic and undertook the cleaning operations. To sum it up, the evening had the perfect feel for a Hindu Fall Festival.