Hari Om.
Let us begin the nineteenth sarga of the sundara kAnDam by offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.
The mind of hanumAn was intensely active with thinking of possibilities of who it could be when he saw sItA in the aSOka grove. He deliberated variously within himself, matched her insignia with what rAma’s descriptions, her body language with her current condition, her cloth with what they had received on top of the hill when she threw the bundle of her ornaments down and finally made up his mind that she was indeed sItA. Her pining and austerity matched that of rAma every bit and it was soon clear why they are made for each other. He reflected that this pining for the other had kept each of them alive. Before he could think of his next course of action, it was dawn and waking up to paeans, rAvaNa smitten by lust headed to aSOka grove along with a large entourage of his mistresses. All of them were suffering the hangover of excessive drinking the previous night and were hardly awake but all the same they followed rAvaNa, fanned him, tried to grab his attention. But he was focusing his evil mind on sItA alone and proceeded to her in measured steps. Onwards…
As rAvaNa approached, at that time, the slender waisted, blemish-less princess endowed with youthful beauty and well adorned (by the thought of rAma)vaidEhI trembled like the plantain tree in the wake of strong winds. The wide-eyed and fair lady covered her belly and bosom with her limbs and began shedding copious tears. The ten-headed rAvaNa saw vaidEhI watched over by the ogresses and was down in deep grief like a burdened ship that was sinking. She was seated on the bare ground, sticking to her vow and was like the severed branch of a tree fallen on the ground.
असंवृतायामासीनाम् धरण्यां संशितव्रताम् ।
छिन्नां प्रपतितां भूमौ शाखामिव वनस्पतेः ॥
Despite deserving dazzling ornamentation, she had only dust on her body and was like a lotus stalk besmirched with mud and looked conspicuous and unbright at the same time.
समीपं राजसिंहस्य रामस्य विदितात्मनः ।
सङ्कल्पहयसंयुक्सैः यान्तीमिव मनोरथैः ॥
It was as if her determination was yoked to her resolve which were like horses and she was riding in that towards the best of kings, the knower of the self, rAma!
That delightful sItA, the staunch follower of rAghava was absorbed in the thought of rAghava and in deep melancholy she was emaciated and saw no end at all to the ocean of her grief. Although born in a noble family and highly dharmic and sticking to the moral code, she was squatting on the ground having coiled like the serpent queen and like the star rOhiNi eclipsed by a meteor; it seemed as though she was going through a purificatory process as if she had an ignoble birth.
अभूतेनापवादेन कीर्तिं निपतितामिव।
आम्नायानामयोगेन विद्यां प्रशिथिलामिव।।5.19.11।।
She was like fame fallen by false accusations, like skill rusted by unuse, like renown lost, like faith slighted, like wisdom waning and like hopes dashed. She resembled possibilities destroyed, order disobeyed, worship misappropriated and the four quarters were in an inferno. She looked like a lotus creeper uprooted by an elephant and surrounded by scared birds, like the battalion whose commander had fallen, like light dimmed by darkness and like a dried-up stream. She resembled an altar that was violated, a flame doused and like the moon who was eclipsed by rAhu on a full moon day. Suffering terrible grief she was like a river that had gone thin and was unfit for ablutions and she was dull like the night of the waning fortnight. She deserved to be in a gem-crusted house and yet was like a lotus stalk plucked out of water and wilting under heat. She was sighing heavily like a she-elephant who was separated from her lord and was tied to a post. Even with a single braid of hair, she looked delightful like a row of well grown trees in the forest at the end of the rainy season.
She was rich in her penance but had emaciated by fasting, grief, contemplation and fear. rAvaNa beheld sItA who seemed like she was praying to the gods with folded hands about the defeat of the ten-headed demon in the hands of rAma. He saw that flawless woman who was weeping but was a staunch follower of rAma. Inviting his own death, he began to entice her.
Here we conclude the nineteenth sarga of the sundara kAnDam of SrImath vAlmiKi rAmAyaNam and humbly offer it at the lotus feet of SrIrAma. Hari: Om!
jAi SrIrAma.
Click on the above link for word by word meaning from IITK website
Click on the above link to listen to the audio by SrIrAma ghanApATi
Next: 5.20. The ten-headed fool tempts his fate
Previous: 5.18. Lusty twist in the dawn of hope
rAmabhaktisAmrAjyam 
