Rāvaṇa Sees the Viśvarūpa
Chapter 239 of the Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa tells how Rāvaṇa saw the Mahāpurusha in pātāla. The Mahāpurusha is Bhagavān Vishṇu in his viśvarūpa, the cosmic form that holds all that exists. Rāvaṇa had heard Bali’s warning and had gone further into pātāla. There he met a being too vast for him to take in.
The vision of the Mahāpurusha
Deep in pātāla, beyond Bali’s palace and beyond the realms of the nāgas and dānavas, Rāvaṇa came upon a being of enormous size and light. This was the Mahāpurusha, Bhagavān Vishṇu in his cosmic viśvarūpa.
The Mahāpurusha held within himself:
- All the realms of the cosmos, from the highest svarga (heaven) down to the deepest pātāla
- All the devas, asuras, yakshas and other celestial beings
- All the mountains, rivers, oceans and forests
- All the ṛshis, pitṛs (ancestors) and manes
- The sun, the moon, the stars and all the constellations
- All past, present and future events
Rāvaṇa tried to see the whole of this form, but he could not. However long he looked, and in whatever direction he turned his eyes, the form went beyond his sight. Every part he looked at held endless detail, every part of space and every being that had ever lived. No mind except a divine one could take in the whole.
Rāvaṇa faints at Vishṇu’s touch
Bhagavān Vishṇu, in this cosmic form, stretched out his hand and touched Rāvaṇa.
Rāvaṇa had stood before Indra, had faced Śiva at Kailāsa, and had challenged the cosmos itself. Now he was overcome at once and fell unconscious. No limited being, however strong, could stay awake under the touch of the supreme Bhagavān Vishṇu in his full form.
Rāvaṇa lay there for some time before he came back to his senses.
Vishṇu’s words to Rāvaṇa
When Rāvaṇa woke, Bhagavān Vishṇu spoke to him directly. The words were not a warning to change course. They told him what would happen:
“You will abduct Sītā, who is my own śakti (power) and my own consort in a human birth. Because you do this, I will come down as Rāma in the Ikshvāku line. I will come to Laṅkā. And I will slay you there. This is your destiny.”
From these words Rāvaṇa knew for certain what lay ahead: his desire for Sītā, her abduction, Rāma’s coming and his own death. Bhagavān Vishṇu, who held the whole universe within himself, had said it to him plainly.
Where this episode stands
This episode comes in the long teaching that Nāḍāyana gives to Śailūsha in the Bharata-Vaijayantī narrative of the Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa. It follows the meeting of Bali and Rāvaṇa. In the teaching, even Rāvaṇa, who sought to rule the three worlds including pātāla, received from Bhagavān Vishṇu a direct statement of his own end.
Śailūsha is fighting Bharata, who is an aṃśa (portion) of Saṃkarshaṇa and an emanation of Rāma, who is Bhagavān Vishṇu himself. Nāḍāyana tells Śailūsha this episode to show that no one who opposes the divine order can win in the end.
Sources
- Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 239