Was Lord Ram only an ordinary human being?

Yes, its right to say that Ram was only a human being. The boons that made Ravana invincible made it mandatory for Lord Vishnu to incarnate in a simple human form, without any miraculous abilities. Otherwise it would’ve been impossible to slay Ravana.

However, this does not mean that Ram had no link with Lord Vishnu. Ram definitely was an incarnation of Lord Vishnu and the link between the two has been made obvious at several occasions in Valmiki’s Ramayana. Some of the evidences from the book are depicted here:

Evidence 1: In Bala Kanda – Sarga 16, Lord Vishnu agrees to incarnate in the human form and chooses king Dashratha as his father. At that point, King Dashratha was already in the process of performing the Ashwamedh sacrifice, in order to beget children. After the sacrifice is complete, the celestial being Yana Purusha appears in front of King Dashratha from the sacrificial fire and offers him a divine sweet dessert, which was basically a medium through which Lord Vishnu would incarnate (Bala Kanda – Sarga 16). King Dashratha distributed the dish amongst his wives. He gave 50% of the dish to Kausalya, 25% to Sumitra, 12.5% to Kaikeyi and the remaining 12.5% again to Sumitra. Thus, Sumitra got the dish twice and gave birth to two sons namely Laxman and Shatrughan (Bala Kanda – Sarga 18). So, all four brothers were born with a portion of Lord Vishnu within them.

Evidence 2: While fighting with the son of Ravana (Indrajit), both Ram and Laxman are rendered unconscious by the serpentine weapons used on them by Indrajit. Indrajit breaks the code of the warrior by using magic and turning invisible; and shoots a net like weapon made up of snakes on both Ram and Laxman, thereby capturing them. The monkey army tries to fight back, but they were unable to locate the invisible Indrajit in the darkness of the night, and thus the army loses all hope of victory (Yuddha Kanda – Sarga 44, 45). Indrajit assumed that he had killed off his enemies as it was impossible for a human to escape the snake weapon and heads back to his palace. While the monkey army sits dejected and hopeless, the mystical king of birds Garuda (the vehicle of Lord Vishnu) appears on the battlefield to everyone’s surprise. All the snakes binding Ram and Laxman flee when they see the giant eagle. Garuda heals both brothers with a single touch and also doubles their vitality. Both Ram and Laxman are surprised and they ask Garuda for an introduction. Garuda in response says that Ram should consider Garuda as a close friend, as close as his very breath. He then further explains the nature of the weapons used by Indrajit and finally embraces the brothers before heading out (Yuddha Kanda – Sarga 50). Garuda, the private vehicle of Lord Vishnu, made an appearance in the middle of an ongoing war, just to heal two random humans within an army of monkeys, only goes to show the strong link between Ram and Vishnu. 

Evidence 3: While fighting head on with Ravana, Laxman was mortally wounded when the Brahma Spear (absolute weapon of destruction) was used on him. For some miraculous reason, Laxman does not lose his life. Seeing him still alive, Ravana springs forth and grabs Laxman and tries to lift him up. With the strength of thousands of elephants, Ravana had the ability to lift the three great mountains namely Himavat, Mandara and Meru. But despite using all his strength, Ravana was unable to lift Laxman (Yuddha Kanda – Sarga 59 – Verse 111). With the weapon of Brahma still impaled in his chest, Laxman gets a premonition of sorts, making him realize that he is in fact a part of Lord Vishnu (Yuddha Kanda – Sarga 59 – Verse 112). Hanuman steps in with the intention to help Laxman and temporarily incapacitates Ravana by punching him in the chest. Hanuman then thinks of carrying Laxman away from the battlefield in order to save his life. Judging by how greatly Ravana struggled to lift Laxman, but was unable to even move him, Hanuman should've had a hard time lifting Laxman and carrying him away from the battlefield. Instead, he lifts Laxman and is surprised to find that Laxman feels as light as a feather to him, probably because of his friendship, love and devotion for Laxman. Hanuman carries Laxman to safety and as soon as the Brahma weapon is removed from Laxman’s body with medicinal herbs applied on his chest, Laxman gets back on his feet and is completely healed. The spear of Brahma, the creator of the universe, was unable to take the life of Laxman, thus proving that Laxman definitely had some divine connection. Please note that this battle should not be confused with the one where Laxman was fatally wounded by Indrajit and was saved by the Sanjeevani herbs brought by Hanuman (Yuddha Kanda – Sarga 101).

Evidence 4: After defeating Ravana in battle, Ram subjects Sita to a trial by fire. At that point, several celestials appear at Lanka to meet Ram. The celestials included Kubera (king of Yakshas), Yama (god of Death), Indra (Lord of the celestials), Varuna (Lord of the waters), the illustrious three eyed Lord Shiva (the lord of all gods), Lord Brahma (the creator of the universe) and the spirit of Ram's deceased father king Dashrath. These celestials then ask Ram why he is not able to recognise himself and Sita despite his divinity. Ram is surprised at this and asks the reason for their question. Lord Brahma then formally identifies Ram with Lord Narayana, the wielder of the divine disc in great detail (Yuddha Kanda – Sarga 117). Lord Brahma also states that Sita was no other that the divine goddess Lakshmi, incarnated as a human. This is the most prominent evidence in the great book Ramayana that Ram was an incarnation of Lord Vishnu.

Many people claim that there is absolutely no account of Rama's divinity in the entire Ramayana. Please feel free to share this post with such individuals. The divine connection could not have been made more obvious by Valmiki and the account of this has to be brought to light.

How did Ram lift Shiva’s bow and defeat the invincible Ravana

All the four sons of king Dasratha had received their combat training from the best of the warriors in their time. All four brothers were scholars in the Vedas, were extremely valiant and skilled in handling chariots, mounting elephants and horses, and handling all kinds of weapons, with Ram excelling in all the fields (Bala Kanda – Sarga 18). In fact, Ram became so good at fighting, that sage Vishwamitra personally approached king Dasratha in order to borrow Ram for some time for slaying demons. In exchange, Vishwamitra also agreed to train Ram further in advanced combat using celestial weapons (Bala Kanda – Sarga 21).

King Dasratha gets alarmed at this request of sage Vishwamitra and states that Ram is still an adolescent, how then can he slay demons. The king offers a giant army of 1 Akshowni** to eliminate the powerful demons and even offers to go himself. But sage Vishwamitra says that Ram alone would be enough, given how skilled he was (Bala Kanda – Sarga 20). After much debate, the king agrees after consulting his ministers and his royal sage Vashishta. This goes to show that Ram was not a push over, but was stronger than the combined force of 1 Akshowni.

**1 Akshowni = 21,870 chariots , 21,870 elephants, 65,610 cavalry and 109,350 foot soldiers

When Sage Vishwamitra reached the city of Mithila, he requested king Janaka to show the celestial bow of Lord Shiva to Ram. The king hesitates at first, seeing that Ram is only a young boy and recalling that the greatest of the Demigods, Yakshas, Demons, Gandharvas, Nagas etc. were unable to even lift the great bow, let alone string it and take aim. But since he was commanded directly by the illustrious sage Vishwamitra, he agrees to show the bow and orders to bring it forth. The bow was transported to their location on an eight wheeled casket cart, pulled by five thousand strong men, who were trying to pull the cart with great difficulty (Bala Kanda – Sarga 67). 

Ram grabs the bow right from the middle handgrip and lifts it up like a toy. He exerts absolutely no effort at lifting the illustrious bow and starts to string it while the crowd is still trying to understand what just happened. He then pulls the string with one hand and stretches it up to his ear just to check the tightness and rigidity of the bow. The bow snaps in half right at the middle, near the handgrip, and creates a huge shockwave with a thunderous sound that renders everyone unconscious. Only Sage Vishwamitra, King Dasratha, Ram and Laxman were able to remain in their senses and the rest of the crowd just faints (Bala Kanda – Sarga 67). Absolutely no tricks were used in the process of lifting the bow as the masters of magical arts, warriors with celestial weapons and divine beings with superhuman abilities had already tried and failed at this task. Ram broke this bow purely with brute strength without even breaking a sweat.

Killing Ravana was also not a fluke. Laxman alone was able to subdue Ravana in a one-on-one battle, chopping off the head of Ravana’s charioteer and also breaking Ravana’s bow with a single arrow in the middle of battle. When Ravana in turn manages to cause a fatal injury to Laxman, Ram attacks Ravana with great fury and makes Ravana flee for his life from the battlefield out of fear (Yuddha Kanda – Sarga 100). On another occasion, Ram completely defeats Ravana by obliterating his Chariot and destroying all his weapons, thereby rendering him helpless and allowing him to return to Lanka (Yuddha Kanda – Sarga 59).

While fighting Ravana, Laxman was wounded and his life was in danger. Ravana starts approaching him with the intention of harming him. Seeing Laxman in that state, Hanuman gets enraged and rushes towards Ravana with the speed of the wind. Striking a thunderous punch on the chest of Ravana, Hanuman manages to fatally wound him. The blow was so intense that blood started oozing out from the mouth, ears and eyes of Ravana. The punch literally bought Ravana to his knees and he was unable to move for some time. (Yuddha Kanda – Sarga 59 – Verse 114 to 116). While Ravana is subdued, Hanuman carries Laxman to safety. 

Had it been a one-on-one battle between Ram and Ravana, the battle would've ended the first day with Ram coming out victorious, as Ravana was absolutely no match for the brute strength, swift dexterity and skill of Ram. If we compare the armies of both sides, the troops of Ravana were afraid of him and were mostly his slaves. Where as every single troop in the army of Ram loved him like their own brother. 

Its a common misconception that Ram was very soft on his enemies and he barely fought in the great war. This is mainly due to the different versions of Ramayana floating in the market, including what is shown on popular television shows. The original version written by Valmiki thousands of years ago portrays Ram as an unparalleled warrior. He acquired great strength, knowledge of Vedas and unmatchable skill from the best teachers in the world including the great Vashistha and the illustrious Vishwamitra. In fact, Ram first became a Rathi (warrior capable of fighting 5000 troops), then Atirathi (warrior that can battle 12 Rathi's) and then a Maharathi (warrior that can battle 12 Atirathi's), all of that in his teenage. Although Ravana was also a Maharathi class warrior, he was outdone by Ram while fighting mid-air in a one-on-one battle.

These points show us that despite the great strength of Ravana, he was powerless against the great army of Shri Ram. I will cover some of Ram's great battles in a different section.

Was it really necessary for god to incarnate himself to kill Ravana

As per Vedic literature, God is not a part of the created universe, but the universe exists within god. In order to introduce changes within the universe, divine beings (demi gods) with special abilities were created to carry out the will of god. Human beings interact with these celestials through prayers and offerings in exchange for material gains. But since these celestials were designed only to manage the universe, they have very limited strength when it comes to battle. So, when things get beyond their control, they ask one of the higher authorities for help.

Lord Vishnu, the maintainer of the universe, takes the responsibility to clear any anomalies within the universe. But Lord (Karanodakasayi) Vishnu’s form is huge, with entire galaxies blooming and dying within his form. If he directly attempts to intervene, the Universe might fall apart. Since Lord Vishnu cannot make major changes within the universe because of his form, he needs to first enter this universe by means of an incarnation.

Now, lets look at the situation as a whole. Ravana’s father was Vishrawa, whose father was Pulastya, whose father was Lord Brahma himself. Being a direct descendant of the creator of all beings, Ravana was blessed with several boons from many gods and was extremely powerful. He had created chaos throughout the universe and was completely unstoppable, especially because of the boons he received directly from his great grandfather, Lord Brahma .


These boons were narrated by Vibhishan to Ram in Yuddha Kanda – Sarga 19 and were also discussed between Lord Brahma and the Gods in Bala Kanda – Sarga 15. The primary boon was that Ravana could not be killed by several types of creatures including Gods, Demons, Kinnars, Gandharvas etc. with the exception of human beings. Being too proud of his own strength, Ravana thought he could not be bested by a mere human. So he did not bother to include humans in his boon. After receiving many complaints from the Gods (Bala Kanda – Sarga 15) and after consulting with Lord Vishnu, it was agreed that an incarnation of Lord Vishnu will be born in the realm of humans to fix this problem. Ravana was technically immortal, since a regular human being could never actually defeat him. If Lord Vishnu had not incarnated, Ravana would still be at large, killing innocent people for no reason and raping their wives. That’s right, Ravana was a serial rapist and Sita was not the only woman Ravana had abducted (Bala Kanda – Sarga 16 – Verses 5 to 8). He would not have died a natural death and was beyond the control of any created being. It was very important to stop him but because of his boons, the demigods were helpless against him. This is the reason why Lord Vishnu had to reincarnate as a human in order to get things done.

Please note that Lord Vishnu is different from God, and yet all the same. Besides the 3 great forms of Lord Vishnu (Karanodakasayi, Garbhodakasayi and Ksirodakasayi), there's also the absolute Brahman. But this will be discussed in a different section.

Was Ram enjoying life to the full at every opportunity

Ram was anything but an opportunist. Being a prince, he had access to all the pleasures that life could offer, but he never indulged in anything unethical. This is the reason that Ram is also famous as Maryada Purushottam, the best of men.
Below are some of the qualities of Ram that he exhibited throughout his life, without any room for exceptions:

He was heir apparent to the kingdom of Ayodhya, yet he sacrificed his kingdom on a single command from his father. His brother Laxman loved him so much that he threatened to revolt against the entire kingdom, and overthrow his own father, the great king Dasratha. But Ram refused this request and asked Laxman to maintain his composure, while wiping away the endless tears in the eyes of Laxmana (Ayodhya Kanda - Sarga 23).

Ram renounced his kingdom and relocated to the forest with his wife and brother Laxman to spend fourteen years as an ascetic. His younger brother Bharata came to persuade him to come to the palace but Ram, who was ever truthful to his words, decided to complete the harsh period of fourteen years of exile in the forest, despite being completely unaccustomed to the hardships of the forest. His brother Bharata literally pleaded for Ram to return, but since Ram had already given word to his father, held firmly to his conviction. Bharata also told him about his fathers demise, who died because he was unable to bear the pain of separation from his beloved son Ram. Upon hearing this unbearable news, Ram fainted then and there on the ground (Ayodhya Kanda - Sarga 103). Upon coming back to his senses, he still held firmly to his vow of completing the period of exile, despite the great despair that had befallen him. Bharata ultimately decided to take Ram's slippers instead and rule in his name, till the time Ram returned after completing the exile.

After going through the pain of losing his kingdom, the pain of losing his father, the pain of living in the forest despite being a prince, the pain of separation from his beloved mother and two younger brothers (Bharat and Shatrughan), the burden of fighting off demons from Janasthan on request of Rishis, the pain of separation from Sita when she was abducted, the anxiety of locating her on foot, the death of his father’s friend Jatayu in his arms and many other events that unfolded later; by no means was Ram enjoying his life. Any other man would have broken down, but Ram always moved forward, always devoted to truth and virtue despite everything he was going through, ever so compassionate even towards his enemies. He even gave the gift of life to Ravana in the middle of battle, He defeated Ravana and shattered his chariot, along with its wheels, charioteer, and his different weapons. After thus being defeated by Ram, Ravana returned to Lanka (Yuddha Kanda – Sarga 59) and resumed war later on after recuperating.

After Ravana was killed and the period of exile was over, Ram and his friends boarded the Pushpak Vimaana gifted by Vibhishan and flew to Ayodhya. However, Instead of entering Ayodhya directly, Ram landed near its boundary and asked Hanuman to approach Bharata, who was ruling Ayodhya in his brother’s place. Hanuman was asked to narrate the whole story as it happened to Bharata and closely observe the subtle reaction on the face of Bharata. If Hanuman were to find even the slightest bit of apprehension on the face of Bharata regarding the handover of the kingdom, he should simply come back and report this to Ram. He further stated that fourteen years was a long time and if Bharata, his younger brother wanted to continue to rule the kingdom of Ayodhya, Ram would silently turn away, leaving the kingdom under the ruler ship of his brother (Yuddha Kanda – Sarga 125 – Verse 17)

If there was a human who walked the earth, who was the epitome of virtue, the best of all men in his time and the times to come, it was Shri Ramchandra himself. Despite the hardships that Ram had to endure throughout his life, he demonstrated his great mental strength and unwavering conviction towards Dharma that helped him eventually overcome all his problems and set a great example for the generations to come.