In the epic story of the Ramayana, Lord Rama must overcome the king of the demonic rakshasas, Ravana. Many may be surprised to know that Ravana was the son of a great Brahmin sage, and the grandson of a still greater sage, and was consequently learned in the shastras and the vedas. He himself should have been a sage, but his downfall was pride. Ravana’s half-brother was Kubera, the god of treasure, who had been given the kingdom of Lanka to rule. Ravana’s pride was offended by this, and he felt intensely jealous of Kubera. He decided that he must surpass Kubera, and so he went to the Himalayas and began to engage in austerities, hoping to propitiate the god Brahma and gain a boon.

Ravana’s austerities were extremely severe. He surrounded himself with five fires in the summer time, and immersed himself in ice cold water in the winter; he fasted; he stood on one leg for a thousand years, chanting the name of Brahma. When none of these produced the favour of the god, Ravana embarked on the ultimate sacrifice. He had ten heads, and he began to cut these off, one by one, and burn them in a sacrificial fire. When only one head remained, Brahma, moved by his unshakable devotion, appeared, restored his heads to him, and granted him a boon.

For his boom Ravana asked that he be granted eternal life, but Brahma would not go so far. In the end Ravana asked that he be made invulnerable to all divine and powerful beings such as gods, demons, celestial spirits, serpents and powerful beasts. This Brahma granted.

Now, feeling himself to be secure from any attack, Ravana’s arrogance was unchecked and he began to cause havoc in the three worlds, laying waste the earth, taking over the kingdom of Lanka from his step-brother, and even driving the gods from their heavenly homes. Very quickly he plunged the whole universe into darkness.

Then the gods came to Lord Vishnu and pleaded with him to save them. Brahma had granted Ravana invincibility from any divine being, but Ravana had left one opening. He had considered humans and monkeys to be too lowly and insignificant to worry about, and therefore Lord Vishnu saw that to restore righteousness he must take birth as a human. That is why Vishnu was born as the avatar Rama – the divine in human form.