Vijayadashami is an auspicious day for the Hindu University of America, as it was on this day in the year 1989 that the university was officially founded. It is also the day when the great social organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), was also founded, one hundred years ago, in the year 1925. We must recall this day with special reverence, as it marks both these historic milestones.
In the Hindu tradition, Vijayadashami day signifies the decisive victory of Dharma over Adharma, symbolized by Rāma’s victory over Rāvaṇa, or the day on which the Goddess Durgā slew the buffalo-demon Mahiṣāsura. In the Rāmāyaṇa tradition, this is the day Śrī Rāma killed Rāvaṇa, symbolizing the victory of righteousness (dharma) over arrogance, deceit, and evil (Adharma). It is celebrated through Rām-līlā plays and re-enactments, with effigies of Rāvaṇa being burnt in many parts of India. In the Devī Mahātmya from the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, it symbolizes the triumph of Śakti (divine feminine energy) over the Asura forces of violence and chaos. In Bengal, this day marks the culmination of the Durga Pūjā festival with Visarjan, the immersion of the murti of Durga. Traditionally, Hindus consider Vijayadashami to be one of the most auspicious days of the year for initiating new ventures, such as education or business, or embarking on new initiatives and journeys. In many regions, children start their formal education (Vidyarambham) on this day, writing their first letters in rice or sand, invoking the divine goddess Sarasvatī. In South India, particularly in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, people perform Āyudha Pūjā, worshipping tools, books, vehicles, and instruments, thereby honoring work as sacred.
Vijayadashami marks the victory of Dharma over Adharma, Satya over Asatya, i.e., Truth over Falsehood, Jyoti over Tamas, i.e., Enlightenment over Ignorance, Nyaya over Anyaya, i.e., Law and Justice over Lawlessness and Injustice, Ahimsa over Himsa, i.e., Non-violence over Violence, Prosperity over Poverty, Hope over Hopelessness, Courage over Cowardice. This victory is not an easy one. It arises as the natural aftermath of a great struggle. The struggle of Dharma must endure long periods of time, when it may appear that Adharma may, in fact, prevail, and Dharma may be banished into exile. Bhagavan Sri Rāma went through a fourteen-year exile, during which he encountered many adversities, before he could regain the throne of Ayodhya. In the Mahābhārata, Dharma was sent into exile for thirteen years and had to engage in a massive struggle to regain the kingdom that was rightfully theirs. Bharat, i.e., India, underwent a thousand years of darkness, during which it came under the rule of Islamic rulers and later under British colonization, until it was reclaimed through the immense struggle for India’s freedom. Even after India’s freedom, the ideology of Dharma, particularly Rashtra Dharma, which was the principal ideological foundation of the RSS, was eclipsed by a colonial consciousness, and a deep desire to retire Dharma itself into the annals of history, replacing it with a Western-style liberal democracy, took its place. RSS was denigrated and banished into the underground, to struggle for decades to regain some semblance of dignity and legitimacy.
For more than two decades, my personal upbringing in the world of Hindu Dharma was nurtured in the Advaita Vedanta Sampradaya as articulated by Swami Dayananda Saraswati of the Arsha Vidya group of institutions. In this Sampradaya, the focus was on Dharma and Moksha, with a distinct emphasis on Moksha. I studied the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Brahmasutras, and numerous other texts, interpreting them primarily from the perspective of a Moksha Shastra. While I am immensely grateful for this two-decade-long association with Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati, which grounded me in Sanātana Dharma and instilled in me a profound love for this eternal Dharma, its emphasis gave me a greater longing for renunciation than for engagement. Sometimes, our Rishis conceptualized this world as a realm of bondage, of Samsāra, a domain in which there is nothing to be gained, or nothing to be accomplished. The only legitimate action for us is to transcend it, to go beyond it, to attain to Moksha. It did in some ways minimize the potential for engagement with the world, for Dharma samsthapana, and for Loka Sangraha.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says that it is said that the one who knows the Atman is “happy in oneself, with oneself alone” (Atmanevatmana tushtah)[1], as and when he or she “gives up all desires, as they appear in the mind” (Prajahati Karman Sarvan Manogatan)[2]. It is said, Krishna says, that the wise one whose knowledge of the Self is steady, is free from longing, fear and anger, (vita raga bhaya krodha)[3], neither yearning for pleasure and happiness (sukehsu vigatasprhah)[4] nor affected by adversity (dukhesu anudvignmanah)[5], never excessively attached to anything in this world (sarvatra na abhisnehah)[6], neither rejoicing nor hating (na abhinandati na dvesti)[7], in the wake of the desirable, pleasant outcomes or unpleasant and undesirable situations (sukha asukham)[8], and able to completely withdraw his or her senses from this world of sense-objects (indriyani indryarthebhyah samharate)[9], just as a turtle can withdraw its limbs onto its shell (kurma angani sarvasah samharate)[10].
[1] Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 55
[2] Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 55
[3] Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 56
[4] Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 56
[5] Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 56
[6] Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 57
[7] Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 57
[8] Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 57
[9] Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 58
[10] Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 58
As powerful a case for complete and total withdrawal from the field of battle as can be made, it seems! Yet time and again, Krishna says, “Fight this battle” (Yuddhasva Bharata)[1]. This seeming conflict between the advocacy of complete and total withdrawal from all worldly struggles and the simultaneous injunction to engage in life’s battles is one of the abiding paradoxes of the Bhagavad Gita’s teachings. Should we withdraw or engage? The typical Hindu position on all such questions appears to be, “Well, it depends.” There is no one unique answer for all people and all situations, it seems. For Arjuna, the answer was to engage in the war. For someone else, it might have been to disengage and withdraw. It depends on the person, their prior preparation, their state of readiness (Adhikara) for one choice or the other, as a matter of their Sadhana. Yet, the Stithaprajna seems to be someone who can be totally engaged while simultaneously being completely withdrawn. Neither impelled by desires for outcomes (Raga-Dvesha) nor besieged by a sense of doership (Kartrtva), Krishna seems to be saying, there is a way of being in this world, and acting in it, being totally immersed in one’s commitments yet simultaneously being totally removed and withdrawn from it.
Lately, I have come to realize that Dharma requires us to seek wealth and power for the sake of Dharma, for it is through wealth that we can nurture Dharma, and through power that we can protect Dharma. We Hindus seem to have lost the aspiration to seek wealth for the sake of Dharma. Most wealthy Hindus appear to prioritize Artha for the sake of Kama, rather than Dharma. There are a few exceptions here and there, but by and large, the idea that one can actively pursue Artha (Wealth) for the sake of Dharma is missing in our consciousness. While real politics in the domain of power and possession, as a Western-style discourse and practice of political science, appears to us to be legitimate, the pursuit of power and influence for the sake of Dharma seems somehow illegitimate. Rāja Dharma, or Rāshtra Dharma, has receded from our consciousness. Matsya Nyāya, the law of the fishes, i.e., every man and woman for themselves alone, seems to be the dominant ideology that we have imbibed from the West.
It is in this context that the hundred years of RSS attain significance. Among all other Hindu organizations that exist for one group or another, for one Sampradaya or another, for one Guru or Acharya or another, the RSS has uniquely nurtured the ideology of Hindu identity, unity, and nationhood over the course of a hundred years of struggle. It has not been easy. The RSS has faced immense adversity as an organization, and its Karyakartas have sacrificed so much for so long of themselves in this struggle. Therefore, as we mark yet another Vijayadashami, let us celebrate this day, which marks both the founding of the RSS and its completion of one hundred years, as well as the creation of the Hindu University of America, thirty-six years ago, and re-dedicate ourselves to the vision and mission that brings us together at our University.
11 Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 18