Dussehra or Vijayadashami Tamas Rajas Sattva

Vijayadashami Tamas Rajas Sattva
Dussehra or Vijayadashami, is the day that follows the nine days of Navaratri. Yogi and mystic, Sadhguru, looks at how this day can bring success and victory into our life.

Sadhguru: Navaratri, culminating with Dussehra, is a cultural festival of great importance and significance for all. It is a festival that is all about the goddess. In Karnataka, Dussehra is about Chamundi, in Bengal it is about Durga. Like this, it is about various goddesses in different places, but essentially it is about the feminine goddess or the feminine divinity.

Dussehra – The tenth day of celebration

Navaratri is replete with symbolism about vanquishing evil and wanton nature, and about having reverence for all aspects of life and even for the things and objects that contribute to our wellbeing. 

The nine days of Navaratri are classified as per the three basic qualities of tamas, rajas and sattva. The first three days are tamas, where the goddess is fierce, like Durga and Kali. The next three days are Lakshmi related – gentle but materially oriented goddesses. The last three days are dedicated to Saraswati, which is sattva. It is related to knowledge and enlightenment.

Vijayadashami – The Day of Victory

Investing in these three will make your life in a certain way. If you invest in tamas, you will be powerful in one way. If you invest in rajas, you will be powerful in a different way. If you invest in sattva, you will be powerful in a completely different way. But if you go beyond all this, it is no longer about power, it is about liberation. 

After Navaratri, the tenth and final day is Vijayadashami – that means you have conquered all these three qualities. You did not give into any of them, you saw through every one of them. You participated in every one of them, but you did not invest in any one of them. You won over them. That is Vijayadashami, the day of victory. This brings home the message of how being in reverence and gratitude towards everything that matters in our lives leads to success and victory.

Dussehra – Devotion and Reverence
It is my wish and my blessings that all of you should celebrate Dussehra with total involvement, joy and love.

Of the many things that we are in touch with, of the many things that contribute in making and creating our lives, the most important devices that we employ in making a success of our lives are our own body and mind. Being in reverence towards the very earth that you walk upon, towards the air that you breathe, the water that you drink, the food that you eat, the people that you come in touch with and everything else that you use, including your body and mind, will lead us to a different possibility as to how we can live. Being in a state of reverence and devotion towards all these aspects is a way of ensuring success in every endeavor that we partake in.

Celebrate Dussehra With Joy & Love

Traditionally, in Indian culture, Dussehra was always full of dances, where the whole community mixed, met and mingled. But because of external influences and invasions over the past two hundred years, we have lost that today. Otherwise Dussehra was always very vibrant. Even now it is still so in many places, but it is being lost in the rest of the country. We have to bring it back. The Vijayadashami or Dussehra festival is of a tremendous cultural significance for all who live in this land – irrespective of their caste, creed or religion – and should be celebrated with gaiety and love. It is my wish and my blessings that all of you should celebrate Dussehra with total involvement, joy and love.

Sadhguru explains about tamas – the nature of the first three days of Navaratri. Accompanying the text is Sounds of Isha’s rendition of Adi Shankaracharya’s Soundarya Lahari, written in praise of Devi.

Sadhguru: In yoga, all the qualities of the world have been identified as three basic gunas: tamas, rajas, and sattva. Tamas literally means inertia. Rajas means activity. Sattva is the breaking of boundaries. 

The first three days of Navaratri are tamas, where the goddess is fierce, like Durga and Kali. 

Tamas is the nature of the Earth, and she is the one who gives birth. The gestation period that we spend in the womb is tamas. 

It is a state which is almost like hibernation, but we are growing. So tamas is the nature of the Earth and of your birth. 

You are sitting on the earth. You must just learn to simply be one with her. You are anyway a part of her. When she wishes she throws you out, when she wishes she sucks you back.

Do something with the garden. This will build a natural bodily memory in you that you are mortal.

It is very important that you are constantly reminded of the nature of your body. Right now, you are a mound of earth prancing around. When the earth decides to suck you in, you just become a small mound.

In the ashram I always tell people, no matter what work you are doing, every day you must stick your fingers into the earth at least for an hour. Do something with the garden. This will build a natural bodily memory in you that you are mortal. 

Your body will know that it is not permanent. That realization in the body is extremely important for one to keep his focus on his spiritual pursuit. The more urgent the realization becomes, the stronger the spiritual sense becomes.
Sadhguru looks at the quality of Rajas

The second set of three days of Navaratri are Lakshmi related – gentle but materially-oriented goddesses. Sadhguru looks at the quality of Rajas, the quality of days four to six of Navaratri, and how it can be a process of liberation.

Sounds of Isha also releases the second of three songs for Navaratri, “Thunbam illadha nilaye Shakti”, based on a poem by Mahakavi Subramanya Bharatiyar.

Sadhguru: Among the three celestial objects with which the very making of our bodies is very deeply connected – the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon– Mother Earth is considered tamas. 

The Sun is rajas. The Moon is sattva. Tamas is the nature of the Earth and of your birth. The moment you come out, you start activity – rajas begins. 

Once rajas comes, you want to do something. Once you start doing something, if there is no awareness and consciousness, the nature of rajas is such, it’s good as long as the going is good. When the going gets bad, rajas is going to be super-bad.

A rajasic person has a tremendous amount of energy. It is just that it has to be channelised properly. Every action that you perform can be either a process of liberation or entanglement. 

If you perform any activity with absolute willingness, that activity is beautiful and creates joy for you. 

If you perform any activity unwillingly for whatever reason, that activity creates suffering for you. 

Whatever you are doing, even if you just sweep the floor, give yourself to it and do it with total involvement. That’s all it takes.

When you are passionately involved with something, nothing else exists for you. 

Passion does not mean “man-woman” passion. Passion means unbridled involvement with something. 

It could be anything – you can sing passionately, you can dance passionately, or you can just walk passionately. 

Whatever is in touch with you right now, you are deeply passionate with that. You breathe with passion, you walk with passion, you live with passion. Your very existence is with absolute involvement with everything.

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Thunbam illadha nilaye Shakti

“Thunbam illaadha nilaye Shakti” is a song by Mahakavi Subramanya Bharathiyar which has been adapted here by Sounds of Isha. 

The song is about the energy that makes every aspect of life happen. It summarizes the whole activity that is life as the play of Shakti. The great poet says, “The lap where life flourishes is Shakti.” Shakti also enables us to break the bondages of karma and liberate ourselves.


Thuṉbam illādha nilayē shakti
thookkam illā kaṇ vizhipē shakti
aṉbu kaṉindha kaṉivē shakti
āaṇmai niṟaindha niṟaivē shakti

The state of being with no suffering is Shakti
The state of awakening beyond sleep is Shakti
When love matures and sweetens that is Shakti
The fullness and fulfillment of masculine is Shakti

Iṉbam mudhirndha mudhirvē shakti
eṇṇathil niṟkum neṟiyē shakti
muṉbu niṟkiṉdṟa thozhilē shakti
mukthi nilaiyiṉ mudivē shakti

When the sweetness matures that is Shakti
The divine which resides in the thoughts is Shakti
Whatever work comes before us is Shakti
The state of mukti, the end, is Shakti

Sōmbar kedukkum thuṇivē shakti
sollil viḷaṅgum chudarē shakti
thīmpazham thaṉṉil suvaiyē shakti
dheivathai eṉṉum niṉaivē shakti
sāmbalai poosi malaimisai vāzhum
shaṅkaraṉ aṉbu thazhalē shakti

The braveness which destroys laziness is Shakti
The flame which is instilled in these words is Shakti
When the best of fruits are eaten that taste is Shakti
When thoughts of divine arise that is Shakti
Shankara who lives on top of the huge mountains, his lovely flame is Shakti

Vāazhvu peṟukkum madhiyē shakti
mānilam kākkum valiyē shakti
thāzhvu thadukkum sathirē shakti
sañchalam neekkum thavamē shakti

The lap where life flourishes is Shakti
The strength which guards the earth is Shakti
The flame which stops one from falling is Shakti (denotes inner strength that averts fall/defeat)
The tapas that eliminates confusion is Shakti

Veezhvu thadukkum viralē shakti
viṇṇai aḷakkum virivē shakti
ūzhviṉai neekkum uyarvē shakti
uḷḷathoḷirum viḷakkē shakti

The finger which stops downfall is Shakti
The one who spans the whole expanse of sky is Shakti
Her highness who eliminates karma is Shakti
The inner flame which shines from within the heart is Shakti

Sattva – Refining the Body

The seventh, eight and ninth days of Navaratri are the time of Sarasvati and the quality of sattva. Today, Sadhguru speaks about this quality.

Sadhguru: There is no physical entity without all these three dimensions – sattva, rajas and tamas. 

Every atom has these three dimensions of vibrance, of energy, of a certain static nature. If these three elements are not there, you cannot hold anything together. It will break up. 

If it is just sattva, you won’t remain here for a moment – you will be gone. If it is just rajas, it’s not going to work. If it’s just tamas, you will be asleep all the time. So, these three qualities are present in everything. It is just a question of to what extent you mix these things.

Moving from tamasic nature to sattva means you are refining the physical body, the mental body, the emotional body and the energy body. 

If you refine this so much that it became very transparent, you cannot miss the source of creation which is within you. Right now, it is so opaque that you cannot see. 

The body has become like a wall blocking everything. Something so phenomenal – the source of creation – is sitting here but this damn wall can block it because it’s so opaque. It’s time to refine it. Otherwise you will only know the wall, you will not know who lives inside.