Hari Om.
Let us begin the one hundred and twenty sixth sarga of the yuddha kAnDam by offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.Taking off on the pushpaka vimAna, the trio along with the vAnara warriors and vibhIshaNa made a brief stop at kishkindhA upon the request of sItA. The families of the vAnara warriors joined them there and they flew towards ayOdhyA with rAma rewinding their exploits in reverse chronological order until they sighted the glorious ayOdhyA from the skies. However without proceeding to the capital city, they landed at the hermitage of the hospitable sage bharadwAja. The sage was delighted and having known the accomplishments of rAma through his penance, he welcomed them. They were to stay the night there. However, right away, rAma tasked hanumAn with the job of taking the news of their arrival to guha and bharata. Interestingly, rAma gives the benefit of doubt to the beseeching bharata. He thought if bharata had a change of heart after tasting the royal power and if he displayed any trace of unhappiness upon learning about rAma’s advent, then he would let bharata rule. The wise hanumAn was asked to divine the body language and reaction of bharata when he heard the news of rAma’s return. The vAnara warrior took up a human form and after informing guha, went to bharata who was glowing with the radiance of a brahmaRshi. He ruled over the ayOdhyA as a trustee of rAma’s holy feet! His ministers and attendants were all austerely dressed and the anxiety of not seeing rAma even as the fourteen years were coming to a close was weighing heavily in the air. As hanumAn broke the great news, the beloved brother of rAma fainted in utter joy. Recovering momentarily he showered presents on hanumAn and began to ask hanumAn. Onwards…
“Wow! It has been quite many years since my lord went to the deep forest. Today I shall listen to his delightful story. The colloquial adage which says if a man survives for a hundred years, he shall hear good tidings at some point is indeed true. How, where and on what basis did the meeting between rAghava and the vAnaras come about? I request you to kindly narrate to me the happenings in a matter-of-fact manner”.
कल्याणी बत गाथेयं लौकिकी प्रतिभाति मे ।
एति जीवन्तमानन्दो नरं वर्षशतादपि ॥
Asked thus by the prince, hanumAn settled on a cushion and began the narration of the happenings of the forest-life of rAma.
O mighty armed one, you are aware of the following. The exile of rAma based on the boons coveted by your mother followed by the death of king daSaratha afflicted by the grief of separation from his son and then how you were brought back from the rAjagRha by the emissaries and how you didn’t covet the kingdom of ayOdhyA. You then went to the hills of chitrakUTa and tried to persuade your brother to return to ayOdhyA. He refused committing himself to the promise made by the king (to kaikEyI). You then came back to ayOdhyA carrying the sandals of the noble rAma. I shall now narrate to you about what took place after you returned to ayOdhyA.
After you left chitrakUTa, those forests were deserted by the Rshis and rAma felt suffocated there. He entered the very sparsely populated and dense forests of danDaka which were home to raging elephants, lions and other beasts. As they entered that deep forest, they saw in front of them a mighty demon by name virAdha who made a big noise. The powerful brothers overpowered him and threw him off in a pit and by evening, the three of them reached the sylvan hermitage of Rshi Sarabhanga. The supremely truthful rAma, went to meet other Rshis after Sarabhanga ascended to the heavens and eventually in the janasthAna, an ogress by name SUrpanakha apprehended rAma. On his instruction, at once, the mighty lakshmaNa cut off the nose and ears of the ogress. Then a big battle broke out in which rAma alone was on one side and fourteen thousand demons were on the other. The valiant rAghava slayed all of them led by khara, triSira and dUshaNa in a quarter of a day and cleaned up the entire danDaka forest. Having slain the obstructors of penance, rAma reclaimed the forests of danDaka for the Rshis to perform their penance. The ogress SUrpanakha who was spared in the battle went to lanka and met rAvaNa.
Then, a follower of rAvaNa by name mAricha turned into a deceptive deer that was sporting gems and lured vaidEhI. Upon her request as rAma went to fetch the deer for her followed by lakshmaNa and killed the deer with a straight arrow, the ten headed demon rAvaNa entered the hermitage and abducted sItA like the planet mars hijacks the star rOhINI in the skies. The vulture king jaTAyu fought valiantly with rAvaNa with a desire to rescue maithilI but lost his life to the ten-headed demon king. Then as rAvaNa flew over this mountain, there were a few vAnaras who resembled mountains and noted with astonishment the abduction of sItA by the demon. Then the demon king took sItA into the golden sity of lanka and tried to lure her in a number of ways by showing off the spoils of lanka and the opulence. Without caring for her life, sItA spoke to rAvaNa equating him to a blade of grass and was then kept under captivity in the aSOkA grove.
In the meanwhile, rAma returned after slaying the deer-in-disguise. Searching for sItA in the forests he stumbled upon the grievously injured and suffering vulture king jaTayu who soon breathed his last. Having performed his obsequies much like the way a father’s is performed, rAma went along the river gOdavarI in search of sItA along with lakshmaNa and met a demon called kabandha. The truthful rAma, as per the words of kabandha then reached the hills of RshyamUka and met sugrIva who was constantly tormented by his brother vAlI. The two of them were very delighted to meet with each other. Striking various conversations, their friendship strengthened. The mighty rAma slayed the powerful vAlI and anointed sugrIva as the king of kishkindhA by his own valour.
Then sugrIva ordered the quest of the princess and deployed ten crore vAnaras in all the directions to find her whereabouts. As one of the search parties was stranded in the vindhyA mountains and were very pensive owing to the time that has elapsed since they began the quest. Seeing us, sampAti, the brother of jaTAyu, came to our rescue and revealed to us that sItA was under captivity in the abode of rAvaNa, a hundred yOjanas from there. Then grasping the anxiety of my mates who were not sure of reaching lanka, placing confidence in myself, I leapt across the hundred-yOjana long ocean and reached lanka.
There in lanka, I spotted the lady who wore a soiled silk saree, was unhappy and strong-willed. With due protocol, I reached her and inquired welfare of that spotless lady. Then I routed the aSOkA grove which offended rAVaNa. He sent scores of demons to defeat me but I slayed them all. Then I set fire to lanka and became blessed to carry the crest jewel of sItA as a mark to show rAma. Soon, I reached rAma and apprised him of the whereabouts and welfare of maithilI. Learning that maithilI was alive, rAma was thrilled and felt as is he partook amRta and got a fresh lease of life.
Then determining strongly to vanquish the demon rAvaNa, rAma got enterprising and built a sEtU across the ocean led by the vAnara nala. The vAnara army crossed over the ocean and reached lanka. A fierce battle broke out between the army of the demons and vAnaras. In that battle nIla pulverized prahasta, lakshmaNa killed indrajit and rAma slayed kumbhakarNa and rAvaNa among others.
Having accomplished his mission of slaying rAvaNa, rAma met with lord indra, yama, varuNa, brahma, mahESwara and his father daSaratha. Having secured boons from all of them and Rshis, an ecstatic rAma has returned along with the vAnaras in the pushpaka vimAna. After a broef stop over at kishkindhA, he has reached the abode of sage bharadwAja now. Tomorrow, as the start pushya prevails you shall behold rAma”.
ततः स वाक्यैर्मधुरैर्हनूमतो निशम्य हृष्टो भरतः कृताञ्जलिः ।
उवाच वाणीं मनसः प्रहर्षिणी चिरस्य पूर्णः खलु मे मनोरथः ॥
Having heard the truthful narrative of hanumAn, bharata ecstatically folded his hands and experiencing great thrill in his mind and thrilling everyone said – “ah, the desire of my heart has been fulfilled at long last”.
Here we conclude the one hundred and twenty sixth 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: 6.127. The grand reunion
Previous: 6.125. bharata’s Joy returns…
rAmabhaktisAmrAjyam 
