The seven seers, who guide the world from their celestial homes, had gathered at Sri Krishna’s home in the eternal Vrindavan. The seven seers had come to voice their concerns over the growing menace of Ravana, the king of Lanka. He was destroying the doors of yajna and his lust and ambition were upsetting not only the balance of earth but also of celestial beings whose wealth and powers he had forcibly captured through arduous tapasya.
“When will the reign of the overambitious Asura end?” was the question that everybody had in their hearts. The guides of the world could not see any near solution to the problem. They cast their gaze through loops of time, only to be baffled. So they thought of meeting Krishna, the Divine who dwells in every heart.
Krishna greeted them with his heart-charming smile. He knew their hearts and responded with an answer as enigmatic as his smile.
“But who would replace the Asura, tell me O sages bright? It has taken an aeon to replace the Rakshasa in man with the Asura. Let him then perfect the Asura in man before he falls.” Sri Krishna remarked.
“What then is his source of strength? Is it his bhakti for his chosen deity Shiva?” the sages asked.
“Shiva’s strength indeed he holds. But since he misuses the gift divine, he writes his own doom through his acts,” Sri Krishna answered.
“What is the mantra he invokes? Pray tell us his secret,” requested the seers.
And Krishna once again, “He knows that he is God, sohamasmi. So, he marches with confidence filled with the power of this mantra.”
“Then how shall he fall?” the sages asked.
“Fall he will for he knows only half the truth. He knows not that all, all indeed is God.” Krishna smiled.
And as the Lord smiled, the sages looked down upon earth and saw Ravana performing a Rakshasic yagya torturing his body and asking the boon for aggrandizing his ego that he mistook for the true Self.
As he offered his head in the flames Shiva appeared as Kali and bid him stay.
“Grant me immortality,” the Asura thundered.
Kali, the fierce and fearsome goddess of the Titans and the Gods, laughed and her laughter filled the world with terror and joy.
“Immortality is not for you since you mistake the body for the soul. Ask another boon,” Kali retorted.
Then God in the Asura spoke seeking for the boon from the Mother of the worlds.
“Grant me then this boon that may I fall only to the animal man or a man who has fully subdued the Asura in him.”
“So be it!” Kali thundered and vanished.
And as Ravana rose from his sacrifice, the sages knew the Lord’s evolutionary plan. The animal man and the higher human type must replace the Asura even as he had replaced the dreaded Rakshasa.
Sri Krishna smiled and in the heart of Ayodhya, Prince Rama, the eldest son of Dasaratha, woke up in the royal palace. Sage Viswamitra had arrived to take him and his brother Lakshmana to train them for their mission.
Hope then stole in the heart of earth. The vanara of Kishkindhaa rejoiced not knowing the cause of the happiness they felt.
Alok Pandey
