Do Bhakti - Now, Not Later!

Ravan was the villain in the story of Ramayan. While Lord Ram was in exile for 14 years, Ravana abducted Mother Sita, wife of Lord Ram and kept her in Lanka for over a decade. Then Lord Ram killed Ravan and rescued Mother Sita. This is the story of what happened before Ravan died.

The pre-story of Ravan is as follows.

Jaya and Vijay were the gate keepers of Baikunth. Once, the four Kumars - Sanak, Sanandan, Sanatan and Sanatkumar reached the gates of Baikunth. Jaya and Vijay stood guard at the gates and stopped the 4 Kumars from entering. Denied entry to meet Lord Vishnu, the four Kumars cursed Jay and Vijay to be born three times on earth as demons. The first time they appeared as Hiranyakashipu and his brother Hiranyaksh. Lord Narsingh and Lord Varah killed them. The second time they were born as Ravana and his brother Kumbhakaran.

And the third time during the descension period of Shri Krishna, they came as Shishupal and his brother Dantvakra. Being the eternal associates of the Lord, they were well versed with the knowledge of the scriptures. Also, in his leela, Ravana was born to great sage Vishrava and his demoness wife Kaikeshi. He grew up to be a great scholar of Vedas, a great musician and a devotee of Lord Shiva. The story After being defeated by Lord Ram in the battle of Lanka, Ravana lay on the ground breathing his last. Knowing Ravan to be a great Vedic scholar, Lord Ram asked Lakshman to go and seek wisdom ​from Ravana. Lakshman followed the orders of his elder brother Ram but went and stood near the head of Ravana. After all Ram’s side had won and Ravana had lost! Ravana reprimanded Lakshman and said, “the one seeking knowledge must humble himself by standing near the feet”. So Lakshman went and stood near Ravana’s feet. Ravana then gave a astute of advice to Lakshman. He said, “Lakshman! Don’t err like me. I wanted to build a stairway to heaven but kept postponing it. I hastened in the wrongdoing of kidnapping Mother Sita. And now I am reaping the fruits of my bad actions. Do not make such mistakes. Postpone doing a wrong action but make haste in performing good actions”.

​Morale: There are 2 reasons for that:  Since our intellect is material, it waivers from one moment to the other. So, when it decides to perform a good action, act on it immediately, as who knows when bad “sanskars” will take over and alter your decision.  No one knows when we have to leave this body. Hence, if death were to come today, postponing performing a good action would result in a loss for our parmaarth.