Hari Om.
Let us begin the one hundred and twenty third sarga of the yuddha kAnDam by offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.The mission of conferring peace on the humanity and the gods by vanquishing the tormentor had been accomplished. sItA played as much a part in this as rAma. It appears at times if the two of them knew what they were going through and acted well! That line of thought would trivialize the travails and make us lose the lessons. So presently, rAma addressed his mates and bade a good bye. And then just getting into the pushpaka vimAna, rAma invited them to his crowning ceremony! The vAnara warriors and vibhIshaNa jumped at the opportunity and jumped into the aerial car that was all set to move. Onwards…
As rAma commanded the vimAna, it rose into the sky, much like the wind lifts the clouds. rAma cast a good look at the earth from the vimAna and addressed sItA whose countenance was glowing like the moon –
“O vaidEhI, behold the city of lanka perched on the trikUtA mountain that resembles the kailAsa and built by viSwakarma. Now look at this gory aftermath of the terrible war fought between the vAnaras and the demons.
(As the vimAna keeps flying, rAma is pointing to the places)
Here fell the king of demons, buoyed by the boons who tormented the worlds. He has been vanquished by me, O sItA, for your sake. Here kumbhakarNa was killed and there fell the demon prahasta. Here dhUmrAksha was felled by hanumAn. There, sushENa killed vidyunmAlI.
The son of rAvaNa, indrajit was routed here by lakshmaNa. This is the place where angada accounted for vikaTa. In this place the warriors virUpAksha, durdharsha, mahApArSwa, mahOdara, akampana, triSIrA, atikAya, dEvAntaka, narAntaka, yudhhOnmatta, matta, nikumbha, kumbha, vajradanshTram danshTra, SONitAksha, yUpAksha, prajangha, vidyujjihva, yajnaSatru, suptaghna, sUryaSatru, brahmaSatru and a host of other demons were wiped out. The hard-to-beat makarAksha was slain here by me.
Here is where mandOdari and other wives of rAvaNa bewailed his loss. Here look at the southern shore of the ocean where we camped after crossing over the waters. O wide-eyed one, here you see the impossible nalasEtU which I built for your sake across the ocean. O vaidEhI, behold the calm waters of the ocean which are making the noise at the ends and bearing conches and shells within them. O maithilI, see the golden mountain (mainAka) which emerged from the sea and offered hanumAn a breather (which he didn’t take) on his way to lanka. Here you see the northern shore of the ocean. This is where we camped before built the nala sEtU. Behold this supremely sacred pilgrimage called the sEtUbandha which destroys all the sins. This is where the all-pervading mahadEva showered his grace on me.
एतत् कुक्षौ समुद्रस्य स्कन्धावारनिवेशनम् ।
अत्र पूर्वं महादेवः प्रसादमकरोत्प्रभुः ॥
This is where this demon king vibhIshaNa met me. O sItA, as we go, look, here is the city of sugrIva, kishkindhA where vAlI was vanquished by me”.
Noting the city of kishkindhA sItA made a humble suggestion with due respect and affection –
“O ruler of men, sinless one, accompanied by rumA and tAra, the wives of sugrIva and other vAnara women, I would like travel to ayOdhyA”.
rAghava said, so be it and commanding the vimAna to touch down at kishkindhA, he turned to sugrIva and said to him –
“O best among vAnaras, go and tell all the great vAnaras that they should come along with their wives to accompany sItA to ayOdhyA. And you too go and quickly fetch your womenfolk so that we can travel to ayOdhyA without much delay”. Commanded thus by the highly radiant rAma, the vAnara lord entered the inner chambers and said to the charming tAra – “O dear, please hurry up and get other womenfolk ready. We are going to ayOdhyA to meet the queens of daSaratha”.
tAra was thrilled at this invite and expressed that it was her desire as well to visit ayOdhyA and hastened all the vAnara womenfolk to get ready in quick time and they all boarded the vimAna eagerly to have a glimpse of sItA. The vimAna rose to the skies again carrying all of them and as it approached the hills of RshyamUka, rAma continued his narration to vaidEhI and said –
“Here you can see the great hill of RshyamUka full of a variety of minerals resembling a cloud with lightning. This is where I met the king of vAnaras, sugrIva. I entered into an agreement with him to slay vAlI. Here you see the lovely waters of pampa full of lotus blooms. I roamed here wailing for you, O sItA. On these banks did I meet the very dhArmic SabarI. There I slayed the demon kabandha who had hands that were a yOjana long.
There you behold the dense forests of the janasthAna where the great jaTayu waged a fierce battle with the crooked rAvaNa to save you. Going further, that is where I routed khara, dUshaNa, triSirA and their lot with my unerring arrows. O sItA, this is the region where our Asrama was there. Look at that hut of ours from where you were abducted by rAvaNa. Here are the calming and clear waters of the river gOdavari and there on the banks you can spot the hermitage of the sage agastya. There is the glorious ASram of the great sage sutIkshNa where the thousand-eyed indra had come.
In this region, I had slain the long armed demon virAdha. There you see the hermitaged where you can see the chancellor sage atri glowing with the radiance of the sun and agni. This is where you had met the pious lady anasUyA.
Now behold this well formed mountain chitrakUTa where the son of kaikEyI had come to beseech me. There you can spot the forests of yamunA. Now O lovely complexioned sItA, you can behold the gangA, the home of flocks of birds and with forests on its banks that are fully bloomed. On the banks is the city of SRngabErapura where we had met guha. O sItA, here behold the river sarayU with all those wooden staffs of yajna on its banks.
एषा सा दृश्यते सीते राजधानी पितुर्मम ।
अयोध्यां कुरु वैदेहि प्रणामं पुनरागता ॥
O sItA, here you can now see ayOdhyA, the capital of my father. O vaidEhI we have returned, offer your salutations to this great city”.
As rAma pointed to ayOdhyA, all the vAnaras and vibhIshaNa got up from their seats on the vimAna and jostled with each other to catch a glimpse of the city! They caught a glimpse of the city with its series of well laid out and large white mansions, replete with colonies of elephants and horses. The city resembled amarAvatI, the capital of lord indra.
Here we conclude the one hundred and twenty third 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: 6.124. A brief halt before entering ayOdhyA
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rAmabhaktisAmrAjyam 