Ravana and Shiva

Ravana has long been known to be a bane to the Gods.  Recently he conquered Lanka and regained the rakshasas' ancestral home that they had been driven from long ago.  While celebrating his victory, Ravana came upon the mountain Kailash.  In a show of bravado, Ravana heaved and strained to try and move the mountain.  What Ravana was unaware of, however, was that this specific mountain was the home of Shiva, one of the members of the Trinity Gods and the God of Destruction. 

While Ravana tried to prove his strength in more ways, Shiva became annoyed with the slight tremors to his home.  He looked out over his home, and saw that the trouble was coming from a pesky rakshasa named Ravana.  Shiva had heard of this rakshasa, and how he had been causing problems for the other Gods.  Shiva considered what he should do for a moment, and decided to show this upstart exactly how weak he truly was.  Using only one toe, his smallest no less, he forced Ravana to the ground and imprisoned him! 

When Ravana realized he had angered Shiva, he immediately became contrite, and tried to assuage the great God's anger.  While Ravana knew he was powerful, Shiva had displayed precisely how weak he truly was.  To add further insult to injury, Shiva completely ignored him once he was captured.  Ravana, however, recalled that Shiva was also frequently known to enjoy song and dance, and thus Ravana began to sing of the greatness of Shiva. 

Something few people realize is that Ravana has always thought of himself as a follower of Shiva, whom all the world knows as the God of Destruction.  Ravana sang Shiva's praises, and Shiva couldn't help but be impressed with the beautiful singing voice.  At first he did not know where it was coming from, and he was even further shocked when he realized that it was from Ravana, who was still imprisoned underneath Mount Kailash. 

Once Shiva recognized where the music was coming from, he started to pay more attention to the songs.  Ravana had now been singing for many years, and Shiva was greatly impressed with the quality of songs and their praise of him as the God of Destruction.  Over time, he started to think of how Ravana had been working in his stead. A being such as Ravana conquered Lanka, and he is simply a means to an end.  Once the age of the Kali-Yuga ends, Shiva will destroy the world and all that live within it.  

Yes, Ravana has been known for conquering Lanka so far, but as Shiva is the God of Destruction there are striking similarities.  There's a fine balance between creation and destruction, and that's why there are both Shiva and Brahma.  Brahma to create the world and all of its wonders, and Shiva to destroy the world, with the understanding that creation and destruction cycle upon one another.  Without destruction, creation cannot take place.  Without creation, destruction also cannot take place.

Once Shiva grew tired of Ravana's beautiful singing voice, Shiva decided to release him from his imprisonment.  Ravana declared himself a life-long follower of Shiva, and Shiva even gifted him with the divine sword Chandrahas. 

Author's note:  It kind of disappoints me how much liberty I took with this story.  That isn't to say that the story is inaccurate, but I feel I had to use the Hollywood style of 'based on a true story.'  I like to maintain the original story while telling it in my own words, and adding much more depth to what is happening.  Unfortunately, the mythology of the Indian epics isn't nearly as fleshed out as the other mythologies I have read in the past.  For this specific story, I had a very basic framework and added to it.  I wanted to avoid going too in depth with it, such as mentioning that one of the hymns Ravana sang was later named the Shiva Tandava Strotra since I felt this was too much detail and isn't something we would be familiar with.  I also wanted to focus on the relationship Ravana thinks he has with Shiva, and how he might have been able to convince Shiva of his necessity.  Since Ravana saw himself as a messenger of his ultimate goal, the destruction of the earth, why should Shiva be imprisoning him?  This leads into my concept of how the word demon (or rakshasa in this case) doesn't necessarily imply evil.  The question I hope to leave in people's mind is whether Ravana is justifying himself by saying he's working as a messenger of Shiva, or if it truly is a tale of how destruction is necessary for creation.