maraNAntAni vairANi Shloka

The meaning of this shloka is: "Listen O! Vibeeshana. When Ravana was alive, I had planned to do good things for him. However, he opposed them by doing hostile acts. He destroyed the homes of rishis; he separated Sita from Me; he killed Jatayu maharaja. He did these kind of acts till his death. However, now that he is dead, he cannot do such things anymore".

Here the most important phrase is "nirvruttam na: prayojanam". This cannot be understood as "to kill him was Our purpose and that has now been accomplished". Such a meaning cannot be considered even for a moment in our hearts.

Nampillai says "ivan jIviththirukkiRa nALilE nAm seyyum nanmaiyai ivan vilakkAdhozhiya vENumenRu iththanaiyE peRap pArththirundhOm; adhu annALil peRRilOm; nAm thEdiyirundhavadhu mundhuRamunnam sidhdhikkap peRROmiRE".

The Lord seeks to do only good things for the chetana. While He could do them without any expectations, from the shastras it appears that He looks for something. So, what is it that He expects? No one can determine an answer to that question. He may expect some thing such as bhakti yoga or karma yoga or gyAna yoga. Sometimes all He expects is that the chetana simply not reject His good acts. This is known as apratishedham. pratishedha is "to object"; apratishedha is "offering no objection". Even if the chetana does not do anything good, if he at least does not do anything that is objectionable, then His grace will flow toward him without any break. Kooraththazhvan shows this in his Vaikuntha Stavam shloka 61 "kShAmyasyaho tadabhisandhi virAmamAtrAt".

Even though Ravana had done negative acts such as destroying the homes of rishis, separating Sita from Him and killing Jatayu maharaja, His grace flowed toward him and He had told the defeated Ravana to go back from the battlefield and return the next day. Had he returned the next day with peace in his heart, He would have made him the king of Lanka again. But that did not happen.

Now that he is dead, he can no longer do acts of opposition. That itself was sufficient for Him and He said "nirvruttam na: prayojanam". Therefore, He told Vibeeshana to perform the final rites for him or that He would do them Himself.

Being that, the fact that He did not kill Ravana in an instant cannot be thought of as a lack of supreme valor.