Rama said to Khara, "Your army is great but greater are your sins. Your ruthlessness is notorious and your persecution of creatures unpardonable. A cruel person will be destroyed like a venomous snake and those who sin in lust and greed without compunction will go to ruin. Of what use is it to you, to torment and kill the holy men who live in Dandaka. Wicked that you are you will perish like a tree whose roots have been severed and you will never prosper. Just as trees flower with the passing of seasons, so too will man reap the fruits of his actions in time. There is no escape from this law of nature. Consumption of poisonous food produces immediate and disastrous results, equally quick and disastrous are the results of misdeeds. You will soon die like the ascetics you have killed. May all those that you have tormented, witness your fall and your death"! Laughing with disdain, Khara mocked Rama, "Just because you killed lowly rakshasas, do you deem yourself a hero? The valiant are neither arrogant nor boastful. Only commoners and cowardly kshatriyas praise themselves without cause. Your boast proves that you are petty; a flaming reed shines like gold, but only momentarily. The incompetent praise themselves for their nonexistent talents, which are worthless. I stand here, with mace in hand to end your life. Fourteen thousand rakshasas have perished in your hands, I will now slay you and wipe their tears." His impassioned tirade over, Khara flung his mace at Rama. But Rama's arrow intercepted and destroyed it in mid-air. The mace dropped like a battered serpent.