Happy Bijoya Dashami

The observance of Bijoya Dashami is something more than bringing the Puja season to an end. It is, for the followers of the Hindu religion, a reassertion of faith, a restrengthening of the belief that in the epic struggle between good and evil, good emerges ultimately triumphant. Durga Puja, in that broad manner of speaking, is not only an invocation of the gods and goddesses who exercise their omnipotent influence on the lives of the Hindu community. It is at the same time a celebration of the historical culture which has shaped the religion and by doing so has drawn scholars and students of history to attempts toward an understanding of it.
This morning, on Bijoya Dashami, it is the old and yet living story of Rama's victory over Ravana that we go back to. It is, in equal measure, the powerful legend of Durga's defeat of Mahisha that is recalled --- and for reasons that are as valid today as they were centuries ago. Every faith is a call to nobility, to the idea that a shaping of character to the highest degree of morality and ethics ought to be the goal of humanity. And yet there are the many and difficult tests that humankind is constantly put to as men and women confront the forces of evil in their diverse manifestations. It is through ceaseless struggle against overwhelming odds that humankind triumphs against the forces of darkness and by doing so inaugurates a new, happy phase in the pursuit of life, underpinned as it is by faith.
The end of the Puja is thus the beginning of a new journey, not only in the sense of physical reality but also in dimensions of the spiritual. It is a truth symbolised by the immersion of Goddess Durga in the river, a clear sign of the end of the old struggle, a patent indication of how the shadows of darkness may be put to flight by a strenuous striving for justice waged by the forces of good.
We wish our Hindu fellow citizens a happy Bijoya Dashami.