The Origin Of Ravana

How the mighty have fallen. Ravana statue in Ellora
I’m more of a Shiva guy, but like anything else in the Hindu pantheon, it’s an infinite loop. My experience of Hinduism is of a never ending iPhone pinch and zoom. You can zoom in or out, either way it goes on forever. On one level Rama vs. Ravana is straightforward good vs. evil. On another it is a more complex character play. But so is One Tree Hill. I just heard this story about the origins of Ravana which places it on another cosmic level.
For me, Hinduism reflects a lot of modern subcontinental life. Or, to be accurate, vice versa. It’s all about powers that be, and access. Like bureaucrats and ministers, I’ve heard of so many fights about access. You know why Ganesh has an elephant’s head? Because his dad Shiva cut it off. Ganesh wouldn’t let anyone in while his mother was bathing, not even Shiva. Which the God of destruction didn’t take too kindly too.
Similarly, Rama (after the war) told Lackshman not to let anyone disturb him, on penalty of death. Turns out the Lackshman had to disturb Rama, and then killed himself. So this access stuff is serious.
What I heard is that all the trouble caused by Ravana was the karmic result of another access struggle among the gods. As I said, I’m a Shiva guy, mostly because Ravana himself was a devotee of Shiva. So I thought I had that down. But, like trying to nail spaghetti to a wall, there’s a certain string theory to this stuff. These beings are just vibrations through time.
I always knew that Rama was a incarnation of Vishnu, and avatar. Turns out that Ravana is an incarnation as well, of Vishnu’s guard, cursed to three bad births.
Vishnu had two guards, Jaya and Vijaya. I’ve seen them in temples before, but never paid much notice. Some great sages came to visit Vishnu and Jaya and Vijaya wouldn’t let them in. The sages cursed the pair to be mortals and roam the earth. They escalated the problem to Vishnu. He said he couldn’t take back the curse, but he gave them a choice. Take 100 good mortal births or three wicked. They took the three. In one of them they came back as Ravana and his brother Kumbhakarana.
In each birth Vishnu himself reincarnated to kill them, in effect bringing them closer to their wanted return, to his side. So, what looked like a battle in the macro was really a great favor on the whole. And then, from that vantage, the morality of that particular battle sorta pales, in the cosmic scope. It was like this because. That is, it’s all a part of something bigger. And I’m sure there’s something bigger still. I don’t get it, but it is awesome.

I’m happy to be featured in Echelon magazine’s 40 Under 40 feature, profiling young people who contribute to the economy in some way, mainly in business but also in terms of innovation and thought leadership. It’s an interesting article not just in that I’m in it (mainly for work on indi.ca and
I won’t add too much commentary, but just read I guess. The youngest Rajapaksa, Rohitha (Chi Chi) has given an amazing interview to the
In 2009 this strange character appeared on the Sri Lankan Internet scene, getting angry, flaming, trolling whatever. Then he started naming anonymous bloggers, posting comments as people’s kids, nasty stuff, for which I removed him from
The chutzpah of this government knows no bounds. Every government since Independence has had to balance placating Sinhala nationalists (AKA racists) while at the same time actually running a sensible, inclusive nation that doesn’t send minority citizens, capital and foreign investment fleeing. Basically, they’ve had to pay lip service to nationalists while at the same time trying to run an actual nation. Every government has also generally failed, SWRD being killed by a nationalist monk and everyone after almost losing the country to various rebellions. In that context Mahinda is actually doing a better job by virtue of not being dead and not losing control of the country. But he’s still not doing a good job.

[...] trackback So, my son Indrajit has been hot on the trail of Rama for a month now in India, and writing about yours truly while he’s at it. I don’t get on the blogosphere much these days, what with my ten [...]
That was fun. Is that your Dad’s blog? raavna.wordpress.com. ? Interesting. He says you like Sita too and thats its incestuos. Thats contradicting since Raavan actually did NOT like Sita but only kinda provoke Ram to bring him closer to Vishnu anwyay. Lol. ANyway, that place is nice.
[...] the entire Ramayana began with a security guard fail, at least karmically (The Origin Of Ravana). Rebirths back, Vishnu’s guards wouldn’t let a visiting sage in to see him. The sage [...]