What are the criteria for ensuring success in life? Is it access to elaborate material wealth, contacts or something else? Lord Rama answers these questions.
In Tulsidasa's Ramcharitamanas, Vibhishana, the brother of Ravana, is seized with doubt when he sees Ravana enter the battlefield in a splendid chariot. Ravana is in full battle gear and his vehicle is loaded with advanced weapons. Rama, in contrast, is barefoot and has only his bow and arrows. He is dressed in simple clothes. Ravana's army is well equipped with elephants, horses, soldiers. Rama's army comprises mostly of monkeys and bears who are neither trained nor armed with sophisticated weapons. They only have their claws, teeth, boulders, and trees as weapons.
Vibhishana wonders if Rama can ever be victorious. He expresses his concern to Rama thus: "You are without proper war gear; what to talk of a chariot, you do not have even a shield. Devoid of them how shall you conquer Ravana?" Rama replies that victory is assured not by worldly chariots and armaments made of gross components, but by inputs of a different kind. Devotion to God is what drives the chariot that wins. As far as weapons are concerned, detachment acts as shield, and contentment serves as sword. Wisdom and reason are pikes and spears, and deep knowledge is the bow. Devotion to one’s Guru is the armor.
These, according to Rama, are the ingredients of victory. One who has all of these is assured of victory in life. For he has overcome the greatest enemy of all, i.e , attachment to worldly things. In the battle for survival, we lose sight of our compassionate nature and become cruel and covetous. We lose sight of right and wrong. Like Ravana we become arrogant, selfish and egoistic which leads us to downfall and failure. The one who, after knowing all the pros and cons of issues he is faced with, is able to manage life's challenges with fortitude, with a detached, serene and firm mind – to him will come success as he does not act impulsively.
When the disciple meets his Master, all that he has to do is to love him. The Master is the very source of purity, and to set one's heart on the Master is the beginning of self-purification. When the disciple has whole-hearted devotion for the Master without any reservations, all his weaknesses are consumed in this fire of divine love of which he thus becomes the recipient, and thus attains infinite purity.
Complete self-surrender and unquestioning love becomes possible when the disciple achieves unswerving faith. Till this state of realization is attained, the faith which the disciple places in the Master is his most reliable guiding light and is comparable to the steering wheel of the ship. Disciple's actions steered by such faith will lead him to ultimate Nirvana..
