Lord Rama assigned some reason or the other for each and every action that He had undertaken. When Rama was in Panchavati with His wife Sita and brother Lakshmana, Surpanaka, the demoness asked Rama to take her for His wife. Rama replied that He was already married and told wittingly that His brother was as handsome as He was. Lakshmana told Surpanaka that he was the servant of Rama and that she would also be a servant if she married him. She came back to Rama and pestered him. Angered by this, Lakshmana cut off the nose and ears of the demoness who approached her cousins Kara and Dhushana to fight with Rama. Kara sent 14,000 soldiers. Rama asked Lakshmana to take care of the sages and Sita and fought with and slayed the soldier. Kara was uprooted like a tree by a cyclone. Like a ferocious wave that is put down after it touches the shore, Dhushana was calmed down by the arrows of Rama. Three reasons are cited for Rama’s act of killing the Rakshasas, said Smt. Prabha Senesh in a discourse.
1. It is an opportunity for Rama to protect the sages.
2. The 14,000 were actually sages in their previous birth and were reborn as Rakshasas because of a curse. Rama slayed and redeemed them.
3. When Rama refused to take Sita to the forest, she told Rama that her father would think of Him as ‘a woman in the garb of a man’ — ‘Striyam purusha vigraham’. To demonstrate His valour, He fought single handedly without any assistance.
