Ravana NOT a bhakta!
This is the resounding Siddha Verdict.
SOURCE: Read the full article here.
The demon Ravana was not a bhakta by any stretch of the imagination. Siddha Sathguru Venkataraman used to say that with authority in his public lectures. Ravana did do pooja, but not all who do pooja are devotees. Doing pooja, by itself, does not make one a devotee. We must know this incontrovertible fact beyond the shadow of a doubt because we need to learn how to do pooja like a devotee, not like Ravana.
All through the sacred land of India, there exists a grave misconception - that of confusing Ravana with a devotee and that too a Shiva devotee! Think for a moment... Will any Shiva bhakta want to dislodge Kailash? Of course not. They would not even dream of it! But Ravana, being just another megalomaniac, tried to do just that, thus proving that he was never a bhakta. So to say that Ravana was a devotee is to expose one's complete ignorance of what bhakti devotion is all about. Ravana was a debauchee, not a devotee. He was a selfish, greedy, lustful maniac. Nothing more. He did do pooja, but that was entirely for his selfish, greedy ends, not because of bhakti devotion. The sooner India learns this and gives up on referring to Ravana as a bhakta, the better.
Everytime, someone says that Ravana was a Shiva bhakta, he or she is committing a grave offence at the lotus feet of Lord Shiva, Lord Rama and Mother Seetha. No true devotee of Shiva will even think of doing what Ravana did, let alone do it.
So take a vow here and now that you will never say that Ravana was a devotee and that if you hear someone say that, you will set him right using this thought stream of the Siddha Sathguru.
Pooja (worship) will give you the benefits that it promises. If you do the right pooja in the proper way, you will get the benefits. So if one wants to get something in this material world and he does the proper pooja for that purpose, he will get what he asked for, but that will not make him a devotee. This is the important point everyone needs to learn.
This demon Ravana did do Shiva Pooja and he chanted the Vedas too. Because of this, he did get the benefits of such pooja procedures. But why is this relevant here? Read on....
