Canto 3 -
Araṇya-kāṇḍa
Chapter 30: Khara Destroyed
Text 3.30.1

भित्त्वा तु तां गदां बाणै राघवो धर्मवत्सलः।
स्मयमानः खरं वाक्यं संरब्धमिदमब्रवीत्॥

bhittvā tu tāṁ gadāṁ bāṇai rāghavo dharma-vatsalaḥ
smayamānaḥ kharaṁ vākyaṁ saṁrabdham idam abravīt

bhittvā tu = having shattered; tām = that; gadām = mace; bāṇaiḥ = with arrows; rāghavaḥ = Rāghava; dharma-vatsalaḥ = who was fond of dharma; smayamānaḥ = laughed and; kharam = to Khara; vākyam = words; saṁrabdham = who was bewildered 1; idam = the following; abravīt = spoke.

Having shattered that mace with arrows, Rāghava, who was fond of dharma, laughed and spoke the following words to Khara who was bewildered.

I worship Him who brought happiness to the sādhus after killing Khara who stood like false ego which destroys all support [for spiritual activities].

“Who was fond of dharma” indicates that Śrī Rāma considered that it was inappropriate to kill an unarmed person.

NOTE. In his Introduction to Gītopaniṣad, Prabhupāda briefly explains the nature and influence of false ego thus:

When we are materially contaminated, we are called conditioned. False consciousness is exhibited under the impression that I am a product of material nature. This is called false ego. One who is absorbed in the thought of bodily conceptions cannot understand his situation. Bhagavad-gītā was spoken to liberate one from the bodily conception of life, and Arjuna put himself in this position in order to receive this information from the Lord. One must become free from the bodily conception of life; that is the preliminary activity for the transcendentalist. One who wants to become free, who wants to become liberated, must first of all learn that he is not this material body. Mukti, or liberation, means freedom from material consciousness. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam also the definition of liberation is given. Muktir hitvānyathā-rūpaṁ svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ: mukti means liberation from the contaminated consciousness of this material world and situation in pure consciousness. All the instructions of Bhagavad-gītā are intended to awaken this pure consciousness, and therefore we find at the last stage of the Gītā’s instructions that Kṛṣṇa is asking Arjuna whether he is now in purified consciousness. Purified consciousness means acting in accordance with the instructions of the Lord. This is the whole sum and substance of purified consciousness.