Canto 3 -
Araṇya-kāṇḍa
Chapter 36: Rāvaṇa Requests Mārīca to Help him
Text 3.36.12
येन वैरं विनारण्ये सत्त्वमाश्रित्य केवलम्।
कर्णनासापहरणाद्भगिनी मे विरूपिता॥
yena vairaṁ vināraṇye sattvam āśritya kevalam
karṇa-nāsāpaharaṇād bhaginī me virūpitā
yena = He; vairam = [any reason for mutual] hostility; vinā = without; araṇye = in the forest; sattvam = His strength 2; āśritya = has resorted to; kevalam = exclusively; karṇa-nāsa-apaharaṇāt = by cutting her nose off; bhaginī = sister; me = my; virūpitā = and disfigured.
Without [any reason for mutual] hostility, He has exclusively resorted to His strength and disfigured my sister in the forest by cutting her nose off.
“He has exclusively resorted to His strength” means “[He has] not [taken shelter] of dharma.”
NOTE. Rāvaṇa has blindly believed his sister’s version of why she was disfigured without verification. This was a great blunder on his part, in addition to his own continuous cultivation of adhārmika lust. He forgot the basic scriptural principle of viśvāso naiva kartavyaḥ strīṣu rāja-kuleṣu ca.
Therefore, Bhagavad-gītā 2.63 warns:
krodhād bhavati sammohaḥ sammohāt smṛti-vibhramaḥ
smṛti-bhraṁśād buddhi-nāśo buddhi-nāśāt praṇaśyati
From anger, complete delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost one falls down again into the material pool.