Circle of Sharing: Ravana and Lanka

After practice today, we entered our prayer and circle of sharing. Its nice to see how a consistent forum and safe environment for children can lead them to opening up and sharing very beautiful, random things. Sanjay, raised his hand today during our circle of sharing. He said: “Did you know that Ravan, in the Ramayan, didn’t always own Lanka. It was gifted to him by Lord Shiva.” I was surprised to hear that. I never quite studied our Indian Mythology, but this fact did come as a surprise to me. So I did my research. And there was definitely some validity to his sharing:

Following his conquest of Lanka, Ravana encountered Shiva at his abode in Kailash. Ravana at first went to meet Shiva. Nandi the vehicle of Shiva, refused to let Ravana in. He got annoyed and started teasing Nandi. Nandi in turn got annoyed and cursed Ravana that LANKA would be destroyed by a monkey. To show NANDI his love for Shiva, Ravana attempted to uproot and move the mountain on a whim. Shiva, annoyed by Ravana's arrogance, pressed his littlest Toe on Kailash, pinning him firmly and painfully under it. His ganas informed Ravana of whom he had crossed, upon which Ravana became penitent. He composed and sang songs praising Shiva, and is said to have done so for years until Shiva released him from his bondage.

So according to this, maybe Lanka was not necessarily gifted to Ravana by Lord Shiva, but I can see how Sanjay may have heard this or interpreted this from the above facts. Either way, its exciting to have a forum where our kids can share random tidbits of information whenever they'd like.