चतुर्दश सहस्राणि रक्षसामुग्रतेजसाम्।
निहतानि शरैस्तीक्ष्णैर्मानुषेण पदातिना॥
caturdaśa sahasrāṇi rakṣasām ugra-tejasām
nihatāni śarais tīkṣṇair mānuṣeṇa padātinā
caturdaśa = fourteen; sahasrāṇi = thousand; rakṣasām = rākṣasas; ugra-tejasām = who were endowed with terrible prowess; nihatāni = has vanquished; śaraiḥ = arrows; tīkṣṇaiḥ = [just by using] sharp; mānuṣeṇa = a human; padātinā = foot soldier.
A human foot soldier has vanquished fourteen thousand rākṣasas, who were endowed with terrible prowess, [just by using] sharp arrows!1
1 Rāvaṇa’s usage of the expression “human” is itself proof of his blunder. Through sense perception and perhaps logical inference, without filtering them through the reliable testimony of Vedic knowledge, Rāvaṇa came to the false conclusion that Lord Rāmacandra was a human. But from the scriptures, it is clear that Lord Rāma is the Supreme Absolute Truth—the Rāma-tāpanī and Rāma-rahasya Upaniṣads—are clear about this. When there is a conflict between sense perception and Vedic scriptural knowledge, the latter is to be given importance. Our senses are ever-imperfect, but Vedic knowledge is ever-perfect. Of course, there are standard scholarly procedures to correctly understand the meaning of Vedic scriptures. These procedures are used by the authentic Vedic disciplic successions to help us understand the purport of these scriptures. Interested readers are requested to peruse Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī’s Tattva-sandarbha with his appendix Sarva-saṁvādinī to better understand this. Śrī Madhva’s Viṣṇu-tattva-vinirṇaya also explains some of these points. See the commentary and note to Rāmāyaṇa 3.50.21.