Why did Lord Rama kill Vaali, the monkey brother of Sugriva, by hiding Himself instead of challenging him face to face? Moreover, Vaali was not directly inimical to the Lord. Isn’t it so?

​

The Supreme Lord’s ways are inscrutable. No one can understand His actions either by scholarship or by mere speculation. Although He appears to be partial in the cases of Sugriva and Pandavas, there is no incongruity in His actions. In the Gita (9.29), Shri Krishna says, “Na me dveshyo ’sti na priyah – I am neither envious of anyone nor am I partial” but then again, the Lord asserts, “Whoever offers loving service unto Me in devotion is a friend, is in Me, and I am also a friend to him.”

There is absolutely no necessity either for the Supreme Lord Ramachandra or the Supreme Person Krishna to personally appear in this world to kill Vaali or Kamsa respectively, as borne out from the following quotation from the Padma Purana:

muhurtenapi samhartum shakto yadyapi danavan
mad-bhaktanam vinodartham karomi vividhah kriyah
darshana dhyana samsparshaih matsya-kurma-vihangamah
svani apatyani pushnanti tatha ahamapi padmaja

“O Lotus-born Brahma! Although fit to annihilate all the demons within a few minutes, I perform various pastimes just to entertain my devotees. Just as the fish, the tortoise and the bird nourish their offspring by respectively watching them, meditating on them and keeping them in physical contact, so do I maintain My devotees.”

Therefore, actually, by killing demons, further advances in their nefarious activities due to their atheistic temperaments are arrested. In this connection, Shrila Shukadeva glorifies the Supreme Lord in his prayers as ‘asatam asambhavaya’ (Shrimad Bhagavatam 2.4.13). The word asatam means ‘non-devotee demons’ and asambhavaya means ‘cessation of further un-happiness due to re-birth’. In other words, such demons personally killed by the Supreme Lord get salvation by which further progress in their demonic activities is ended. Thus, Lord Krishna’s killing of impious demons is neither due to partiality nor envy. Hence, the Supreme Lord never acts contrary to his proclamations.