Essentials of Hinduism - Srimad Ramayana

Essentials of Hinduism

Srimad Ramayana

Sundara Kanda

Why this name, “Sundara Kanda” is justified under the Salient Features discussed later in this chapter. Anjaneya overcame three obstacles when He crossed the Sea - from a Mountain that wanted to provide Shelter, Anjaneya had to refuse help as He was focused on His Task. Then He faced a female demon who wanted to swallow Him. Both grew in size. Suddenly Anjaneya took a Miniature Size and went inside her mouth and came out quickly before he got swallowed. The demon then took her original form of Mother Surasa and blessed Anjaneya for success of his Project. Finally, Anjaneya was obstructed by a demon again who wanted to get rid of her hunger by swallowing Him. He took a Miniature Size, went inside her stomach, damaged her organs, came out tearing her body and killed her.

Anjaneya entered the island of SriLanka. He went to an isolated place and thought about His Strategies to find Sita. After dark, He took a small size equivalent of a cat. However, He was located by the Lankadevi who is the Security. She asked Anjaneya who is He and why He was here. Anjaneya said he was a Tourist. She slapped Anjaneya and He thumped her. She fell down rightaway. She said Brahma once told her that when she gets beaten and fall down, that will be the beginning for the Lanka’s end and disappeared. Now Anjaneya took a small Size and went around the Town. He heard Veda Parayana, good music, looked at the Town’s people and noticed good looking women, some were drunk. When it was midnight He entered Ravana’s Palace and mistook for a second that Ravana’s wife Mandodari could be Sita but quickly corrected Himself thinking that Sita will not be sleeping in luxury and comfort inside the Palace. By now, Anjaneya has looked in all the places and He lost confidence and even thought if He should return. However, He now remembered that the Sampati Eagle said Sita is surrounded by demons as guard.

Now Anjaneya went to the only place He has not checked yet and that is the Asoka Vana. Anjaneya entered the Garden after jumping over the guard wall. He studied the beauty of this Garden filled with Flower Trees and Flower Plants. He felt positive Sita must have come here only. He found himself a good hiding place on the top of a Tree. Now He found the most unusual scene below this Tree – there was a Woman and She appeared very sad. He found Divinity in Her and She was extremely beautiful. There was a glow around Her. He looked closely to see if She was wearing the jewelries that Rama described. She did not wear them and they were hanging on the Tree branch nearby. It now occurred to Him that She is the Sita Devi. Physically, She was surrounded by the demons, but mentally She was absorbed in the thoughts about Rama.

Anjaneya mentally bowed to Sita and Rama. Soon daylight came and a while later Ravana appeared there. Although he was the enemy, Anjaneya still praised his handsome look. Ravana started to talk to Sita. I won You according to our traditions. You cannot escape. Yet I will not touch and embrace You. Brahma has created You beautiful. I have the three Worlds but yet You won my heart. Just as the women of Devaloka belongs to me, you should do the same. Forget Rama – He may be alive or dead. Even assuming He is alive, He cannot match me in any way. Get rid of your grief and become the Queen of SriLanka.

Sita placed a grass in between Her and Ravana. She said, take your Mind off Me and focus on your Wife. With your interest in another Man’s dedicated Wife, you are committing sins. Her only Goal is to reach Her Husband Rama and unite with Him. Ravana said to Sita he will give her two months time and by then She should agree to become his Wife. If She does not agree, he will arrange to kill Her. Sita said with Her Tapas power, She can burn him down. However, I am sympathizing and saving you. For the sins you are committing, Rama’s arrows will take proper actions. Ravana now ordered the security demons to try different means - threaten, speak kind words and use other methods with Sita and make Her alright. Having done this he left. The demons now came one after the other to Sita and tried to change Her mind. They described the greatness of Ravana. They said She can reach the peak of enjoyment living with him in his Palace.

It will be impossible for You to escape from here. It will be foolish to neglect this great opportunity. This way they persuaded Sita. Sita replied with determination that She did not differentiate between a Palace and a Hut. I belong to Rama. I will not live without Rama. Later the demons threatened Sita and vowed to themselves to kill and swallow Her. Sita felt that taking this Human Birth is a sadly state. Even twice sad is, to be imprisoned like this. Thinking like this, She felt there is no sense in living anymore.

At this time, Thrijata one of the demons from the group appeared. She threatened others not to get involved in any wild acts. She explained to them the dream she experienced. It is sure Ravana’s doom is coming. There will be Action taken against all of you. After hearing this all of them changed their attitudes towards Sita and went to sleep. Sita’s thoughts went differently. She has to die some day. Instead of being killed by Ravana’s men, She wanted to take Her life committing suicide. She said, I have no tools. I will use my long hairs, tie around my neck then tie the end to the Tree branch and jump to commit suicide. Now She was trying to implement Her plans. One last thought came to Her: when Rama hears this incident, He will be very upset. However, I cannot think of anything else.

Now Anjaneya was carefully observing everything from the top of the Tree. He said to Himself - so far my actions are a Success. I am in trouble now. If I shout now, everyone will wake up. If I show myself to Sita, She will get scared and might commit suicide rightaway. Also She may mistake Me for Ravana. So He came up with a clever idea. In a low voice, He started singing attractively - Rama’s Greatness and Rama’s Achievements. This music touched Sita’s heart. She wondered if this is possible in Ravana’s Land and felt this is a true medicine for Her and retrieved Her suicide plan. However, She still suspected something and Anjaneya feared about this too.

Anjaneya now got down from the tree, bowed to Sita and said He can prove He is Rama’s Messenger. He narrated the past happenings, how Rama and Lakshmana are deeply sad, He is one of Sugriva’s Minister, Sugriva is now involved with his Vanara Group to search for You in all directions, I am the blessed one to find You. Rama is anxious about Your welfare. Then Anjaneya gave Rama’s ring to Sita. Now Sita showed Motherly Love on Him. Then Anjaneya proceeded to describe to say He will inform your location to Rama, invade SriLanka with Sugriva’s Army and ruin Ravana’s dynasty and get You out of here.

To bring confidence to Sita, Anjaneya proved He has the capacity to grow His Physical Size with His Yogasiddhi. He said He can place Her on a big piece of wood and carry Her to Kishkinda. However, Sita wanted Rama to prove that He is mightier than Ravana by winning the War. So She did not approve Anjaneya’s plan. Now Anjaneya wanted to prove to Rama that he met Sita and get something from Sita to give to Rama. Sita described an incident that happened in Chitrakuta – a demon took the form of a Crow and tortured Her by poking on Sita. Rama sent an arrow and the demon could not escape this arrow. She then gave Her Chudamani to Anjaneya. Now Anjaneya left Sita’s place.

Anjaneya is now very pleased and thought about His next strategy. He wanted to do three things: First, incase Ravana does something to give severe grief to Sita, Anjaneya wanted to prove what kind of a strong punishment he will go through; Second, he wanted to assess the Strength of the enemies how capable they are – this will help Rama and Sugriva to plan their war strategy better; Third, he wanted to assess the Mental Attitude of Ravana. He proceeded to damage the Asoka Vana in a short time; He demolished the SriLanka’s Gopura of a big Temple – He did these to find out what action Ravana will take against Him. Ravana ordered his men to kill the Monkey, but, Anjaneya got rid of them all. He proceeded to declare to the people that He is the Messenger of Sugriva. Ravana adopted several other tactics to kill him. But nothing seemed to work.

Now Ravana got a little worried but did not show outside. During all these episodes, Anjaneya killed Ravana’s second son Aksha. Now Ravana called his first son Indrajit and said things are deteriorating – it is your responsibility to avert further damage. He admired Indrajit - how he has defeated Devas and Asuras in the past. Due to your Tapas, Brahma has given several boons including the Brahmastira. Because he defeated Indra, he got the name of Indrajit. Now Indrajit started the war against Anjaneya – he attacked him with several arrows with Mantra-Sakthi. Indrajit knew later that no weapons will attack Anjaneya. He finally used the Brahmastira against Him. He fell down on the ground but even this will not work for too long on Him. The Rakshasas tied a rope around Him and this was a Mistake, because, Brahmastira did not work. The Rakshasas now beat Him, jumped on Him, made fun of Him and took Him to Ravana.

Ravana looked at Hanuman (another name of Anjaneya) with anger. Hanuman said - “I wanted to meet with You and that is why I damaged the Asoka Vana. I am not a Messenger of Indra, Varuna or Vishnu. I have a boon from Brahmadeva and no weapon will destroy Me. I am the Messenger of Rama. I have a Message for You – please listen with patience. You did Adharma and so your bad time has started. You illicitly brought Rama’s Dear Wife Sita and kept Her imprisoned. If you return Sita with Bhakti to Rama, you will be saved. You do know what Rama’s Strength is. He got rid of your men all by Himself. Vali took Sugriva’s Wife and Rama killed Vali using just one weaponry. You were scared of the same Vali one time. Rama has now appointed Sugriva as the King of Kishkinda. If you do not apologize and make peace with Rama, Sugriva will invade SriLanka. His army consists of unlimited number of Monkeys of my caliber. According to your boon from Brahma, you listed the beings who would not kill you in the three Worlds – however, this did not include men and monkeys. Rama as a Human and Sugriva as a Monkey will destroy you. I beg you to correct your mistake.” Hearing all these, Ravana became more angry.

He ordered the Monkey to be killed right away. However, his younger brother Vibhishana interfered and explained that Hanuman knows what is right and wrong; he is a Messenger; Sastras do not allow Messenger to be killed. However, you may punish him in some form. Ravana ordered Hanuman’s tail be soaked with oil and set on Fire as well as take Him on a procession through Town. Sita heard this news and prayed for the safety of Hanuman. Hanuman was surprised that the fire did not burn Him at all due to Sita’s Prayers. Once the insults were done, the intelligent Hanuman grew big in size as Anjaneya and set fire to houses and so many other places in SriLanka Town. Everyone ran and got scared. He jumped into the Sea and took a bath and extinguished his Fire on the tail. He got scared if Sita was also affected by Fire and went to check on Her.

Sita was doing Rama Dhyana deeply. Sita told Hanuman to ask Rama to come as soon as He can. Hanuman got Her blessings and left. Soon he could see the Mahendra Hill. All the Vanaras were happy to see Hanuman. He said He found Sita. Angada told all the Vanaras they should invade SriLanka and bring Sita. Jambavan said we should not keep Rama and Sugriva waiting for too long. Let the two decide the next action. Everyone arrived in front of Rama. Hanuman bowed to Rama and said “Found Sita”. (there are the equivalent famous words in the Kamba Ramayana in Tamil, “Kanden Sitayai”). She is imprisoned by Ravana. She is only thinking of You at all times. She even went to the extent of taking Her Life for sure had I not arrived there on time. He narrated all his experiences to Rama. He gave Sita’s Chudamani to Rama and noticed happiness and sadness in His face. He narrated how he handled Ravana. This is the end of Sundara Kanda.

This article is a snippet from the Book Essentials of Hinduism, Authored by G.S Nilakantan. Hinduism for All is available online at www.giri.in and across Giri Trading Agency Private Limited, A chain of Speciality Stores dealing in all kinds of products needed in Indian Culture and Tradition.