Hari Om.
Let us begin the hundredth sarga of the yuddha kAnDam by offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.
The ultimate battle of the mission of rAma to rescue sItA commenced. With all his well-wishers, yes men and other warriors gone, rAvaNa himself came face to face. He unleashed his fury on the vAnara army and proved himself too much for them to handle. Before long he was face-to-face with rAma. The two most renowned warriors engaged in a display of supreme archery. Neither got an upper hand, neither could be cowed down. Both of them, experts at wielding weapons and possessing enormous range of astras attacked the other and was ably answered. Only difference was that rAvaNa was fighting from his well-equipped chariot and rAghava was on the earth. The gripping battle was watched by all with wonder, with each one cheering their favourite lord. The demon king aimed at rAghava with the Asura astra that emitted hundreds of arrows that had the faces of a variety of animals and spirits. The lord of men assailed him back with the glorious AgnEya astra which quelled the demonic weapons and nullified his attack leading to lusty cheers from the vAnara ranks. Onwards…
The king of the demons, rAvaNa was doubly outraged to watch his Asura astra go down in that manner. He then invoked the luminous raudra astra which was built by the sculptor maya and deployed it against rAma. From that astra emerged spears, maces, clubs, nooses, thunderbolts, each hard like the diamond. They all menacingly advanced like turbulent winds at the end of time. The supreme expert of superlative weapons, rAghava negated all those with his great and glorious gAndharva astra. Livid with copper eyes, rAvaNa, seeing his weapons negated by the great rAma, deployed the saura astra. From that astra emerge hundreds of discusses radiating great light which lit up the skies like the sun and the moon do. All those were shot down by rAma by hundreds of arrows and chakras in that battle.
Watching his weapons come to a nought, rAvaNa attacked rAma with ten arrows and hit him on all vital places. Although he was hit by those ten arrows, rAma was hardly perturbed. He retaliated with great determination and hurt rAvaNa with a number of arrows. In the meanwhile, the mighty brother of rAma, lakshmaNa got angry and picking up his bow, attacked rAvaNa with seven swift arrows. Those arrows destroyed the flag on the chariot of rAvaNa and severed the head of the charioteer. Then attacking with five more arrows, lakshmaNa broke the bow of rAvaNa which resembled the trunk of the elephants. Then leaping on to his chariot, vibhIshaNa clubbed the dark complexioned horses yoked to rAvaNa’s chariot and vanquished them.
Jumping off swiftly from that great chariot, rAvaNa was angry with his brother and invoking the great weapon Sakthi which was like a fiery thunderbolt, he hurled it at him. But before the Sakthi could get to vibhIshaNa, it was shot down with three arrows by lakshmaNa. As the gold studded Sakthi shredded by lakshmaNa’s arrows fell from the skies like a meteor, raising great cheers from the vAnara ranks. As that weapon was rendered futile, rAvaNa picked another Sakthi which was unassailable even by the lord of death and was spitting fire like the thunderbolt of indra and wanted to strike vibhIshaNa. Grasping the danger posed to vibhIshaNa, lakshmaNa at once ran to his rescue and overwhelmed rAvaNa with a barrage of arrows. Under immense attack, rAvaNa changed his mind and decided not to deploy the weapon aiming vibhIshaNa. With his brother rescued from his attack, rAvaNa turned to lakshmaNa and said –
“O one of praiseworthy might, since you have ensured the rescue of vibhIshaNa, this Sakthi shall be aimed at you instead of him. Hurled by my strong arms, this shall pierce through your heart and claim your life”.
With those words, he hurled the eight belled Sakthi weapon which raised quite a din and built by maya was adept at hurting the enemy. As the Sakthi was hurled with a great speed and it approached lakshmaNa with a sound like the vajra of indra, rAghava saw that and willed that may all be well with lakshmaNa and may the weapon aimed to vanquish him be rendered futile.
तामनुव्याहरच्छक्तिम् आपतन्तीं स राघवः ।
स्वस्त्यस्तु लक्ष्मणायेति मोघा भव हतोद्यमा ॥
Hissing like a huge serpent, spitting venom, the luminous weapon deposited on the broad chest of lakshmaNa. Hit hard by that weapon, lakshmaNa fell down unconscious. rAghava who was by his side was moved to tears and his heart was filled with grief to see lakshmaNa in that state. Contemplating for a moment and fighting tears, he was enraged like the all engulfing fire at the end of time. He reasoned that this was no time to sulk and stepping up his attack he engaged in battle with rAvaNa, determined to vanquish him.
सौमित्रिं सा विनिर्भिद्य प्रविष्टा धरणीतलम् ।
तां कराभ्यां परामृश्य रामः शक्तिं भयावहाम् ।
बभञ्ज समरे क्रुद्धो बलवान् विचकर्ष च ॥
The Sakthi had pierced through lakshmaNa’s heart and had pinned him to the ground and despite their best efforts the vAnaras could not pull it out. They were constantly assailed by the arrows of rAvaNa and failed to remove it. rAma himself pulled it out with both hands and broke it into two, even as rAvaNa attacked him with his arrows and hit him on his vitals. Treating those piercing arrows with indifference, rAma embraced lakshmaNa and said to hanumAn and sugrIva –
“O great vAnaras, please keep vigil on lakshmaNa and stay here guarding him. Like the chAtaka endured the summer to see the clouds at the end of it, the long-awaited time to show my valour has been obtained finally. This wicked and sinful ten-headed shall be slain. At this moment, listen to this truth, O vAnaras, you shall see world either bereft of rAvaNa or rAma. Loss of kingdom, exile in the forest, running around in the danDaka forest, the abduction of vaidEhI by the demon, I have experienced hell all these years. I shall leave all that behind and slay rAvaNa in the battle. The reason for which I have marshalled the entire vAnara army to this place, for which I crowned sugrIva by vanquishing vAlI, for which the sEtU was built and the ocean was crossed, that embodiment of sin has fallen in my line of sight in the battle. Having come into my range, he shall not be alive, like one cannot be alive when they encounter a venomous serpent. Let the invincible vAnaras watch this battle between me and rAvaNa sitting on the top of mountains. Let the three worlds along with gandharvas, gods, Rshis and chAraNas (celestials) behold the rAma-ness of rAma in the battle (what makes rAma rAma!). My exploits today in the battle will be such that all the worlds, the mobile and immobile beings along with gods will keep talking about it as long the earth survives!
अद्य रामस्य रामत्वम् पश्यन्तु मम संयुगे ।
त्रयो लोकाः सगन्धर्वाः सदेवाः सर्षिचारणाः ॥
अद्य कर्म करिष्यामि यल्लोकाः सचराचराः ।
सदेवाः कथयिष्यन्ति यावद्भूमिर्धरिष्यति ।
समागम्य सदा लोके यथा युद्धं प्रवर्तितम् ॥
They will recall the episodes of the battle whenever they meet”.
With those words, rAma attacked rAvaNa with golden and sharp arrows. The demon king retaliated with clubs and maces like a continuous shower. The arrows released by both raised quite a noise in the skies and cutting each other they fell on the ground. The unbelievable sound caused by the twangs of the bow scared all the beings.
विकीर्यमाणः शरजालवृष्टिभिः महात्मना दीप्तधनुष्मतार्दितः ।
भयात्प्रदुद्राव समेत्य रावणो यथाऽनिलेनाभिहतो बलाहकः ॥
The attack by the supreme wielder of the bow that brought forth a terrifying torrent of arrows mortified rAvaNa and filled him with mortal fear and he fled along with his army like the clouds are tossed away by the winds.
Here we conclude the hundredth 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
Click on the above link to listen to the audio by SrIrAma ghanApATi
Next: 6.101. Revived lakshmaNa exhorts rAma
Previous: 6.099. The ultimate face off begins
rAmabhaktisAmrAjyam 