Ravana: The great Shiva bhaktha

Most people think when the hear the word Ravana, the terrible Asura who slaughtered thousands of innocent beings and usurped his righteous brother Kubera's throne. While it is true that he was an Asura who did commit various acts of injustice, he is still seen as an Aryan by Hanuman when he visits Lanka in the Sundarakhanda of Valmiki Ramayana. An Arya is a being of great nobility, it was a title reserved for great kings and mighty sages. Then does he, Ravaana deserve this title?

Who was he?

Son of Vaishrava, the grandson of Pulastaya Rishi and princess Kaikesi. Pulastaya was the son of Brahma, and thus he (Raavana) is considered Brahmin. The central antagonist in the Hindu epic Ramayana, he was the great demon king of Sri Lanka. He was called a dashagriva. A dashagriva is one who has 10 heads. He is described to have 10 heads and 20 arms, and when running into the battle he would terrify even ghosts and demons, as such he became known as the demon king of Lanka. Despite his horrific appearance, Ravana had a peaceful form, which was that of a scholar who had learned and mastered the four Vedas and devout follower of Lord Shiva. Legend has it, that because he was such a devout Shaivite (follower of Lord Shiva), the lord gave him divine weapons. He was thus indestructible to the Devas. He was considered a maestro of the Veena, an ancient India musical instrument who contested the great Rishi Agastya on the Veena.  

Tapas to Brahma 

PENANCE TO BRAHMA

Inspired by his demonic maternal uncles and mother (who was a daitya, a clan of demons) he began to perform ascetic penances to please his grandfather who was known as the creator of man. Through rigorous Tapas, Brahma, the creator god was much pleased and asked what he desired. Ravana instantly requested immortality, to which Brahma refused, as all beings have an ultimate end, including him. However, Brahma pleased with his great grandsons penances made him near invincible to almost any weapon and gave him Amritham (the nectar of immortality) to wear around his waist. Which can only be defeated by a weapon forged by brahma himself the legendary brahmaastra. 


Lankeshwaran
Having obtained the celestial boons, Raavana defeated his older half brother in battle and took Lanka built by the celestial architect Visvakarman. Having obtained a massive kingdom, he became an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva. He performed many austerities to please him. However, he did not get the attention he sought. Having failed at pleasing Shiva, Ravana decided to end his life, and cut of his only head. When Lord Shiva graced him with his divine presence and bestowed upon him 10 heads and 20 arms for the one he lost. Thus making Raavana practically invincible. 

CUTTING HIS HEAD OFF

The mighty Shiva Bhakta
Every morning Ravana would worship Shiva with ardent devotion. It is said that when made a Shiva Lingam out of sand it would stay put for the entire worship. Ravana's bhakti to Shiva grew greater and greater to point where Raavana was maddened by his bhakti to the Lord. This ultimately made him near invincible, as Shiva was the God of War and Death, Raavana became the unquestionable emperor of the three worlds. Unfortunately, often with great power comes great pride. As expected, the demon king grew tremendously proud but his pride was often checked by even more devout and sincere beings such as Valli the Monkey king of Kishkinda or Kartaveerya Arjuna. 

PENANCE TO PLEASE LORD SHIVA

Shaking of Kailasam and Loss of Golingam
As Ravana's Bhakti to Lord Shiva was growing exponentially, Raavana wanted to have the biggest lingam in the world in his back yard, so he could worship it when he feels like it. And thus a brilliant (yet arrogant) idea occurred to him. He decided Kailasam was the largest lingam and it better fitted in Lanka. Thus he set forth with his Puspaka Vimana (Flying Chariot) to lift it and bring it back to Lanka. At that time, Mahadeva (Lord Siva) was having a huge argument with Parvathi (his wife) and Parvathi left him. At this time a huge earth quake shook the mountain, it was actually Raavana lifting the mountain. Parvathi ran back to the arms of her lord and Shiva pressed his upper toe against the ground and the entire mountain fell on the King of the Demons. Howling in pain, the demon king roared aloud. Just then ganapathi and his ganas came down to tell Ravana who was residing on the mount and immediately raavana grew penitent. He plucked his own nerves to make a veena and sang the Shiva Tandava Stotram. He praised lord Shiva for years under the mount and Shiva, pleased with his humility lifted his big toe. Raavana ran to the feet of Mahadeva and Shiva gave him a lingam called Golinga. He said that this lingam is as powerful as the Mountain itself and he can carry it to Lanka. Roaring with joy, Raavana takes the lingam. Shiva warned him, however, that if he drops the lingam, then the lingam cannot be lifted. It will stay there permanently. Raavana agreed and flew to Lanka. On the way, he realised the sun was setting. During the sun rise and sun set period, the Aryans of the Vedic culture must do a ritualistic worship of the sun, called the Sandhya vandanam. Ganesha, who did not want the lingam to leave India, came in the guise of a brahmin (priest) who agreed to look after the lingam until Raavana completed the rituals, under one condition, which was to complete the entire ritual in under ten minutes. Raavana agreed as he knew the mantras (incantations) like the the back of his hand. However, while doing the Puja, Ganesha entered his mind and deluded the poor demon king. Making him forget and redo the ritual several times, ensuring the agreed upon ten minutes were passed. In doing so he conveniently dropped the Lingam on the spot and Raavana roared a painful loss. 

DASHAGRIVA RAAVANA

Legacy.
Raavana's thirst for knowledge, his desire to please Shiva and his austerities earned him the various yogic abilities. As he was an ardent devotee of the Lord his wisdom grew. He is worshipped as a god amongst many cults and is considered the master of astrology, ayurveda and saama veda. However, with unquestionable power comes absolute corruption. It was Raavanas lust and pride that destroyed him and his beautiful city. He gave into such a menial desire on the becoming of his sister and ultimately dug his own grave.

Swami Vidyaranya

As I turn a quarter of a century, I contemplated on some of the people who have influenced me the most in my spiritual path. The obvious few would be Swami Vivekananda, with his Guru Paramahamsa Ramakrishna, Adi Shankara, Appar, Yogananda, Ramana Maharishi and ofcourse my own self perception on various scriptural dogmas. I wanted to thank someone/god or being for bringing me this far in life with both intellect and philosophical inquiry. As such I thought about writing a short biography of one the above saints only to realize that they are already infinitely famous (at least within Hinduism) and there would not be much of a tribute to my system of thought and as such I decided upon the patron saint Vidyaranya. He is not very well known amongst most Hindus but his very existence is one of the core reasons for the existence of Hinduism itself.

This great swami was born to Māyaṇācārya and Śrīmatīdevī in Pampakṣetra (modern day Hampi) around 1268 CE. What you ask is so special about this man? Well, he was born at a time when Hinduism faced a real threat from Islamic conversion. The Muslim kings had decided on making Bharata Varsha an Islamic state at all costs and were burning thousands of priceless scriptures. One half of all Indian astronomy was burnt to crisp as it did not gain appreciation with the 'Koran', thousands of Vedic texts, and their associated commentaries burnt as they posed a threat to the holy Koran. As a young boy, Madhava (Pre-ascetic name of Vidyaranya) had a high commitment to the preservation of knowledge. He decided that at all costs he would lay his life for the preservation of this knowledge.

Madhava learned the tenents of Hindu thought under the great scholar Shankarananda and later Sri Vidya Tirtha in Kanchi. The knowledge of Sri Vidya Tirtha was so great that he was known as an avataram of dakshinamurthi (the god of wisdom). However despite all the learning, one thought still burdened him.`I must try to remove the dangers which Hinduism and its culture are facing in South India. I must propitiate the mother goddess Bhuvaneshwari and bring back the knowledge India has lost to the Muslims.' His guru was touched by the ambition of Madhava. He blessed him in his mission and Madhava left for his mission.

Just then Mallik Khafur with his army of Muslims invaded Sri Rangam. They plundered the entire temple, defecated the idols and burnt the copies of the Bhagavada Purana and the Bhagavad Gita. They killed over 150,000 innocent civilians and the residing priests all died of shock and grief. Madhava came to learn of this atrocity and great flame burnt into his chest. He decided even at the cost of his life, he will not stop until he manages to establish a Hindu kingdom. 

He wandered throughout India to establish a good spot for his meditation. He decided to meditate in the Vindhya mountains. While he was doing so a brahmarakshasa arrived. A brahma-rakshasa is a spirit. When a very learned person fails to impart his knowledge and lives an irreligious life, he becomes a brahma-rakshasa. This spirit asked him for food and water as it was eternally thirsty and hungry. Being a monk, Madhava said he did not have anything to offer him, to which the spirit said "Let me take you to the great sage Veda Vyasa, who will impart you all the 64 Shastra and in turn you can teach it to me which will feed me."  The name of the spirit was called Shringi. Madhava agreed and the two went to Varanasi (the Jerusalem of India) and on the way, the Shringi pointed to a paraiya (low cast usually a hunter) with 4 dogs. The intuitive Madhava at once realized that this was no paraiya, but the great sage Vyasa himself and the 4 dogs were the 4 Vedas. He prostrated before him and requested to know the 64 scriptures. The great sage readily blessed him and initiated him into the esoteric Sri Vidya upasana (a specific method of worshipping the divine mother). He is said to have written the Sri Vidyanarva tantra which a complete encyclopedia on Sri Vidya.

After learning the secret mantra from the great Sage Vyasa, Madhava meditated on that Mantra. Days passed to weeks, which passed to months, then years. Madhava lived at first on roots & grass, then on just water and finally just air. The weather turned harsh on his body, but his will was fixed. This he did for 12 years and after 12 long years of sincere meditation, the great goddess appeared before him, "Oh great saint, for your austerities, I confer the title Vidyaranya, now ask any boon so that I may fructify it" She said. Vidyaranya was overwhelmed by the deity and replied "Oh great goddess! I am perfectly happy here, I have no other desire but to see your grace!" The deity knew what he was truly desirous of and told him "Oh Child, I know what you truly desire, you will bring back the lost knowledge of the Veda and restore the glorious state of Karnataka but. . ." immediately the Saint replied "why mother? Why stop?"
"But you will not be able to accomplish this in this lifetime. Only in your next birth" the goddess replied.
"Mother! I cannot wait this long, my mother-land cannot wait this long!" Vidyaranya pleaded.
"In that case you must become a celibate and rule through a king who is young enough to lay the foundations." The goddess said.
"I will do so immediately," the saint replied and the goddess, pleased, replied "Be it so my son" 

And soon enough, two young men arrived at the ashrama (hermitage) of Vidyaranya. "Who are you?" the saint asked. "We are brothers, Harihara Rayya and Bukka Rayya, Alas we were once rulers of this land but the evil King Mohammed Bin Tughlaq plundered our city and mercilessly killed everyone. We managed to escape just in time. The sage made up his mind to ensure that this two were the progenitors of the dynasty. He chose a spot near the Tungabhadra river (modern day Hampi) established the legendary Kingdom of Vijaya Nagara. It was initially intended to be called Vidyanagara (land of knowledge) but instead became known as Vijayanagara (land of victory).

The great sage, not only ruled the entire city of Vijayanagara, but also wrote the Sarva Darshana Sangraha where he refutes every philosophy known at the time and establishes the truth of Advaita (non duality) Vedanta. He also wrote the Panca Deshi which is a concise treaty on Advaita.

Legacy:

Brought the 64 arts/Culture back to India
Wrote the Shankara Dig Vijayam (Legend has it he saw the whole life of Adi Shankara through his meditation and wrote this text)

Wrote the Sri Vidyanarva

Became the pontiff of Sringeri Madham

It is believed that even today in the Shringeri madham,  food is offered to Shringi the brahma rakshasa.