The story of Sambhuka is puzzling like many other chapters in the last book of Ramayana. There are so many puranic stories of a variety of men & even demons and animals, performing penance to achieve glory. The author of Ramayana, Valmiki himself might have come from a hunter/robber background and got to the stage of rishi through his penance.
Then how come someone can be punished for doing a pious act? This is surprising. To understand it, let’s go into Valmiki Ramayana Uttara Khanda Chapter 75, where Rama finds a man in deep penance.
उवाच स तदा वाक्यं धन्यस्त्वमसि सुव्रत॥ १४॥
कस्यां योन्यां तपोवृद्ध वर्तसे दृढविक्रमः।
कौतूहलात्त्वां पृच्छामि रामो दाशरथिर्ह्यहम्॥ १५॥
कोऽर्थो मनीषितस्तुभ्यं स्वर्गलाभो परोऽथवा।
वराश्रयो यदर्थं त्वं तपस्यसि सुदुष्करं॥ १६॥
यमाश्रित्य तपस्तप्तं श्रोतुमिच्छामि तापस।
Rama spoke the words - "Blessed are you a man of great deed! In which race were you born O man of steadfast intent? I am asking you out of curiosity. I am Rama, son of Dasharatha. For what purpose are you doing such severe penance? What do you intend to achieve with this penance?
The man responds:
शूद्रयोन्यां प्रसूतोऽस्मि शम्बूकं नाम नामतः॥
देवत्वं प्रार्थये राम सशरीरो महायशः॥ ६७-२॥
न मिथ्याहं वदे राजन् देवलोकजिगीषया।
शूद्रं मां विद्धि काकुत्स्थ तप उग्रं समास्थितम्। ६७-३॥
O Sri Rama, I was born in Shudrayoni. My name is SambUka. I wish to have godlihood in this mortal body. I am not telling a lie. I wish to conquer the heavens. To that end, I am engaged in severe penance.
The person doing that strong penance was not doing for spiritual reasons, but for destructive purposes. Think of a scientist who is building a bomb with an intent to conquer & destroy. Or an engineer building a clever piece of code to rob a bank.
Rama as the emperor of Ayodhya, has a key duty to protect the people and the Dharma. Even though he was impressed with Sambuka’s penance, his duty was to keep his people out of danger. Thus, he punished Sambuka.
My takeaway from this is: even if your action is good [doing penance] if your intent is wrong you will be punished. In the modern legal code this called a “Culpable Mind” — if your intent is wrong, then the action can be considered criminal. Thus, if you do a Puja or Yajna or prayer with the goal to destroy your competitor or rival or family member, you will get punished.
The caste of Sambuka is not relevant apart from mere curiosity. In the next chapter Valmiki talks about the penance of a celestial being named Shveta and its great thirst while doing that extreme penance. Given the context of the surrounding lessons it is unlikely for the lesson to be one of only particular castes can do penance. Thus, we can take it mean just the dharmic lesson.
That said, there is a controversy on whether this whole book of Uttarakhanda was even written by Valmiki and thus in many religious households this book in not taught to children while rest of Ramayana is taught.
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