Indeed a unique day!

 October 2 this year! Indeed a unique day! On this day, our nation celebrates the birth anniversary of the most unassuming but truly tall leader ever, Lal Bahadur Shastri ji; while the world over gets celebrated the birth anniversary of Gandhiji. This year, on October 2, the RSS centenary year has reached its fruition, I suppose, though the formal date the organisation was established is September 27, 1925. In addition, on October 2 this year , we celebrate Dasara as well. 

 In this short piece, let us unravel what these occasions signify in the public sphere and in the private space. Let us begin with the political, next the social, and finally the religious/civilisational categories.

In my opinion, in the public space, Shastriji, the "hail, farmers; hail, soldiers" man stands for probity and integrity. Unbelievable, but absolutely true, anecdotes about his honesty are public knowledge. 

What does he signify in the private space? In my opinion, it is his humility and gentleness. Yet he was a brave person who stood up to all sorts of mockeries and wickednesses consciously planted in his way. A true statesman, very rare amongst politicians who mostly are power magnets! 

In the public sphere, Gandhiji would symbolise non-violence and the uncanny ability to mobilise mass support through moral ideas. In the private space, it is his ability to accept his own mistakes is what I find appealing. 

He seems to treat life as work in progress. Often, after a blunder, he collects the pieces together to form a new and a better mosaic of the self. Rather, I would say, like the Japanese art of kintsugi alias kintsukuroi which consists of piecing together broken heirloom vases, urns with an inlay of gold varnish, thus creating in the process a beautiful work of art, in fact, much better than the earlier valuable pottery pieces. 

In the public arena, the RSS may signify all sorts of ideologies to all sorts of people. In fact, it may very well be said of the organisation that there are absolutely contradictory, mutually exclusive/explosive opinions about the organisation. 

In my opinion, however, at least in my private sphere, the RSS stands for dedicated, selfless work that does not crave publicity. Silently but surely, the RSS people perform wonders. Let me quote two examples. When the Malin tragedy happened, the core Sangha people were the first to arrive and the last to leave there, and ready for any, literally any, duty. So it was during the COVID era. The RSS helped curb the super spread of COVID in Dharavi, and so much that an arch critic like Barkha Dutt eulogised, highly praised their contribution. 

Worthy of emulation are the RSS processions as well.  May be, that is because the Sangh processions on the Dasara day celebrate in a disciplined organised way the core Indic values, the civilisational principles.

 In the public sector, the Dasara may mean a holiday, such processions that celebrate the culmination of the "navratra", the return of Rama to Ayodhya, the boon granted by Kubera to King Raghu and Sage Kausts, the end of Pandavas' 'vanvaas', their unjust banishment, and so on. 

What do these myths and the public burning of the Ravana mean in the private space? I suppose, it would be recognising the a-sur, the a-vidya, the a-lakshmi within. In Sanskrit, the prefix 'a-' means negation. The a-surs in my life could be people who find the speck of dust, the mote in my eye, while consciously ignoring the beam in their own or their favourites' eye(s). Dasara means 're-cognising' such people, and cutting them to Size Zero in my reality. 

The a-vidya i must get rid of can be getting upset due to such vicious people and their activities, allowing them in derailing my 'dream' journey, worrying over their conscious nastiness, et al. 

The a-lakshmi can be wasting (wo)man hours through ignoring my health, for instance. Luckily, I am not addicted to the social media. Otherwise, the social media can be the worst cause of a-lakshmi, for instance. 

Dasara, in brief, is the 'haran', the dissolution or destruction of not only ten, 'dash', but as many as is possible of the 'a-' within!

Pratima@ The public is private, and the private could cleanse the public.