Ravana – Lessons to absorb and put into practice
The bad qualities and the cruel ideas that are in us are symbolic of the aspect of Ravana [King of Lanka in the epic Ramayana]. The good in us is symbolic of Rama. It is only when we can let these two aspects confront each other and get Rama to defeat Ravana that we can imagine that the coronation of Rama within us is possible and has taken place.
We should not think that Ravana was a person or character only in the story of the Ramayana. Our whole life is a Ramayana. Our heart is a meeting place for the good and the bad. Without there being some bad, there cannot be good alone. By the presence of both bad and good, bad will try to suppress the good to some extent. We must make an effort to see that the good in us is not suppressed that way.
You are listening to so many good discourses everyday…. During the period in which you listen to these discourses, they look very nice and attractive. But once you go out after listening to them, they do not appeal to you, and you do not want to put them into practice. It is only when we can digest the food that we have taken on a particular day can we again eat food the next day. If you eat something today and do not digest it till tomorrow, you will suffer from indigestion. Just as we should make an attempt to digest the food on the same day that we eat it, so, also, whatever ideas you listen to on a particular day should be absorbed and put into practice the same day. It is only when you take to such a path that you will be able to have a body and mind that are strong and sturdy.
–Summer Showers 1977
Today, the power of Kali [Age] affects everybody without any distinction. Realizing that Ravana would pass away in a few minutes, many sages, scholars, and noble men came to Ravana and asked him, “O Ravana! You performed many good deeds as well as evil deeds. What is it the most memorable thing that you have discovered in your life?”
Ravana replied, “Sirs! Don’t delay the noble acts you want to perform at any time. Put into action whatever noble thoughts and feelings that arise in your heart instantaneously. Procrastination is the thief of time. It is dangerous to delay. At one time, I thought of connecting the earth and heaven with a ladder. I wished to turn the saline water surrounding Lanka into sweet water. I wished to bring comfort and solace to the residents of Hell. Though I decided to do these things, I delayed acting. Thereafter, I could never succeed in doing them. Translate into action whatever good resolve emanates in your minds. We waste our time in postponing the good deeds. We should be ever ready to put into action all the good thoughts that arise in the mind.”
This is the noble advice that Ravana gave to the people who came to him at the end of his life. Since he delayed the performance of good deeds, it brought disaster to him.
– Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol 35 (2002)
Once the intelligence is purified and dedicated to spiritual effort, there should be no slipping back whatever the obstacle, whatever the temptation. Hanuman, charged with the mission of discovering the place where Ravana had confined Sita, decided that he should take a leap over the sea toward Lanka to search for her in that island of Rama that he carried in his heart and on his tongue. A mountain immersed at the bottom of the sea felt a strong urge to do him some little service, for he was the instrument of God and engaged in an exhausting adventure! Its name was Mynaka. It rose above the waters and called upon Hanuman to rest awhile on its crest and refresh himself with the fruits upon the trees that grew thereon. Hanuman declined to delay his landing in Lanka; he was engaged in a Divine Mission, which brooked no rest, no delay, no dallying. He turned a deaf ear to the importunities of Mynaka and sped forward to fulfil the command of the Lord. Ponder over this incident: Consider the compassion and the eagerness to serve that the ‘inert’ massive mountain felt! Consider the steadfastness, the undeviating faith, the single-pointed loyalty of the monkey, Hanuman! Do they not teach invaluable lessons to man—lessons of heart that melts at suffering, a head that refuses to swerve from the path of duty? The whole duty of man is to engage himself in good acts with the gross body, scatter good thoughts and good influences around him with his subtle body, and earn self-realization and bliss through his causal body.
– Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol 11 (1971 – 72)
