A TALE OF BAIJNATH!

Its Dussehra, on this day Lord Rama defeated King of Lanka Ravana. It’s a day of victory of truth/good over evil. This day is very auspicious in our nation and it is also a countdown for biggest festival of Hindus, “Diwali”. But on this blog I am not going to talk about “Dussehra”, I am going to tell you why in Baijnath – my village we don’t celebrate “Dussehra”.

Religious belief keeps the people of Baijnath from celebrating Dussehra. At Baijnath, a town of Kangra district located about 60 Km from District Headquarter Dharamshala, people do not burn the effigy of Ravana.

According to the Purana, “This is the place where Ravana worshipped Shiva as a sincere devotee and burning his effigy would bring bad luck for the people of this area,” Ravana worshipped Lord Shiva here and he is considered great a great devotee in Baijnath and burning the effigy of such a great devotee was not right. Legend has it that during the Treta Yug, Ravana worshipped Lord Shiva on Kailash and offered his 10 heads in a Havan Kund.

Lord Shiva was touched by this deed and agreed to accompany him to Lanka. Shiva took the shape of “ling” and asked Ravana not to place it on the ground on his way. However, when Ravana reached Baijnath, he felt the need to answer nature’s call (toilet). On seeing the shepherd, Ravana handed over the “ling” to him. The shepherd, on finding the “ling” very heavy, put it on the ground and it got installed there.

Some decades ago few people tried to burn the effigy of Ravana on Dussehra, up to next Dussehra they faced an enormous financial loss or they went seriously ill. You can connect that with the wrath of Lord Shiva. There is no shop of goldsmith in our area because of the same religious belief. We have heard from our ancestors that Lord Shiva hates gold and Ravana's Lanka was made of gold, which reflects a disagreement between the lord and the devotee. You can’t open a jewellery shop in this town, those who opened it, got burned.

Anyway we love Lord Shiva too much and we have no problem with not celebrating the Dussehra here. It’s a place of Mahadev and every inch of this holy town is filled with chants of “Harr Harr Mahadev”. So while Ramleela is enacted on stages across the country and effigies of Ravana and his brothers are also made, this town keeps away from it.