Did Ravana conduct a puja for Shri Rama as a priest before going to war with Him?

[Shri Hrushikesh Pudipeddi asked: Can You please tell me who performed the pūjā for Śrī Rāma before He left for Lanka with His army? I have heard that a brahmin priest was needed to perform the pūjā and they had to turn to Rāvaṇā to do it. I searched on Google and there too, it is mentioned that Rāvaṇa conducted the pūjā. Is it true? It does not make sense to me. How could the same Rāvaṇa, who abducted Sītā, conduct the pūjā for Rāma, before going to war with Him? I request You to kindly enlighten us with Your answer.]

Swami replied: Patience, peace and knowledge are good qualities related to sattvam. Ego, overactivity and greed are bad qualities related to rajas. Ignorance, rigidity and laziness are bad qualities related to tamas. In any soul, all the three sets of qualities must exist, even though their relative ratios might be different. There is no soul in which only one or two qualities exist and one or two other qualities are missing. Even though a certain quality seems to be predominant in a certain soul, the other two qualities must also exist, at least in trace amounts.

Moreover, the ratio of the three qualities in the same soul also varies from time to time. Hence, at any given time, any of the three qualities may predominate in the soul. When the same quality is found to predominate in a certain soul on many occasions, we say that the soul predominantly has that particular quality. But it does not mean that the soul only possesses that particular quality at all times. In fact, all the three qualities exist even in God as they exist in souls. The difference is that the qualities do not touch God since these are controlled by God. The soul, on the other hand, is amalgamated with the qualities and the soul is always controlled by these qualities.

Rāvaṇa predominantly possessed rajas and tamas, which are bad qualities. But when Rāma requested him to act as the priest for His worship, the quality of sattvam was predominant in Rāvaṇa and hence, Rāvaṇa agreed. He came, performed the worship as a priest and even blessed Rāma to gain victory in the war! After that, Rāvaṇa returned to Lanka and resumed his preparations for the war against Rāma. When sattvam predominates, one is able to detach from one’s selfishness and remain attached only to one’s duty, irrespective of the fruit of carrying out that duty. In this story, Rāvaṇa excelled even Rāma. Similarly, Mandodarī, the wife of Rāvaṇa, excelled Sītā in an incident. Just before the war, both Sītā and Mandodarī went to the temple of Goddess Śakti to pray to Her for victory in the battle. At the end of the prayers, Mandodarī asked Sītā what she had prayed for and Sītā replied that she had prayed for the victory of her husband Rāma. When Sītā asked the same question to Mandodarī, Mandodarī replied that she had prayed to the Goddess to give victory to the side which had justice with them! Of course, unlike Rāvaṇa, Mandodarī was a soul with sattvam in predominance and she had no selfishness. But in this story, Mandodarī excelled Sītā.

The concluding remarks are that we should note that no soul is always bad and no soul is always good. The ratio of the three fundamental qualities in any soul keeps changing from one context to another. Hence, in this world, there is no good or bad person in an absolute sense, at all the times. Therefore, even a totally bad person must be advised to choose the good path before punishing him. It is indeed possible for the bad person to change, if at the time when you advise him, the ratio of qualities in him is favorable. This also means that before giving any advice to a person, it is very important to properly study the mood of the person.

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| Shri Datta Swami | Did Ravana conduct a puja for Shri Rama as a priest before going to war with Him? | Raavana Raama Mandodari Siita Sita