KNOWN PURANAS - UNKNOWN STORIES - PART 1

[Guest guest]

THE RISE AND FALL OF TEN HEADS – IT WAS NOT RAMA’S ARROW ALONE THAT SHATTERED RAAVANA.

 

Respected Devotees of almighty lord

 

Recently I came across a power point presentation on “I asked and Krishna replied as†– it contained 8 questions and their beautiful answers. Since it came as an email being circulated ‘you send to 10 people - to all those you love and like’ – I received it from one of my friends’ senior in age, experience, and expertise. So I do not know who the author is to this PPS [slide show] file. But I take one question out of the 8 and its answer to quote here

– quote

“I asked lord Krishna to do away with my vicesâ€

Lord Krishna answered ‘they are not there for me to take them away. They are there for you to resist them’. -- unquote

This triggered my thoughts into sreemadh raamaayaNam and raavaNa’s character in particular, because he is embodiment of vices, which he could have easily resisted.

The very word "RaavaNa" means "one who causes crying for others." The epic, sreemadh raamaayaNam, says that Raama killed RaavaNa, the ten headed raakshasa, in a prolonged battle mainly to rescue his consort, Seethaa, since this seethaa was held by raavaNa, the demon, in captivity, and thus made her to weep. Earlier he caused vEdhavathee also to weep and this vEdhavathee vowed that she will be born again and thus be the cause for him to be killed. In his long life he made many others also to weep and thus curse him. Is making others weep not a vice?

RaavaNa, even though did a long ‘thapas’ to get many things in life, he did not ask the lord like the author of the PPS file – ask the lord to do away with vices – but asked so many other things. A close look at the events in RaavaNa’s life will show that RaavaNa’s fall was more due to his own vices or atrocities against ‘good and noble’ people and the curses they inflicted on him, which targeted his 10 heads, one after the other. So by virtue of those boons [as a result of his thapas], he, instead, accumulated these vices and thereby got many curses from many, which eventually killed him. Then you all should not mistake me that I am trying to belittle raama, the supreme lord who came as a human to kill raavaNa.

This small series of posts is to highlight who are all the persons who gave curses and what raavaNa did to earn these curses.

RAAVANA’s LINEAGE:

First of all, let us look at RaavaNa’s lineage to start with. He had a profound lineage. He was a descendant of VishNu, the supreme lord himself. The lineage ran like this:

VishNu the supreme lord naaraayaNa —

His son or creation - the chathur mukha Brahma — 4 faced brahma

Brahma’s son is sage Pulasthya —

pura krutha yugE raama prajaapathi suthah prabhuh|

pulasthyah naama brahma rishih saakshaadhiva pithaamahah 7-2-4

[7 is uththara kaaNdam 2 is second sargam 4 is slokam no]

his son sage Visravas —

pithaa iva thapasaa yukthah hi abhavadh visravaa munih – 7-2-34

his son RaavaNa.

Strangely, VishNu himself had to take an avathaaram as Raama to annihilate raavaNa, a member of his own clan just because of his vices.

RAAVANA’s BIRTH:

Sage Visravas married kaikasi, who gave birth to three sons and a daughter in four yaamams (six hours) with an interval of one yaama between each of them. The sons were RaavaNa, KumbhakarNa and VibheeshaNa and the daughter was SoorpaNakhaa. [in 9th sargam of uththara kaaNdam the birth of raavaNa, his brother kumbakarNa, sister soorpanakhaa, vibheeshaNa are described. It is stated here when raavaNa was born there was a bad omen and when vibheeshaNa was born there was a sudden change to a good omen].

KubEra, the lord of wealth, and the guardian deity of northern direction, was also a son of sage visravas through his second wife, Devavani. Kubera was destined to be rich. He got the pushpaka vimanam of the dhEvalOkam and started ruling Lanka.

Kaikasi, RaavaNa’s mother, became envious of the pomp and power of her stepson Kubera. She induced RaavaNa and his brothers to do penance towards Brahma and get power to conquer the universe, be victorious over KubEra and possess all his wealth.

PENANCE FOR WEALTH, POWER

The sons did thapas for many thousands of years. When Brahma appeared before them, RaavaNa sought boons of health, wealth and power. He also got a boon not to be killed by anyone [except a man, since he thought that man was very much inferior to him and would not try to harm him]. See how omitted manushaya – humans

suparNa naaga yakshaaNaam dhaithya dhaanava rakshasaam

avadhyah aham prajaadhyaksha dhEvathaanaam cha saasvatha || 7-10-19

nahi chinthaa mama anyEshu praaNishu amara poojitha

thruNa bhoothaa hi thE manyE praaNinah maanushaadhayah || 7-10-20

Kumbhakarna, by a slip of the tongue, sought nidhrathvam (prolonged sleep) while he actually wanted to ask for nithyathvam (longevity).

VibhishaNa sought the boon of standing to dharmam always, surrender and devotion to VishNu.

Brahma gave him ‘amarathvam’ to vibheeshaNa’s asking – re slokam --

na adharmE jaayathE bhudhdhhi amarathvam dhadhaami thE || 7-10-35

In order to fulfill the wish of his mother, RaavaNa conquered all the seven lOkams and became the unquestioned monarch of the universe. He possessed all the wealth of Kubera and crowned himself as the king of Lanka.

RaavaNa had ten heads, four of them representing positive qualities and six representing evil qualities. He was a great Vedic scholar and a valorous warrior, but had no control over his senses. So, he was committing error of judgment throughout his life.

As a result of ruling all the worlds, terrorizing everyone, RaavaNa invited on himself curse after curse, and thus was hastening his downfall, till he was ultimately killed by raama the supreme lord in the battlefield. Let us see the list of curses one by one in subsequent posts.

 

with due respects to all devotees of almighty

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