Ram’s “Helpers,” Vashishtha’s Sons & The True Meaning of Karma

Question:

In the chapter, Ram says twice, “Through my helpers I will do this, I will destroy that.” What does “helpers” mean here?
And there’s also a mention that Sage Vashishtha had a hundred sons who were all killed by Vishwamitra — what does that signify?

Answer:

We’ll take that second story later, because it’s a full Puranic tale in itself — Sage Vashishtha’s hundred sons and how Vishwamitra killed them. It’s mentioned here only as a brief reference, a hint, not in full detail. It carries a deep meaning, but we’ll come to it another time.

Now, about Ram’s “helpers” — when he says, “With my helpers I will destroy the world, I will burn nature,” etc., what does that mean?

“Helpers” here doesn’t mean any outer army or companions. It refers to the powers and qualities within the mind itself. The mind is the bow, and the virtues are the arrows.

A Self-abiding person — a great, virtuous being — uses his own pure mind as his bow, and his noble qualities like acceptance, surrender, service, and resolve as arrows. With these arrows of virtue, he destroys all inner defects.

So when the story speaks of bows and arrows, they are not physical weapons. Throughout the Ramayana, even when we later read about the weapons of Ram and Ravana — both have them — Ram’s weapons are virtue-like weapons, while Ravana’s weapons are defect-like weapons.

Question:

That makes sense. But now I want to go back to something else. We often talk about karma.
What exactly is karma? Is it something obligatory — like a duty or moral responsibility — or is it just a matter of personal viewpoint?

Answer:

See, karma really means swadharma — one’s own natural duty.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says that every person has their own dharma, and according to that inner nature, they act.

When we take birth in a body, many needs naturally arise, and to meet those needs we perform actions. The Gita says that even while sleeping, waking, or breathing, action is constantly happening.

So karma will always continue — but the question is: What kind of action should we perform?

For that, it is said: first, know yourself. Recognize your own inner nature and true inclination. Then choose your actions based on that.

There are different levels of karma — personal karma (for maintaining the body: eating, bathing, working), social karma (serving society), national karma, and even universal karma.
But which karma will be noble? Only those done with self-awareness.

If we act from body-identification (ego), our actions are selfish.
But when we act from Self-knowledge, none of our actions remain selfish — they become altruistic, pure, and desireless (nishkam).

So that’s how we need to understand karma.

Here, the story is hinting at something related to this: Ram’s sorrow and anger after Sita’s abduction are connected to “pure thought.”

Our thinking (the mental level) determines everything — our speech, and then our physical actions.
If our thinking is impure, our outer actions can never be pure or selfless.

But if our thinking is pure, right, and clean — then whatever we do, even without focusing on “doing karma,” automatically our karma becomes noble.

Pure thought is like a foundation.
If the foundation of a house is strong, building the whole structure on it becomes easy and stable.
So this “pure thinking” — Sita — is the foundation within us.
If that is strong, all our actions — our karma — will naturally be righteous and pure.