Ramnawami (Chaitay Dashai)

Ram Nawami is the birth anniversary of Lord Rama, and it falls on the month of Chaitra i.e. March- April. Ram Nawami is also called Chaitay Dashai.
Among the ten incarnations of Lord Bishnu, Lord Ram is considered to be the seventh and Krishna the eighth incarnations, and if Lord Rama was born in the day time Lord Krishna was born at night. Lord Ram was born from Kaikaya, the first of the three wives of King Dasrath.

The birth of Lord Rama had taken place on this earth about nine lakh years ago, who through his idealism and examples established true humanism in the world. His character is the story of humanity which is ever relevant to everybody in the society, from a weary hermit to a cunning politician and a naive housewife. The adage 'Ram Rajya' is still in vogue due to his reign which was free of injustice, oppression and exploitation.

Not only Rama but his family members also possessed the same virtues as him, and Rama could spend fourteen years of banishment and overcome injustice and oppressive Ravana only with the help and co-operation of a father like Dasrath who was true to his wsords, virtuous mother like kaikaya, obedient brothers like Laxaman and Bharat and a faithful and dedicated wife like Sita. Maharshi, the first poet of Sanskrit literature, has exhaustibly written the life history of Rama in his epic Ramayana. The first poet of Nepali literature, Bhanubhakta Acharaya also earned name and fame by writing and extolling the character of Sri Rama. The other poets who earned wide acclamation through their writings' of Ramayana are the Bengali poet Kritibash and the Hindi poet Gaushami Tulsidas.

Lord Rama is also known as "Maryada Puroshtam Ram" because of good examples he set and the good deeds he did for all humanity, through his impeccable character, without stepping the boundary of humanity. Ram Nawami is the National festival of Hindus. They bathe early in the morning on this day and pay homage to Lord Rama through prayers and fasts. The tradition of ascending the places of hilly regions to pluck and gather the flowers of Chaap to offer to Lord Rama is also prevalent in our society during the festival.

Chaitay Dashai is the other name for Ram Nawami, during which Goddess Nawadurga is worshipped. Business men, on this very auspicious day, close their old accounts and open new account books for the ensuing year with profound prayer for the prosperity of their business. Not only that they also draw a symbolic swastik, as a sign of Good omen and write 'suva lap', 011 the cover of their new account books.

The festival of Ram Nawami reminds us of the impeccable characters of Sri Ram, his parents, brothers and wife and encourages us to emulate them in order to uplift the degrated morality of the present society where exploitation and selfishness reign supreme, where people have taken leave of their senses of duty and responsibility, where innocent people are . made scapegoat in the name of casts, creed, culture and religion and where the vendetta among family members and neighbours are always on the rise making it a very unpleasant place to live in. Therefore, this festival acts as an oasis in today's desert like society which is absolutely devoid of fineries and virtues. For this season, this festival now should not be confined within the four walls of mandirs and houses but should be brought out as communal celebration so that, the true appreciation of the life and character of these personalities may work wonders in redefining and re-evaluating the ethical code four fast deterioting society.