Initiation Lecture Excerpt
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Los Angeles, July 5, 1971

Prabhupada: So your spiritual name is Rama-ranjana. Rama-ranjana. Rama… One who pleases Lord Rama, Ramaranjana. So by your activities you have to please Lord Ramacandra. Yes. What was the business of Ramacandra? To kill Ravanas. (laughter) To kill all the atheists. That was the Ramacandra’s business, to kill Ravana. Ravana was a very powerful atheist, and he was working with the ten heads. Just like materialistic karmis, they work very hard, and they have got good brain also for wording hard. So Ravana had ten heads. But the plan was to cheat Rama. With all intelligence, with all brain, his only plan was how to cheat Rama. That was his… He became a sannyasi and he went to take some alms from Sita. The purpose was to cheat, to enter. Because according to Vedic civilization, a sannyasi has open door. He can even go inside. But that… He was the only sannyasi at that time who tried to cheat. But this kind of sannyasi or this kind of intelligent persons are killed by Rama. They may make plan very nice to cheat Ramacandra, but ultimately they become vanquished with all their planning commission.

So you have to please Ramacandra in that way, to kill all these cheaters, Ravanas—those in the form of sannyasi, in the form of priest, or religionist, (who) are trying to cheat the Lord. Their only business is, “There is no God. God is impersonal. God is void”— some way or other to say there is no God. All these propositions, “God is void,” “God is impersonal,” means indirectly to say there is no God. So this is Ravana’s policy. And in order to please Ramacandra, oh, we have to kill this atheist class of men who try to cheat Ramacandra and take away His Laksmi, Sita, the goddess of fortune… The materialistic persons, they are trying simply to accumulate wealth, and so they come to Ramacandra. They want money. That is Sita. Money is goddess of fortune. So the materialistic persons, their policy is to take, earn money like anything, and employ it in sense gratification. That is their policy. But our policy is to take away the money from the atheist and employ it to the service of Ramacandra. Just like Hanuman. Hanuman was fighting not for his personal. He was trying to recover Sita from the hands of Ravana to bring her again to the side of Ramacandra. That was his policy. So devotee’s policy should be that “These atheists, materialists, karmis, they have taken Sita, all the goddess of fortune, money, for their sense gratification, and we, following the footstep of Hanuman, the great devotee, Vajrangaji, we have to fight with this atheist class of men, and snatch from him Sita and place her again on the side of Ramacandra.” So we may make plan. As they are making plan to take away all the money, we have to also make plan to take the money from the Ravana and employ it for Krsna. Of course, we are not going to cheat them, but our policy is pacifying him, that “Your money is not… Whatever you are thinking, your money, it is not your money. It is God’s money, Krsna’s money. If you kindly spare for Krsna’s service, then your life will be successful. Otherwise, you will be killed like Ravana.” This message we can convey to all the Ravanas. So Ramaranjana means find out the ways and means how to please Ramacandra and how to vanquish the Ravanas. That’s all.

Thank you. (end)