Ravana The Great?

According to a legend, Demon King of Lanka, Ravan, performed the necessary Vedic rituals on today’s date for Lord Rama, a Kshatriya, before the war between himself & Lord Rama. The latter wanted the best brahman available at that time to perform the rituals. Ravan magnanimously agreed to perform the rituals even though they were aimed at seeking divine intervention for his own death!

As the grandson of the creator of the universe, Brahma, son of the sage Vishrava and younger brother of Kubera, the deity of wealth, Ravan, belonged to an august lineage. He is also believed to have been a devout follower of Shiva, a scholar & connoisseur of arts.

It’s a pity that he is still the symbol of evil just cause his insatiable, all-consuming ego turned out to be his Achilles’ heel which neutralised his numerous divine qualities & he was also provoked by his own sister to abduct Sita, which he, btw, did very gracefully like an elder brother should react to the insult of his own sister! (Contrary to popular belief, Ravan never touched Sita during her captivity, which goes to show that he respected her.)

It’s painful to see how our society for ages have tagged some as good, despite many of their flaws & tagged some as bad despite all their qualities! & all of these because they judged those individuals wrongly!

In a country where Lord Rama is worshipped May be this article or similar points of views are not appreciated but for once if we realise is that liking Ravan doesn’t make us disliking Lord Rama May be we will be able to understand few things clearly.

What’s your thoughts on this? Do share in the comments section.