Hari Om.
Let us begin the sixty first sarga of the yuddha kAnDam by offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.
Sinking bit by bit with every one of his warriors getting vanquished in the battlefield, rAvaNa was hurtling down a path of no return. His losses were already monumental and beating a retreat from here was not an option. He tried his own hand. He went to the battlefield and fought valiantly with sugrIva, nIla, hanumAn and other vAnara warriors as well as lakshmaNa and rAma. hanumAn and lakshmaNa gave him a tough fight and when he fought rAma, he was completely overwhelmed. rAma, perched on hanumAn unleashed utter fury with his arrows and broke his everything. The celebrated demon king stood on the ground, his weapons blown away, his crown mangled, chariot destroyed. Even only rAma willed, just one arrow separated rAvaNa from a certain death. But rAma was considerate. It was not time yet. So he spared him with life and asked him to come back the next day fresh. The demon king went back crestfallen. He was desperate and wanted to wake kumbhakarNa up from his slumber although an untimely wake up would prove to be fatal for the sleeping giant. Tens of thousands of demons took part in the awakening and with industrial scale efforts managed to wake him up and convey the crisis that was staring at them. The giant headed to meet his brother. Onwards…
As the crowned giant kumbhakarNa shook the earth with his walk and headed to rAvaNa, he could be seen by the vAnara army. The giant of mountainous proportions reminded one of lord nArayaNa himself who as vAmana grew and filled up the skies. The cloud-like-dark-complexioned demon scared the vAnaras and they ran helter skelter in panic. Looking at the panicked vAnara army and the towering giant, rAma with some surprise asked vibhIshaNa –
“Who is this demon seen in lanka with a crown and eyes brown like vAnaras. Such an overgrown giant is not to be seen anywhere else in the world seeing whom vAnaras have become restless. I have not seen such a being before. O vibhIshaNa please apprise me about who he is”.
Inquired thus by the prince rAma who could accomplish the most difficult tasks, the very resourceful vibhIshaNa replied –
“He is very heroic son of viSwAvasu by name kumbhakarNa by whom even indra has been defeated in the battle. Another rAkashasa of this proportion doesn’t exist. O rAghava, the gods, gandharvas, yakshas, demons and whoever else have tasted defeat in his hands. The gods were unable to defeat this demon with crooked eyes who was wielding a spear and considered him to be verily death. While other demons derive their invincibility from their boons, this one is naturally splendorous and powerful. As soon as he was born, this kumbhakarNa tormented by hunger began gobbling up thousands and thousands of beings. Everyone in the world was so terrified seeing this loss of life and ran to indra and complained to him. The lord of the gods, indra came mounted on the elephant airAvata to fight him. He unleashed his thunderbolt on kumbhakarNa. Hurt by that hit, kumbhakarNa flew into a rage and pulling a tusk out of the elephant airAvata, hit indra on his chest. Reeling under the impact of that blow, the lord of the gods, indra went to the grandsire lord brahma and complained to him about the atrocities that the giant was unleashing which included gobbling of people, tormenting gods, destroying hermitages and abducting women. They said if such atrocities continue for long, the rate at which it is going, the earth will become empty soon.
Hearing out the complaint of indra, the grandsire, the creator went to where kumbhakarNa was and was startled with what he saw. He exclaimed, certainly paulastya has made this child for the destruction of the worlds and therefore he shall from now on sleep like he is dead. As soon as the curse was pronounced by the lord brahma, the giant kumbhakarNa collapsed into deep slumber right in front of him. The elder brother saw this and said to the lord brahma that this was not fair to pronounce such a curse on his grandson. It is akin to cutting off a tree when it has started to bear fruits. Of course, O lord, your words won’t go wrong, he shall sleep like that but do make some allowance for him to wake up at times as well in between his sleep spells. Responding to him lord brahma agreed and said that the demon shall sleep for six months and be awake for a day after that. On that single day he will roam around the world with pangs of hunger and with his mouth wide open he will gobble whoever comes his way like infuriated fire.
Scared of your valour, rAvaNa who was overwhelmed, has woken him up now. Once he leaves for the battle now he will go after the vAnaras and gobble them”.
Then rAma was apprehensive as to how the vANaras who are scared at his very sight can fight him. Then vibhIshaNa said that they must be told it is a machine that is coming to fight them and knowing that they would be free of fear. Listening to the narration and suggestion of vibhIshaNa, rAma instructed his chief, nIla – “O son of fire god, please go and marshal your troops. Collect adequate amounts of the mountain peaks, boulders and trees and let the vAnaras be ready to attack with those”. Ordered thus by rAma, the vAnara chief nIla arranged his troops. All the key vAnara warriors like gavAksha, Sarabha, hanumAn, angada and others went to the mountains and fetched their improvised weapons like the mountain peaks, trees and boulders. They stood in attention ready for the offensive like a huge water bearing cloud ready to inundate.
Here we conclude the sixty first sarga of the yuddha kAnDam of SrImath vAlmiKi rAmAyaNam and humbly offer it at the lotus feet of SrIrAma. Hari: Om!
jAi SrIrAma.
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Next: 6.062. rAvaNa confides his fear to his brother
Previous: 6.060. Awakening of the sleeping giant
rAmabhaktisAmrAjyam 
