Hari Om.
Let us begin the sixtieth sarga of the yuddha kAnDam by offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.
In quick succession after his humiliation in the battleground in the hands of rAma, rAvaNa lost his kin including kumbhakarNa, atikAya and others. Some of them were his children and others were his brothers. He was devastated at this unprecedented loss. They had never been at the receiving end like this. As rAvaNa was submerged in the ocean of grief, his valiant son indrajit surfaced and offered him fresh hope. He assured him that until the time his son was alive, they would not be defeated. Receiving this fresh lease of life from his son, rAvaNa blessed him and sent him to the battle. He went accompanied by a large battalion and before the battle he performed the nikumbhilA sacrifice which enables him to become invisible and attack the enemy with brahmAstra. He had done that before and seized rAma and lakshmaNa with nAgastra. This time he aimed at the vAnara warriors and had most of them fallen on the ground. Realizing that they had to bide by this destruction and first ensure the retreat of indrajit from the battlefield, rAma and lakshmaNa also fell down. Ecstatic at his own prowess, the son of rAvaNa, rAvaNI retreated to lanka victoriously. Most warriors in rAma’s camp had fallen. Whoever remained were in absolute gloom not knowing what to do and awaiting the harbinger of hope. Onwards…
Seeing both the brothers also struck down in the battlefield, the vAnara army was clueless about their course of action. Neither sugrIva, jAmbavAn, nIla or angada knew what to do. Taking cognizance of the grief sweeping through the vAnara ranks, the most intelligent vibhIshaNa told them that nor was this a time to grieve nor is there time to grieve. He asked them to cast the dear aside and explained that this had to happen as per the boon conferred by the self-born lord brahma. He saw hanumAn who was in good shape and articulated that rAma and lakshmaNa knew about the capability of this astra given by lord brahma and they fell merely honouring it. The valiant mAruti who was not troubled by the brahmAstra in the past recognized its effects and responding vibhIshaNa said –
“Come on, we should go and give solace and hope to all those who have survived this brahmAstra”.
The two heroes set out in the battlefield holding torches in that night and began searching for survivors in the battle. There were vAnaras whose tail was severed, there were some whose thighs were severed while some whose heads were cut off and blood was flowing out of all the wounds. In the fifth part of the day, using the brahmAstra, indrajit struck down sixty seven crore vAnaras including sugIva, nIla, Sarabha, gandhamAdana, gavAksha, sushEa, vEgadarshi, Ahuka, mainda, nala, jyOtimukha, dvivida, panasa and others. The duo of hanumAn and vibhishaNa beheld that fallen army that was mighty as the ocean and searched for the elderly jAmbavAn among the army. The brilliant son of prajApati who was old was spotted by the duo and they approached him. vibhIshaNa then inquired – “O noble one, hope your life force has not been destroyed by the sharp arrows”.
The best of the Rkshas (bears), jAmabavAn responded and said –
“I recognize you to be the valorous naiRtEndra (demon king) by your voice. My eyes have been injured by the arrows and I can hardly see you. O naiRta, by any chance is the valiant son of anjana and vAyu, hanumAn is alive and holding on to his life”?
Hearing jAmabavAn’s inquiry (of mAruti), vibhIshaNa questioned back –
“Without asking about the welfare of the noble princes (rAma and lakshmaNa), why is that you are inquiring about hanumAn? O noble one, the concern your showing on mAruti is not being seen either about king sugrIva or even rAghava”?
Answering vibhIshaNa, jAmabavAn said –
“O best among naiRtas (demons), listen about why I am inquiring about hanumAn. When he is alive, even the army is dead it will be alive. And on the other hand if he dead, even if we are alive we are (as good as) dead. O dear, if hanumAn whose valour is like that of the wind and fire is alive, then we will have some hope on life”.
Hearing the words of jAmbavAn, hanumAn approached him and duly prostrated to him and holding his feet in reverence announced himself. Hearing the words of hanumAn, the best among the Rkshas felt that he was reborn and said –
“Come on, O best among the vAnaras, you ought to rescue the vAnaras. No one else’s valour can do this and you are the best friend that these vAnaras have. I don’t see anyone else other than you to resurrect the Rksha and vAnara armies and delight them. Please make the fallen rAma and lakshmaNa well again. Go to the best of the mountains, himavAn which is very far and well across the ocean. You will find a high peak called Rshabha there. O repressor of the enemies, you will also behold the peak kailASa there. Between those two peaks, you will see the towering golden mountain which has peerless brilliance of gold and contains all the medicinal herbs. On top of that mountain, you shall see the four great and luminous herbs – mRta sanjIvanI (resurrects life of the dead), viSalyakaraNI (neutralises poison), sAvarNyakaraNI (restores skin color and integrity) and sandhAnakaraNI (heals broken bones). O son of the windgod, please gather all the four and come back fast ensuring the lives of the vAnaras”.
The best of the vAnaras hanumAn heard the command of jAmbavAn and his strength shot up with his enthusiasm like the tides surge in the sea. He stood on top of the mountain land resembled a mountain. The mountain on the sea shore broke on the impact of his foot as hanumAn stood there ready to leap. Under the pressure of his weight, the mountain couldn’t hold up and crumbled, the trees collapsed and boulders got crushed and the vAnaras could hardly stay on that mountain which was unravelling. Then hanumAn ascended the malaya mountain that hosted many caves and home to the vidyAdharas, Rshis, apsaras and a variety of fauna. Terrifying every gandharva, kinnara and yaksha who inhabited that place, hanumAn began to grow tremendously resembling the cloud. He stamped his foot on the mountain and from his fiery mouth he let out a thunderous roar that terrified the demons so much that they couldn’t roar back.
Endowed with terrific valour, hanumAn did his namaskAra to rAma and the repressor of the demons set out to carry out the great mission for the sake of rAghava. He made his serpentine tail taut, bent his back, pulled back his ears, opening his mouth wide like the mouth of a volcano he leapt into the sky with great speed. The tremendous speed of his arms and thighs pulled many trees, boulders and ordinary vAnaras who were launched into the sky and then losing their momentum fell into the ocean! Spreading out his mighty arms that resembled serpents, possessing the strength of the foe of the serpents (garuDa), hanumAn flew in the direction of the mEru mountain and it seemed as if he was drawing the (northern) direction into himself.
Like the sudarSana chakra hurled by lord vishNu, with the speed of his father vAyu, hanumAn travelled fast crossing the tides laden ocean, mountains, rivers, lakes, human habitats, cities in the path of the sun (in the sky) without any fatigue. Remembering the words of jAmbavAn, he flew at the speed of the wind, his movement causing a sound that reverberated in all directions, mAruti soon sighted the himavAn mountains which were dotted with many a stream and caverns and its white peaks resembling white clouds made for quite a sight. As he made his way towards the great mountain, hanumAn spotted many holy hermitages inhabited by godly sages and their followers, the abode of lord brahma, the silver palace of lord Siva, the palace of lord indra, the place where Siva shot an arrow, the place of hayagrIva, place where lord Siva severed the fifth head of lord brahma, the servitors of lord Vaivasvata (yama), the place where the weapon vajra was given to lord indra, the city of kubEra, sUryaprabha – mansion of kubEra, abode of chhAyAdEvI – consort of lord sUrya, the throne of lord brahma, the bow of lord Siva, the navel of the earth (likely a place of high gravity, also the entry point of the demons into the nether worlds), lord ganEsha and skanda along with their forces, goddess umA, the kailAsa mountain followed by the Rshabha mountain (as told by jAmbavAn).
The son of the wind god took a good look at the Rshabha mountain that had a golden glow and contained all the medicinal herbs. He smiled to himself, having flown over a thousand yOjanas and landing there began to search for the herbs (mentioned by jAmbavAn). The medicinal herbs having reckoned that someone has come in knowledge of them to take them and became invisible! Not finding the mentioned herbs, hanumAn roared restlessly with fire in his eyes and addressing the mountain he said –
“What is this resolve of yours to not reveal the medicinal herbs. Don’t you empathise with rAghava? Then watch me humble your pride with the might in my arms and get displaced from here. Then holding the mountain at its base with his mighty arms, he lifted along with its peaks, inhabitants, minerals and everything else and holding it up leapt into the sky with great force terrifying all the words and the gods. Hailed by many celestial beings, he flew with the ferocity of garuDa. Up in the sky, the path of the lord sUrya, carrying the mountain that is effulgent like the sun, hanumAn shone like another sun by the side of the sun. He also resembled lord vishNu with the brilliant chakra in his hand.
As he reached lanka, the vANaras saw him and lustily cheered and he was delighted in return to have seen them. The city of lanka became anxious to hear the delightful roars from the vAnaras. The great hanumAn then placed the huge mountain in the middle of the vAnara army. He bowed down to the elders and embraced vibhIshaNa.
Having inhaled the viSalyakaraNI, both the princes rose up with the poison in their bodies mitigated. Similarly all the vAnara warriors who were fallen by the poison in their body rose up. In a moment all of them were relieved from the poison and with the sanjIvakaraNI, the vAnaras who were dead rose up as if they rose from deep sleep. However the demons didn’t rise since as and when they were being slain, by order of rAvaNa, to save his face, they were being dumped in the ocean!
Then the son of the carrier of the fragrance (wind carries the scent, fragrance – gandhavha – this name has been used multiple times for hanumAn in this sarga) then carried back the mountain of medicinal herbs and placing it back in its place, he returned to rAma.
Here we conclude the sixtieth sarga of the yuddha 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
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Next: 6.075. lanka gutted again and the battle resumes
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rAmabhaktisAmrAjyam 