The Supreme One is impartial. He punishes those who go against dharma, even if they happen to be His bhaktas. He says so in the Pancharatra Agamas. Those who violate rules are called asuras and those who adhere to His rules are devas. It is by one’s conduct that one becomes an asura or a deva. Kakasura is an example, said M.A. Venkatakrishnan, in a discourse. He was the son of Indra, who was chief of the celestials. But Kakasura was a demon, not a deva, because of his evil acts and intentions. He pecked at Sita’s breast and wounded Her. Kakasura’s life was spared, because Sita, the embodiment of compassion was by Rama’s side.
But Ravana made the grave mistake of separating the Lord and Sita. Rama, separated from Sita, was unsparing of His enemies. Why does the Lord as Trivikrama send Bali to patala? What wrong had Bali done? He was not wicked like Hiranyakasipu or other demons. But Bali had grabbed Indra’s territory. Bali had his own territory. Had he been content with that, he would not have been punished. Indra complained to the Lord about Bali taking away his land and asked the Lord to recover it for him. Bali was doing a yaga, and for the yaga to yield the desired results, he had to give whatever anyone asked of him. So, the Lord asked Indra to go and ask him for return of his land. But Indra felt it would be a blot on his status. So, the Lord went on his behalf to beg for land from Bali. It was this simplicity of the Lord which elicited praise from the Azhvars, who celebrated the Trivikrama avatara. The Lord assumed the form of a short Vamana, because He was sorry to see His devotee Indra suffer. So, His body shrank in sorrow. He changed His form into the huge Trivikrama, because He was joyous over recovery of His devotee Indra’s land from Bali.