Was Ravana intelligent in fighting Rama, knowing that his followers would get liberation by being killed by Rama?
Podcast
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So can we say that Ravan had the intelligence that, OK, all his demons, they all got killed by Ram. So they all got sayujya mukti at least.
See, there is there are two different things. One is there is there is a thoughtful action which leads to a good result. And there is a thoughtless action which accidentally leads to a good result.
Like some people, they are very good archers or they are good. They use a gun or they use an arrow and they practice, practice, practice and they shoot a target and they hit the bullseye. So that is one way of hitting a target.
The other is just first shoot and whatever it hits, say that was my target. So the second way, there is no way to miss the target. Because whatever you hit, you will later say that is the target.
So sometimes some thoughtless actions might also lead to good results. But if that was not our intention, then we won’t get credit for doing that action. That way, if we start seeing that we could say that if A kills B, then probably B had some bad karma because of which he was killed.
So A may say, I’m only giving you your karma. But is A authorized to give that karma? There is what is called vigilante justice. Vigilante means people who take the law in their own hands.
Sometimes the state after due trial may give capital punishment to someone. But if a citizen takes the law in their own hands, then the citizen becomes culpable. So even at least in the case of vigilante justice, that person is thinking that this person has done all these wrongs and the state is not able to punish.
So I will punish. But in the case of Ravan, it was nothing like that. It was simply his desire.
His desire for Sita, that was the whole impetus for the war. So he was not thinking in any way of benefiting any of his citizens, any of his warriors. In fact, Ram, after every night, whichever, if the monkeys would be killed, Ram would stay awake late into the night and personally perform all the last rites for those monkeys who had died.
On the other hand, Ravan had given a standing instruction that all the Rakshasas who die, just pick up their bodies and throw them far into the ocean. Why? He heard that then the next morning when the Vanaras come to fight, they will see that there are no Rakshasas who are dead. And they will become demoralized.
So he literally, literally did what? Use and throw. You talk about use and throw culture today. They literally did use and throw.
So he had no desire to think of anyone else’s while. That was not even in his mental radar, anywhere in the corner also.