Shiva Mahimna Stotra

Shloka 11

Meaning:  O Tripurhara (Lord Shiva)! King Ravana easily conquered the three worlds, destroyed all the enemies, and still, his hands were craving to fight more wars. This is the result of his determined devotion to you out of which he offered a garland of his ten lotus-like heads at your feet.                                                                               

Reflections:  In Shrimad Bhagavata Purana there is a story that four great sages, the sons of Brahma, named Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatana, and Santkumara, went to Vaikuntha, the abode of Lord Vishnu. Their minds always remain in the Consciousness of Brahman. They had no body consciousness. The gatekeepers, Jaya and Vaijaya, of Vaikuntha, didn’t understand their state of mind and they stopped these sages from entering Vaikuntha, saying that they were not properly dressed.

The sages felt that these gatekeepers had body consciousness and they did not belong in Vaikuntha. They should be born on earth. So, they cursed them saying ‘Go and be born on earth’. The gatekeepers were scared and worried about being separated from Lord Vishnu. They started praying to Lord Vishnu and asked him to nullify the curse. Lord Vishnu appeared and told the gatekeepers that this curse could not be nullified.

However, seeing the sincere repentance of the gatekeepers, Lord Vishnu gave them two choices: You two be born on earth as Lord Vishnu’s devotees and live for seven lives, or be born as Lord Vishnu’s enemies and live for three lives and be killed by the Lord. They thought for a while and decided that it was better to come back to Vaikuntha sooner after only three lives and not seven. This way they spent less time away from Lord Vishnu. Another version says that the sages eased the curse by giving them three lives on earth.

Thus, in their first life, Vijaya was born as Hiranyaksha, and Jaya was born as Hiranyakashipu. Both were killed by Lord Varaha and Lord Narasimha respectively.  In their second life, Jaya was born as Ravana, and Vijaya was born as Kumbhakarna, and both were killed by Lord Rama. In their third life, Jaya was born as Shishupala, and Vijaya was born as Dantavaktra, and both were killed by Lord Krishna.   

Now, we see that Ravana was originally a gatekeeper of Lord Vishnu.  Also, Ravana’s father was a great sage Vishrava who was a son of sage Pulastya, one of the ten Prajapati and one of the mind-born sons of Brahma. Ravana’s mother was from a demonic family. Her name was Kaikesi. Thus, Ravana had both divine and demonic backgrounds.   

There is a story that at a young age, Ravana was attracted by a plane of his stepbrother Kubera. His mother told him that Kubera was the richest man in the world, and he had acquired this wealth by the grace of Lord Shiva. She told him that she would be pleased if he (Ravana) obtained the grace of Lord Shiva and acquired such wealth.  Ravana had this deep desire in his mind. When he grew up, he decided to obtain Lord Shiva’s grace. He took the ‘Shiva Panchaskhara Mantra’ from his grandfather and started severe austerity to please Lord Shiva. After much austerity, Lord Shiva was not pleased. Maybe Lord Shiva knew his intention. Ravana performed a ‘Yajna’, but still Lord Shiva was not pleased. As a final resort, Ravana started offering his heads one by one to Lord Shiva. The story goes that when Ravana was offering his last head, Lord Shiva was pleased and gave him his desired boon.

After that, he attacked all the existing kings and took away their kingdoms. He killed all his enemies, and his hands were craving for more wars. He even took away his stepbrother Kubera’s kingdom Sri Lanka and acquired all his wealth. Shri Pushpadanta says that the root cause of the Ravana’s success was his determined devotion to Lord Shiva.

In the Bhagavad Gita (16.21), Shri Krishna says,

“Lust, anger, and greed are three doors to hell. They ruin the self. Therefore, a person should avoid all these three.”

In the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, we find that Sri Ramakrishna again and again warns all the spiritual seekers that ‘lust and greed’ are the two major enemies or the major obstacles in the path of God-realization.  We see what happened to Ravana even after realizing Lord Shiva.

After acquiring wealth and power, Ravana became arrogant. He lost the sense of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. Being possessed by ego, anger, and lust, he kidnaps Mother Sitaji and brings the destruction of himself, his family, and all the people around him. We will find one of his arrogant acts in the next shloka of Shiva Mahimna Stotra.