“I am altering the deal, pray I don’t alter it any further.”
- Darth Vader, “The Empire Strikes Back”
Don't be lured by the hundreds of versions of the Ramayana, especially those substantially different from the Sanskrit version attributed to Valmiki.We all know they are not telling the truth...
1.P.S."Ramayana story. Ravana goes to Bali for help
During the fight for Lanka, Ravana was feeling that he wasn’t going to win. So he went down to the lower planetary systems where Bali has his abode. He was thinking, “I’m not winning this battle, so let me get the help of Bali, the King of the demons.” So he went way down to the bottom of the universe where Bali is, and he tried to get in. But when he was trying to get in, there was a guard who kept stopping him. Every time he tried to get in, the guard would stop him. Ravana had many mystic powers, so in many ways he was trying to use his mystic powers to get in. So finally at the last moment he got in. He went to see Bali. Bali said, “What are you doing here?” Ravana replied, “There’s a tough fight up there. I’m fighting this ordinary human being.” Bali said, “But you’re a great raksasa. How could you have trouble fighting an ordinary human being?” Ravana replied, “I don’t know, but this person is displaying so many mystic powers, He has a huge army of monkeys and bears, so I’m having difficulty.” Bali said, “You fool, that’s Lord Ramacandra! He’s the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He’s not an ordinary man.”
Ravana said, “What are you talking about? He’s just an ordinary mortal. He’s just a foolish person. All I need is a little help from you and I can defeat Him.” And as much as Bali tried to preach to him, he couldn’t understand the glories of Lord Ramacandra. Bali said, “You’d better give up the fight now, because if you don’t, you’re going to lose everything. My advice to you is that you give Sita back to Ramacandra and stop the fight to save your life and your family and everything else.” But even with so much preaching, still Ravana couldn’t accept. So in order to try and impress upon him the greatness of the Lord, Bali said, “Come take a walk with me.” So they walked outside of the kingdom, and they saw a huge mountain. And the mountain was made of boulders of diamonds. “Look at this,” Bali said. “I’m going to give this to you. But I will only give it to you if you can lift it first.” So Ravana was trying, but he could just barely get it off the ground. Ravana was very powerful, but he couldn’t lift this mountain of diamonds. So Bali said, “Now step back a bit and take a better look at it. What does it look like?” So Ravana said, “It looks something like an earring, and earring studded with many beautiful diamonds.” So Bali said, “Yes, that’s right. This is the earring of Hiranyakasipu. During the fight between Hiranyakasipu and Lord Nrsimha, this earring fell down here. In your previous birth you were Hiranyakasipu, and the Lord killed you. You were much more powerful than you are now. You can’t even pick up this earring that you used to wear. Now Visnu has come again, and He will surely kill you.” But even after that example, Ravana couldn’t understand. He left, he went back to the fight and as we know he was defeated.
MORAL: No matter how much the demons hear the glory of the Lord, they never understand."
Sage Narada, who came to know of this incident, realized that with the AtmaLinga, Ravana may obtain immortality and create havoc on the earth. He approached Lord Ganesha and requested him to prevent the AtmaLinga from reaching Lanka. Lord Ganesha knew that Ravana was a very devoted person who used to offer prayers (sandhya vandana) in the evening every day without fail. He decided to make use of this fact and came up with a plan to dislodge the AtmaLinga from Ravana.
As Ravana was nearing Gokarna, Lord Vishnu blotted out the sun to give the appearance of dusk. Ravana now had to perform his evening rituals but was worried because with the AtmaLinga in his hands, he would not be able to do his rituals. At this time, Lord Ganesha in the disguise of a Brahmin boy accosted him. Ravana requested him to hold the AtmaLinga until he performed his rituals, and asked him not to place it on the ground. Ganesh struck a deal with him saying that he would call Ravana thrice, and if Ravana did not return within that time, he would place the AtmaLinga on the ground.
As can be imagined, before Ravana could return on completing his rituals, Ganesha called him thrice and had already placed the AtmaLinga on the ground. Vishnu then removed the illusion of dusk and it was daylight again. Ravana, realizing that he had been tricked, tried to uproot and destroy the Linga . Due to the force exerted by Ravana, some pieces were scattered. One such piece from the head of the linga is said to have fallen in present day Surathkal .The famous Sadashiva temple is said to be built around that piece of linga. Then he decided to destroy the covering of the AtmaLinga, and threw the case covering it to a place called Sajjeshwara, 23 miles away. Then he threw the lid of the case to a place called Guneshwara (now Gunavanthe) and Dhareshwara, 10–12 miles away. Finally, he threw the cloth covering the AtmaLinga to a place called Mrideshwara in Kanduka-Giri (Kanduka Hill). Mrideshwara has been renamed to Murudeshwara.
Thus the image that you see below represents Ravana handing over the Atma Linga to Ganesha for safe keeping without placing it on the ground."
To see pictures of Murdeshwar click here""
Authored by Tom Luongo,