1.17. Arrangements for the advent of the Almighty

Individual verses with meanings

Listen to the audio of recitation of this  sarga

Hari Om.

Let us begin the seventeenth sarga of the bAlakAnDam with offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.

In this sarga, maharshi lays out the strategy of the conquest of rAvaNa by exploiting his weakness –  that of not being invincible against humans and animals and orders the dEvas (gods) to procreate monkeys and bears bearing their powers. On to it:

As lord vishNu decided to incarnate and enter into a filial relationship with the great emperor daSaratha, the self-manifested lord brahma addressed the dEvas thus. “O dEvas, in order to assist the ever-true, valiant and our well-wisher vishNu, please incarnate as strong and powerful beings that are capable of changing forms at will in the wombs of apsarasas and gandharvas. Your progeny, in the forms of monkeys should be well versed in all sorts of illusory and deceitful tricks, should be brave, should resemble the wind in their agility, should be practitioners of statecraft (diplomacy), endowed with intellect and should be valiant as vishNu. Further, they should have supernatural bodies, their determination should be such that they can’t be made to deter from their endeavours, be knowledgeable about the four-fold ways of achieving the goal, i.e. sAma, dAna, bhEda and danDa – by persuasion, charity, creating rift or by punishing. They should be so powerful that they’re able to deploy as well as resist all sorts of weapons just as the immortal dEvas. I’ve already done my part where in the foremost among bears, jAmbavAn was born of me when I was yawning.”

Instructed thus by lord brahma, the Rshis, gandharvas, dEvas, uragas, chAraNas, vidyAdharas – all of them gave birth to sons in the form of monkeys and who dwelt in the forests. indra begot vAli; while the Sun begot sugrIva; the preceptor of dEvas – brhaspati created tAra; a monkey of supreme intellect; gandhamAdana was born of kubEra while viSwakarma begot nala. The bright and prosperous fire God agni gave birth to nIla, who excelled in glow, fame and valor. The aSwini dEvas, known for their handsome appearance gave birth to similarly handsome mainda and dvivida. sushENa and Sarabha were respectively born to varuNa, the rain god and parjanya, the clouds. The wind-god, vAyu, begot the prosperous and mighty hanumAn, the one whose body was hard as a diamond, and who equaled garuDa in his speed and agility.

Thus thousands and thousands of mighty and courageous monkey warriors capable of assuming any form were rapidly created by the dEvas and the supernaturals in order to kill the demon rAvaNa. They had huge bodies like the mountains mEru and mandara and retained the characteristics of their parent dEvata. Having procreated the mighty vAnaras (monkeys) and Rkshas (bears) the gods and the other supernaturals were mighty pleased as were the gandharvas and apsarasas who bore them. 

The mighty vAnaras tread the forests freely and resembled tigers and lions in their strength and pride. Apart from being able to deploy all sorts of formal weapons, they could strike with their nails, teeth, attack with stones or by uprooting deep rooted trees and using them as projectiles. By stamping of their feet they could create craters on the earth, could leap across the ocean in one go, cause waves in the ocean, jump and seize the clouds and even capture wild elephants with élan. Their roar was so ferocious that it would fell flying birds. Hundreds of thousands and thousands of such monkeys were procreated by these mighty monkeys and huge monkey armies were created in different species and clans along with their leaders and commanders. Several of them dwelt in forests and several others in the hills and yet others on plateaus abound with bears. The leaders hanumAn, nala and nIla lived along with vAli and sugrIva, the two brothers. vAli was the leader of these crores and crores of monkeys, bears and gray langurs (gopuchhas – monkeys of a different species – cowtailed!) and they were superior to every other being in the forest. 

Thus, in order to assist rAma in vanquishing rAvaNa, the earth was filled with gigantic and mighty monkey warriors who were valorous and could cause fright with their fear-inspiring forms! 

Here we conclude the 17th sarga of the bAlakAnDam of SrImath vAlmiKi rAmAyaNam and humbly offer it at the lotus feet of SrIrAma. Hari: Om!

jAi SrIrAma.