Do You Know How the Fall of Ravana Started?
Shiva Linga Pujanam is very auspicious. Every god does Shiva Linga puja.
Brahma worships a Shiva Linga made of gem.
Indra worships a Shiva Linga made of manikya.
Chandra worships a Shiva Linga made of pearl.
Kubera worships a silver Shiva Linga.
Varuna’s Shiva Linga is red in colour. Yama’s Shiva Linga is blue in colour.
Like this, every divinity worships Shiva Linga.
Among Daityas, except for some like Prahlada, in general, everyone is a Shiva bhakta – Hiranyakashipu, Bali, Namuchi – they were all Shiva bhaktas.
All of them became powerful by Shivopasana.
Lord Shiva, Mahadeva, likes those who perform tapasya very much, because he himself is a great tapaswi.
Ravana performed intense tapas to propitiate Bhagawan.
The Lord gave him so many boons — knowledge, both spiritual and practical.
Nobody can beat Ravana in battle.
Mahadeva has five faces. The Lord was so pleased with Ravana that he gave him double that — ten faces.
Ravana became Dashanana or Dashagreeva.
The Lord only established him as the king of Trikoota Parvata, in Lanka.
But Ravana used all these powers in the wrong way. He became arrogant. He started harassing everyone.
Everybody was scared of him.
Devas went to Kailasa to seek Shiva’s help.
As they stood there waiting for the Lord, they saw Nandi.
Nandi has the face of a monkey.
They asked him, why do you have a monkey’s face?
Nandi told them —
Once Ravana had come here. He also asked me the same question.
He was bragging about how great a Shiva bhakta he was and how powerful he was.
I told him — look, I am also a devotee of the Lord, you are also a devotee of the Lord, so stop bragging in front of me.
He laughed and asked me — if you are a devotee of the Lord, why do you have a monkey’s face?
I said — the Lord is pleased, so kind towards me, he wanted to give me saroopya — same form as his.
I only refused. I didn’t want to be equal to him.
I always want to be his servant. I only want to be servant.
I requested him to give me a monkey’s face so that I will always remember that I am not equal to him.
Ravana still continued to ridicule Nandi.
'You are so stupid. Why did you ask for a monkey’s face? What are you going to do with a monkey’s face?
See, I asked for ten faces and I got ten faces. With ten faces, I can sing his glory more and more.
And I am all-powerful in the world through my devotion to Shiva, through my proximity to Shiva, that everyone is scared of me now.
Even Devas, they run helter-skelter when they see me.
You are so stupid and dumb.'
Nandi said —
'You have so much arrogance about your power,
And you think being a monkey is so lowly,
Now you watch — someone is going to come with an army of monkeys and he will kill you.'
This is how Ravana’s downfall started — because of his arrogance.
Ravana recognized that it was not his own power, it was given to him by the Lord. Still, he became arrogant.
He considered himself to be the greatest devotee, above all, and that caused his downfall.
We see such people all around us, with the holier-than-thou attitude.
That will only lead to the end that Ravana met with.
And Nandi — with his humility — he didn’t want to be equal to his Lord.
He always remains with the Lord, by his side.
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