Scratches even in Great Diamonds

Sri Rama was the uttama purusha and the ideal king. But there were couple of blemishes in his life, which has left a scar on an otherwise perfect character.

The first one pertained to his killing of Baali on the sly. And the second was him giving orders to leave a pregnant Sita in the forest, on hearing some gossips about her charity.

Sri Rama has been vilified for siding with Sugreevan and taking out Baali. Sugreevan takes Sri Ramans help in defeating his brother Baali, from whom he was hiding. Baali was powerful and was very attached to Sugreeva. But a misunderstanding between the brothers led to estrangement. The price Sugreevan asked of Sri Rama, was killing of his brother and coronation of himself as Kishkindia king in return for helping to search Sita.

Sri Rama agreed. The issue was how to kill Baali. It was next to impossible to kill Baali, as Baali had a boon that enabled him to get half the powers of his enemy. Hence Sri Rama stayed hidden, made Sugreevan fight Baali and shot Baali with his bow and arrow.

Can we justify this? One might argue that Sri Rama was upholding Dharma here and the end justifies the means. But Baali had no personal enimity with Sri Rama, was a great King in his own right, and he had every reason to be peeved with his brother Sugreevan, because the circumstantial evidence he had before made him think that Sugreevan has betrayed him while he was fighting the Rakshasan.

I personally feel there was not Dharma Chyuthi in the case of Baali. Even if there had been, it doesnt behove of Sri Rama to kill him from a hidden spot. That is not Kshatriya Dharma, as was practiced in Treta yuga.

This is definitely a blemish in an otherwise ideal man. But even great diamonds have scratches in them.