Once Ravana he even challenged Narada Muni. Narada was flying, and Ravana saw him. He called out, “Hey! Come here.”
Narada Muni thought, “Why should I be of any trouble? Let me go there.”
Ravana said, “You teach me the meaning of om, right now.”
Narada said, “No. Meaning of Om is not to be taught to people like you. I won’t teach.”
Ravana said, “Why not? I am a disciple, and you are a guru. You must teach me.”
This started in Treta-yuga, the disciples telling their guru what to do.
So then Narada said, “This is not for this age, Ravana. You please wait.”
Ravana said, “No! Do you know who I am? I am Trilokeshvara Ravana. Here is my sword!”
He had a sword called Candrahasa. This sword was so wonderful, that you can just tell the sword, “You go and kill him.”
It will chase you through the fourteen planetary systems, kill you and then return. Such a missile he had. Candrahasa can go through steel, through brass, even through illusion. Suppose a person creates an illusion by magic, Candrahasa would go through the illusion and kill that person. This is the sword he used when fighting with Airavata, the white elephant.
So Narada said, “You are showing me some sword, and you think you are going to frighten me into teaching you the Vedas? This is not the principle for learning Vedas. What kind of knowledge will you get from me? That knowledge will become useless, so I will not teach you.”
Ravana said, “All right Narada, get ready.”
“I am always ready,” Narada said. “What do you mean? Get ready now!”
So he Ravana took the Candrahasa sword and slashed Narada. It went right through him, but nothing happened.
Narada was standing there smiling.
Ravana got so angry. “I am going to finish you!” he screamed and took his trident which emits fire, which is only used by Lord Siva and which is more powerful than the Brahmastra. It went right into him, but Narada was still standing there chanting, “Hari! Hari!”
Ravana took all his astras and weapons at his command and threw everything at Narada, who was catching them and giving them back, “Don’t lose this, you may need it.”
So then Ravana put all his weapons aside, touched Narada’s feet, and gave him a seat. “Please tell me,” he inquired. “How come you are not killed?”
Narada said, “This is a benediction from the Supreme Lord, that I have got a spiritual body. You don’t understand this. Once upon a time you also had one, but you lost it because of some mistake. Don’t waste time trying to kill me, because I won’t die.”
Ravana said, “That’s what I want also! Can you teach me the trick?”
Narada said, “Very simple, just accept Visnu as the Supreme Lord. Surrender to him.”
Ravana’s face screwed up. “Oh! Aaargh! Again that Visnu! I don’t want to listen to this name! Get out of my palace, you and your transcendental body. All bogus!”
So then Narada Muni said, “But Ravana, you have unnecessarily used your anger on me, so this will not go in vain.
A monkey will spit on your face, and the tenth day after that you will die, although you are thinking you are so powerful.”
Lessons:
Principle to get spiritual knowledge is spoken in Bhagavad-gītā 4.34:
tad viddhi praṇipātena
paripraśnena sevayā
upadekṣyanti te jñānaḿ
jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ
Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized souls can impart knowledge unto you because they have seen the truth.
If we aproach Guru with pride forcing him to tell us what we want will never result in good.
Another principle we can learn here is that we should be very careful of offending spiritual people. Also we should be careful of hurting any living entitiy othervise that will bring our own destruction.
Narada Muni cursed Ravana. Actually it was a benediction. All curses by Narada are benedictions. Because of that curse Ravana would get the arrow of Rama in his chest.
Sometimes when a Vaisnava is agitated, that is also auspicious. But we have to be a demon to agitate a Vaisnava. If we are not a demon, and he becomes agitated, he may not curse us but the material nature will take action.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
PS: I humbly request all the devotees to please forward and share this moral / instructive stories they hear so that everyone can be benefitted by hearing about Krishna and his dear devotees.