Was Ravana a good person who just committed one mistake?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Two questions actually over here. Was Ravana just a good person, a good king who just made one mistake that destroyed him? One of our devotees was distributing books in South India.
And one person said, I am a member of the RPC. What is RPC? Ravana Protection Committee. What is this? They said that, actually, Ravana was a very good person.
But these Rama devotees, they have spoiled his good name. So we want to protect his good name. Somehow, unfortunately, what has happened is that there have been false lines created in India by the propaganda of those who want to divide India.
So when the Britishers came to India, they were very small in number. So they couldn’t possibly rule India. So they created this whole idea of an Aryan invasion theory.
Wade said that there were some great people, Aryans, who came to India and they civilized India. And how did they serve their purpose? They said, actually, those same Aryans came to Europe also. And we are the descendants of the same Aryans.
So just as our ancestors came and helped you, we are helping you now. So their idea was that they created this division between Aryans and Dravidians. And they identified with the Aryans.
Now, of course, what happened in Europe, everybody started claiming, we are the Aryans, we are the Aryans. Then eventually Hitler claimed that we are the Aryans. And Hitler had that swastika as a symbol.
But he had the inverted swastika. Swastika called auspicious for everyone. He wanted inauspiciousness for everyone, except his own race.
So now, when the Britishers, now again, among Britishers, not everybody was God. Not everything that they did was bad. There were also people in goodness, passion, ignorance.
But prominently, they worked in a way to make Indians willing captives. They didn’t have the capacity to use force for a long time. So now, one of the ways they decided to create division was the Aryans and Dravidians.
And later on, now if you see Christian missionaries that are there in India, they have started identifying themselves with the Dravidians. And they say, actually the original Dravidians who lived in India before the Aryans came, their faith was very similar to Christians. And this is how they are infiltrating South India.
And they are converting. So what has happened is, they have redefined the Ramayana as a conflict between Aryans and Dravidians. They say Ram was an Aryan prince and Ravan was a Dravidian king.
And in that way, they have created identification with Ravan. So those who identify with Dravidian cause, they identify with Ravan. And they think, oh, anyway in India, there is always this conflict between North India and South India.
Little bit tension is always there. So they have aggravated that and they have polarized it according to religious lines. That’s why there is a lot of propaganda that Ravan was actually a good person.
Now, historically speaking, they can’t deny the fact that Ravan abducted Sita. But then they say that was just one mistake he made. But if you look at the Ramayana itself, it describes that before that, he created havoc in many, many places.
He went to heavens and there was a celestial named Brahma. He violated her forcibly. And he tried to similarly persecute Vaidyavati.
And in fact, even many of the queens that he had, they were forcibly abducted. So he was not that, he was a good person who did one bad thing. He did many, many bad things.
And his abducting Sita was the last straw. So, it is good to see virtues even among bad people. But then, if you want to see completely, you have to see their evil qualities also.
See, in general, nowadays, people like to take traditional narratives and twist them around. See from a new perspective. So, it is not just like this, it is like that.
So, there are many people who have used Ramayana in a way to tell their own stories. So, I would say that Ravan, he had some virtues qualities. But even his virtues qualities were not such that they could overcome his vices.
Some people say that he did not violate Sita. That is true. But there is a curse.
When he had violated Rambha, then Rambha’s husband, Manigriva had said that if he ever tries to violate a woman again after this, he will be killed. So, because of that, although Sita was active, he did not violate Sita forcibly. So, Ravana had a lot of lust, lot of arrogance.
As far as his devotion to Shiva is concerned, it was actually very utilitarian. Utilitarian in the sense that first he worshipped Brahma, got a lot of powers from Brahma and then he went around breaking havoc all over the universe trying to demonstrate his prowess. And then he came to Kailash.
And he came to Kailash and that time he decided that I will demonstrate my prowess. And he put his hand under Kailash and tried to shake it up. And Lord Shiva, the Devatas, they actually don’t walk on the ground.
They have the capacity to walk, to float above the ground. So, we say Lord Shiva stays on Kailash. He doesn’t have to sit on Kailash.
He is floating above Kailash. So, when Kailash started moving, shaking, Shiva was sitting with Parvati and Shiva just touched his foot to Kailash. And as soon as his foot touched to Kailash, Kailash just came down.
And then Ravana, who was 20 hands, lifting up Kailash, demonstrating, his hands were getting crushed. And when his hands were getting crushed, at that time he used all his powers. But when he couldn’t do anything, then he just started praying to Shiva.
That’s when he wrote what is called Ravana Sutti. It’s not praise of Ravana but it’s praise by Ravana. So, that’s quite a well-known set of verses which he wrote which are used to glorify Shiva.
So, he did glorify Shiva wonderfully at that time. And Shiva became pleased. One of the names of Shiva is Ashutosh.
He becomes pleased very quickly. So, he did please Lord Shiva and he worshipped Lord Shiva. And Lord Shiva benedicted him also.
So, when he recognized how powerful Shiva is, he initially thought Ramayana is very powerful. So, from Ramayana he got some powers. But then he worshipped Shiva and he got more powers from Shiva.
So, he worshipped him primarily to get power. It was not simply out of, not any kind of selfless devotion. For him, devotion was a means to increase his own power.
Then ultimately, if it’s a devotion or religion, it should lead to transformation of character. Somebody says, I am a great devotee. But then, that person is ruthless, that person is cruel.
Then that is not really great devotion. That is great worship that will be done. But worship may be done simply as a tool to increase one’s own power and one’s own prestige.
Krishna Sarkar, what is in 16th, 17th verse, he says that some people, He says, they do yajante, they don’t do yajna of naam, they do yajna for naam. They want to do yajna so that they can show to the whole world, how big, how great I am. In India, sometimes this happens, people want to build bigger and bigger temples.
For example, Hanuman Deity, I have this big Hanuman Deity. Somebody says, I want to have this big Hanuman Deity. So now, it’s good to have big temples and big Deities.
But what is the consciousness that is being done, that is to be seen. In India, especially in Maharashtra, Ganesha Utsav is very big. So one time, they invited me to speak at a Ganesha Utsav.
And when I went there, normally temple is there, we have some songs about, in praise of that particular Deity going on. But in front of this Ganesha Temple, Bollywood songs were going on. So, I asked him, this is Ganesha Utsav, where you have Bollywood songs? He says, oh Ganesha is bhakta vatsal.
Whatever is bhakta’s love, he loves that also. Completely twisted understanding of bhakta vatsal. He loves his devotees and his love for his devotees is that he elevates the devotees.
Not that love for devotees, he comes down the level where the devotees are. So, people sometimes have quite a distorted understanding of what worship is. So, Ravana’s worship of, he might have done great worship of Shiva, but it was very greatly self-serving kind of worship.