6.093. rAma annihilates!

Hari Om.

Let us begin the ninety third sarga of the yuddha kAnDam by offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.

The words of rAma that rAvaNa lost his right hand in indrajit’s fall couldn’t be more true. The demon king was devastated, perhaps more than when kumbhakarNa fell, upon learning of the death of his last hope. Now his turn was not far. In the moment of utter frustration, rAvaNa decided that he will slay vaidEhI. His valour and sense of discrimination took leave of him as he set out to the aSOkA grove to finish her with his sword! The unwelcome visits of the demon king, the verbal abuse, taunts, were nothing new – she had put up with that for close to twelve months now and even retorted and admonished him several times. But today he seemed to be more menacing than ever as he advanced with an upheld sword! She even regretted not heeding to hanumAn’s offer to help when he said he could take her very respectfully to rAma that very day if she sat on his back. She had wanted only rAma to rescue her [5.38]. But today as the end of the battle seemed so close yet so far, she passingly regretted her rejection. However just like a certain trijaTa had come to her rescue then [5.27], now a minister of rAvaNa by name supArSwa dissuaded him from the heinous act and appealed to his valour to make short work of rAma next day in the battlefield. Strangely enough, the demon king heeded and went back to his court and conferred with the ministers about the next strategy. Onwards…

The forlorn and grieving demon king went back to his court and sank in his throne sighing deeply and angrily like a lion. Stung deeply and sulking due to the death of his son, he ordered his generals who stood with folded hands ready to act –

“All of you, gather your four fold forces of elephants, horses, chariots and infantry, go to the battle, surround rAma alone and unleash arrows aimed at him like the clouds shower rain in the rainy season. Or, as the world watches, I shall do it myself tomorrow in the battle with my sharp arrows and distort his body”.

No sooner they heard his order, the demons set off in their chariots accompanied by huge forces that were fully armed carrying weapons like the iron beams, spears, arrows, swords and axes, each of which could strike fatally on their own and hurled them at the vAnaras. The vAnaras in return hurled boulders and trees. A raging and tumultuous battle broke out as soon as the sun rose. This fierce battle in which weapons clashed with boulders and trees, kicked up a huge dust storm that was doused only by the flow of blood of the demons and the vAnaras. The flow resembled a river in which the chariots and elephants seemed like the banks, the horses like the fish, floating trees like flags and the corpses seemed like boats! The badly injured vAnaras attacked with ferocity, damaging the chariots, killing the elephants and horses by jumping onto them. Each demon was attacked by hundreds of vAnaras like birds flocking to a tree which bore fruits. They hurt the demons with their sharp nails and teeth by pulling their hair, biting off their nose and ears and wounding their foreheads. The demons attacked back with their maces, spears, swords, axes and felled the vAnaras who were mountainous in size. As the demons stepped up the attack, the vAnaras could not stand it and sought refuge in rAma.

राक्षसैर्वद्ध्यामानानाम् वानराणां महाचमूः ।

शरण्यं शरणं याता रामं दशरथात्मजम् ॥

ततो रामो महातेजा धनुरादाय वीर्यवान् ।

प्रविश्य राक्षसं सैन्यम् शरवर्षं ववर्ष ह ॥

Then the resplendent and heroic rAma entered the fray with his bow and began to unleash torrents of arrows on the army of the demons. The night rangers only could see terrible havoc that rAma was unleashing on them but could hardly spot him!

They saw the army in disarray and the great chariots being busted by rAma’s attack but could not see rAma like the wind in the forest cannot be seen (but its impact felt).

They saw the force of rAma in army that was under extreme distress hit by the astras of rAma, was completely battered, broken and burnt by the arrows but could not see the swift moving rAma!

छिन्नं भिन्नं शरैर्दग्धम् प्रभग्नं शस्त्रपीडितम् ।

बलं रामेण ददृशुः न रामं शीघ्रकारिणम् ॥

Just like the people can visualize the actions undertaken by the senses but not the prompter of the actions, the self, the demons saw the destruction that rAma brought about but not him! They could infer his presence but not see him!

न ते ददृशिरे रामम् दहन्तमपि वाहिनीम् ।

मोहिताः परमास्त्रेण गान्धर्वेण महात्मना ॥

Then the supreme rAma launched the greatest astra called gAndharva which discharged fire balls and the inferno consumed the army while the swift moves of rAma cast such an illusion on the demons that they could not see rAma even though he was annihilating their army. In what seemed like a spell, they turned senile and incoherent and yelled – here he is, destroying the elephantry, here he is, dismantling the chariots, oh, here he is, devastating the entire infantry and horses with his sharp arrows! The demons saw each other as rAma and being enraged began to butcher each other!! They saw thousands of rAmas in the battlefield for a moment and then saw one kakutstha (rAma) battering them all in the great battle.

शरीरनाभिसत्त्वार्चिःशरीरं नेमिकार्मुकम् ।

ज्याघोषतलनिर्घोषम् तेजोबुद्धिगुणप्रभम् ।

दिव्यास्त्रगुणपर्यन्तम् निघ्नन्तं युधि राक्षसान् ।

ददृशू रामचक्रं तत् कालचक्रमिव प्रजाः ॥

His bow was swirling in a circular motion and the golden tip of his bow described a circle and it resembled the wheel of fire at the end of time! rAma’s body was seen as the centre of the wheel with the bow forming its rim. The arrows were like the spokes of the wheel. The twang of the string and the thud of the palm were like the rumblings of that wheel. His effulgence and dexterity were its glow. Thus the people saw the wheel of rAma as the wheel of time that was all consuming.

अनीकं दशसाहस्रम् रथानां वातरंहसाम् ।

अष्टादश सहस्राणि कुञ्जराणां तरस्विनाम् ।

चतुर्दश सहस्राणि सारोहाणां च वाजिनाम् ।

पूर्णे शतसहस्रे द्वे राक्षसानां पदातिनाम् ।

दिवसस्याष्टमे भागे शरैरग्निशिखोपमैः ।

हतान्येकेन रामेण रक्षसां कामरूपिणाम् ॥

In the eighth part of the day, rAma alone vanquished the demons who could assume any form including an army that had ten thousand chariots which moved with the speed of wind, eighteen thousand elephants that could unleash immense agony, fourteen thousand horses with their riders and two lakh soldiers who were part of the infantry using arrows that were spitting fire. With their army so completely annihilated including the horses, chariots and elephants, whoever survived the onslaught fled to lanka. With the carcasses of elephants, horses and demons the battlefield resembled the playground of the terrifying rudra.

Then the gods, gandharvas, sidhhas and the great sages hailed the exploits of rAma in great terms. Later, in the company of sugrIva, the dhArmic vibhIshaNa, hanumAn, jAmbavAn, mainda and dvivida, rAma said such a divine repertoire of astras can be either mine or that of tryambaka (lord Siva)!

अब्रवीच्च तदा रामः सुग्रीवं प्रत्यनन्तरम् ।

विभीषणं च धर्मात्मा हनूमन्तं च वानरम् ।

जाम्बवन्तं हरिश्रेष्ठम् मैन्दं द्विविदमेव च ।

एतदस्त्रबलं दिव्यम् मम वा त्र्यम्बकस्य वा ॥

The suopreme rAma with Sakra like valour, having vanquished the entire army of the demons with his weapons and astras with little effort was worshipped and felicitated by the ecstatic gods.