Hari Om.
Let us begin the one hundred and second sarga of the yuddha kAnDam by offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.The valiant lakshmaNa attacked rAvaNa along with vibhIshaNa. He even saved the life of the latter from the deadly weapon Sakthi. The infuriated demon king then hurled the astra at lakshmaNa and knocked him down. rAma was distraught to see his brother fall thus when the battle was almost won. He controlled his emotions and blew away rAvaNa. He then wailed and wept at the state of lakshmaNa as if he was gone. Out of his love for his brother, he feared the worst! But their doctor sushENa quelled his fears and requested hanumAn to bring the life-saving herbs from the himAlaya mountains. The all-powerful hanumAn, who was on his second trip to this mountain during this battle, was not sure of the exact herbs and in the interest of time and life, fetched the entire mountain peak astonishing everyone. The herbs were plucked and lakshmaNa was revived. His fighting spirit ever so intact, lakshmaNa exhorted rAma to finish the battle off before the sun set on that day by knocking rAvaNa off. rAma was relieved and determined as the gods watched from the skies. Onwards…
As lakshmaNa spoke those words exhorting rAghava to slay rAvaNa on that day before the sun set, the heroic rAma, the slayer of the foes, took his bow and set up scorching arrows aimed at rAvaNa as the battle raged. The ten headed demon king who was thrown off his destroyed chariot, now came in another. He attacked rAma relentlessly with a continuous tirade of arrows just like the cloud showers rain. rAma retaliated equally strongly with determination and focus to negate the attack on him.
भूमौ स्थितस्य रामस्य रथस्थस्य च रक्षसः ।
न समं युद्धमित्याहुः देवगन्धर्वदानवाः ॥
At this point, the gods and gandharvas who were beholding this battle from the skies said, there was no level playing field between rAvaNa who was on the chariot and rAma who was fighting standing on the ground. Hearing those nectarine words, the lord of the gods, indra, summoned his charioteer mAtali and ordered –
“O mAtali, take my chariot at once and go to the greatest of the raghus who is fighting while stationed on the ground. Thus you would do a great service to the gods”.
Bowing down to the order, the charioteer of the gods, mAtali said –
“I shall go at once, O dEvEndra and shall navigate the horses and the chariot in the battlefield”.
He then got the glorious chariot ready and yoked the green horses to it. That golden chariot was tingling with a hundred bells, beaming like the just risen sun, studded with gems and stones elaborately. Its axle and flag staff were made of gold. The horses were of the best breed. Riding that dazzling chariot, mAtali descended from the heavens and approached rAma. He then folded his hands and said to rAma –
“O great and illustrious kAkutstha, the repressor of the foes, the thousand eyed indra has sent this chariot wishing victory for you. Here is the great bow called aindra, and here is the glowing armor. This is also equipped with arrows that glitter like the sun and with the sharp and brilliant Sakthi weapon.
आरुह्येमं रथं वीर राक्षसं जहि रावणम् ।
मया सारथिना राजन् महेन्द्र इव दानवान् ॥
O hero, O king, please grace this chariot and with me as chariot and vanquish rAvaNa like mahEndra vanquishes the demons”.
Honouring the submission of mAtali, rAma circumambulated the glorious chariot, paid his respect to it and graced it heralding auspiciousness for the worlds.
इत्युक्तः सम्परिक्रम्य रथं समभिवाद्य च ।
आरुरोह तदा रामो लोकान् लक्ष्म्या विराजयन् ॥
A tumultuous battle ensued as the great weapon wielder rAma shot down the gAndharva and dEva astras of the demon king with similar denominations from his end. Seeing his attack shot down thus, rAvaNa deployed the dreadful astra called asura again. From that astra emerged deadly arrows spitting venom like the serpents, they scorched like the venomous vAsuki, the flaming arrows in form of reptiles approached rAma. Beholding this, rAma deployed the terrific astra garutmAn. The arrows that emerged from this astra took form of glorious garuDas with golden feathers and went after the venomous and vigorous snakes and consumed them all! Extremely infuriated to see his astra shot down thus, rAvaNa rained torrents of arrows at rAma. Then overwhelming the great rAma with the torrent, rAvaNa hit the flagstaff of the chariot and cut it off and another arrow pierced the charioteer mAtali. He harrowed the horses with another flood of arrows. Beholding that great exploit of rAvaNa, the gods and the gandharvas were somewhat disappointed. The eclipse of the moon, rAmachandra by the demonic planet rAhu who was in form of rAvaNa brought despair to sidhhas, great Rshis, vAnara warriors and vibhIshaNa.
The star rOhiNi presided over by the prajApati and dearest of the lord of stars, chandra was occulted by the planet budha which was ominous for the people. The ocean was turbulent as if it was seething with anger and the tides rose high seemingly touching the sun. The sun was pale, with its rays dimmed and meteor seen across the disc resembling a headless corpse. The star viSAkha, that of the ikshvAkus whose presiding deities were indra and agni, was shadowed by angAraka (mars).
With his ten heads and twenty arms, carrying the bow, demon king rAvaNa looked gigantic like the mainAka mountain. Assailed by a rampaging rAvaNa, rAma seemed overwhelmed and found it hard to even mount arrows on his bow.
तस्य क्रुद्धस्य वदनम् दृष्ट्वा रामस्य धीमतः ।
सर्वभूतानि वित्रेसुः प्राकम्पत च मेदिनी ॥
Then rAma was infuriated, his eyes turned red and eyebrows folded in anger. Livid with anger, he cast death glare. Beholding the angry countenance of rAma, all the beings shuddered in fear and the earth shook. The mountains that housed lions and tigers shook and the lord of the rivers, ocean was became very turbulent. The birds screeched and screamed, clouds gave rise to rumbling sounds and all indications were that something very ominous was about to happen.
As all the beings were shuddering with fear seeing rAma in that angry form and even rAvaNa was frightened.
रामं दृष्ट्वा सुसङ्क्रुद्धम् उत्पातांश्च सुदारुणान् ।
वित्रेसुः सर्वभूतानि रावणस्याभवद्भयेम् ॥
The gods in their aerial chariots, gandharvas, the celebrated uragas, Rshis, dAnavas, daityas, garuDas and other avians and celestial beings witnessed the greatest of the battles being fought by two accomplished warriors who were deploying a variety of deadly weapons from the skies. All the demons and the gods who came to witness the battle were joyous and cheered their respective favourite – while the demons wished victory to rAvaNa, the gods lustily cheered again and again – “O rAma, may you be victorious, may you be victorious – jAi SrI rAm, jAi SrI rAm”.
दशग्रीवं जयेत्याहुः असुराः समवस्थिताः ।
देवा राममथोचुस्ते त्वं जयेति पुनःपुनः ॥
In the meantime, the wicked and infuriated rAvaNa grabbed the great Sula with aim to strike rAma. The SUla was hard like diamond, made a great noise as it travelled, could vanquish all the enemies, was imposing like a mountain, its tip terrified the onlooker, it was flaming, emitting smoke, reminiscent of the fire at the end of the time, extremely terrifying, impossible to approach, unmitigable even by death, unleashing panic in all beings, peerless in piercing and striking and was glowing with fiery brilliance. Holding it in the middle, surrounded by his army around him, he cast a glare with his blood red eyes, lustily cheered by his ranks he got ready to hurl the Sula. He left out a loud roar which reverberated across the earth, the skies and the ten quarters. It struck fear in the hearts of all beings. Taking stance to hurl it at rAma, he addressed him and said (perhaps the only time he speaks to rAma) –
“This SUla, which is hard like the diamond in its essence, O rAma, I am deploying it out of my rage. This shall nicely take away your life even if you are helped by your brother. Stay there, rAma, I shall today vanquish you with my SUla and there by avenge the death of all those demons who have died in the battle”.
With those words, rAvaNa hurled the gigantic spear which left his hand and travelled lighting up the sky, making noise with its eight bells resembling lightning. Beholding the oncoming SUla, rAma took his bow and aimed arrows at it aiming to strike it down like indra tries to quench the fire at the end of the time by raining through the clouds. The gigantic SUla cut through the arrows of rAma like fire consumes the fire flies and travelled towards rAma at a great speed. Then, reacting sharply, rAma took up the Sakthi weapon of indra which the chariot was equipped with and about which the charioteer mAtali had alluded before and aiming at the oncoming SUla, he hurled it. That mighty weapon, making a great noise, lighting up the skies, spitting infernos, went and clashed with spear hurled by rAvaNa and rendered it dull. With its momentum and shine shorn, the SUla of rAvaNa fell down wastefully on the earth.
Then rAma, retaliated with a torrent of attack with his sharp arrows and hurt the sprightly horses of the demon king. Taking the battle to rAvaNa’s camp, rAma cut through the chest of rAvaNa and with three arrows hit his forehead. Hit everywhere on his body with rAma’s arrows, rAvaNa bled all over and resembled an aSOka tree in grove which was in full bloom! Badly injured by the arrows of rAma, the night ranger demon faced severe loss of face in the midst of everyone and was even more infuriated.
Here we conclude the one hundred and second 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: 6.103. Charioteer saves his fear-stricken master
Previous: 6.101. Revived lakshmaNa exhorts rAma
rAmabhaktisAmrAjyam 
