1. Ganapati, who is known to be an epitome of cleverness, once outsmarts Ravana. There happens to be an idol of Ganapati at the Gokarna Mahabaleswar temple which has a dent in his head. This happened once in an encounter with Ravana who was not very appreciative of Ganapati’s intelligence. I am going to narrate that incident here to my readers.

2. We all know the fact that Ravana was a great worshipper and a staunch devotee of Shiva so much so that he worshipped him from down South, Sri Lanka, where his kingdom was. However, one day, a thought crept into his mind that he should bring Mount Kailash close to his home. In an attempt to do so, Ravana walked all the way from Sri Lanka to Kailash and began to life the mountain. Parvati, along with Shiva, got very annoyed with this egoistic nature and act of Ravana and as a punishment to him he pressed mount Kailash, thereby trapping Ravana’s hands beneath it.

3. Ravana ailed in pain but Shiva refused to release him. However, Ravana began to pour out his love and devotion for Shiva through beautiful hymns. When he had completely forming 1001 hymns, Shiva was ready to grant him a boon. Ravana, manifested by his scrupulous nature, told Shiva that he wanted to marry Parvati. Shiva granted his wish and said that he could marry her at Manasarovar Lake.

4. The Ganas around Shiva were absolutely stunned and they all ran to inform Parvati at Manasarovarlake about the permission granted to Ravana by Shiva to marry her. Imeediately Parvati called out to Manduka, the queen of the frogs, andconverted her into a beautiful woman. Since Rvana had never seen Parvati before, he was so struck by the beauty of Manduka that he married her. That woman was actually Mandodari, Ravana’s first wedded wife.

5. After this episode, Ravana conducted a very powerful Sadhana and received a powerful Jyotirlinga from Shiva. However, Shiva instructed Ravana to carry the Jyotirlinga to his land and not to place it on the ground anywhere on his way because if he did so, the Jyotirlinga would get established wherever he would place it. Ravana did so very carefully, with great strength, without stopping for anything (eating or urinating) in between and managed to walk up to 3000 kilometer from Kailash to a place called Gokarna in Karnataka.

6. He then felt a deep urge to urinate as his bladder had bloated enormously and was not able to hold it any further. But he could not bring the Linga down, as instructed by Shiva. Amidst this dilemma, Ravana saw a small, dull looking boy who looked quite dumb. He approached him and said to him that he would give him a jewel in return if he held the linga for a few minutes in his hands. He strictly instructed the boy not to keep it on the ground.

7. The boy readily agreed. This boy was actually Ganapati who did not want Ravana to take the linga to Sri Lanka because on doing so Ravana would become superhuman. So, as Ravana turned to urinate, Ganapati kept the linga on the floor and it sank into the earth. Seeing this, Ravana got so furious that he knocked the boy with a blow on his head, leaving a dent there in his skull. Having no strength left in him to walk back to Kailash to do his work all over again, Ravana walked down to Sri Lanka with a feeling of great dejection and danger.

8. This incident proves that every person has divinity in him, but whether one uses it as a boon or a curse for himself depends upon his nature and attitude towards looking at things around him.