by Vanamali
Hanuman listened carefully to this story and said, “My master Sugriva has also had his share of problems. His wife was abducted by his brother and he is now forced to live the life of an exile on this lonely mountaintop. I will take you to him. I am sure he will be able to help you. But these peaks are too steep for you to climb, so I will take you on my shoulders.”
With these words Hanuman took the brothers on his back with ease and brought them before Sugriva. Hanuman apprised Sugriva about the way he had met the brothers and why they had come. He advised Sugriva to make friends with them and render all help. Sugriva was most relieved when he heard they had not come from Vali and did all he could to make them welcome.
Offering his hand to Rama, he said, “Come, let us form a bond of friendship between us that nothing can break.”
Rama took his offered hand and embraced him happily. In the meantime Hanuman had made a small fire and worshipped it with flowers. Rama and Sugriva went three times round the sacred fire and took an oath that they would remain friends forever. Rama swore to kill Vali and help Sugriva regain his kingdom, and Sugriva swore to help Rama regain his wife. Hanuman made a seat of twigs and the brothers sat upon it. Then Sugriva narrated his tale of woe.
“My brother Vali captured my wife and threw me out of the kingdom. I escaped to this mountain, which is the only place he cannot come, since the rishis have put a curse on him. I pray you help me get back my wife and my kingdom.”
Rama was touched by his tale, which resembled his own, and promised to help him.
Sugriva continued, “My minister Hanuman has told me all about you and I promise that I will help you regain your wife. One day not long ago, five of us were sitting on this peak when we saw a rakshasa sailing across the sky with a beautiful woman in his arms. She was crying out, “O Rama! O Lakshmana!” It must have been your wife. When she saw us, she tied something in a cloth torn from her upper garment and dropped it to us. We have kept the bundle safe. Here it is.”
Rama turned pale when he saw the scrap of yellow cloth that he recognized to be Sita’s. He opened it with trembling hands and almost fainted when he saw a few bits of her jewelry. He handed it to Lakshmana and said, “My grief, which I had somehow managed to overcome, has been fanned to flames by the sight of these ornaments belonging to my beloved. Please inspect these and see if they are Sita’s. My eyes are too blurred to see.”
Lakshmana said, “Brother, I have never looked properly at her face, so I cannot recognize the necklaces. But these are her anklets. I know them well, since I fell at her feet every morning to get her blessings.”
Rama eagerly questioned Sugriva about everything he had seen on that day and what he knew about Ravana. Sugriva admitted sadly that he knew nothing about Ravana. All he had seen was a beautiful woman in great distress. From her cries he had guessed that she was being abducted. But he assured Rama that they would soon rescue her.
“Be full of hope and courage. Please do not give way to your grief,” said Sugriva, who had a very affectionate nature and could not bear to see Rama’s distress. “A friend considers the grief of his friend as his own, and I cannot bear to see your sorrow. Please rest assured that I will help you to find your wife.”
Then he recounted to Rama the full details of his own banishment: “Vali is my eldest brother and was crowned king by my father. Kishkindha is the name of Vali’s fortress. One day an asura called Dundubi came in the shape of a buffalo and challenged Vali. Dundubi delighted in fights. He had challenged the ocean, which ignored him and swept over him with tidal waves so that Dundubi was forced to quickly retreat. His next target was Himavan, lord of the Himalayas, who simply froze him with ice and sleet.
“At last Dundubi came to Kishkinda and challenged Vali. After a good fight Vali broke his neck and threw his carcass miles away, to this mountain. As it flew through the air, drops of blood fell on the altar of the rishi Matanga, who was practicing penance here, and he cursed him that his head would break if he ever came here. That is why I have taken shelter here.
“Mayavi was the son of Dundubi. He came to Kishkinda to take revenge on Vali and challenged him to a fight. Vali and I came out and chased Mayavi, who ran off when he saw the two of us and hid in a cave. Vali followed him and told me to wait outside. I waited for a year, and then to my horror, I saw blood flowing out of the cave and heard the roars of the asura. I was sure that my dear brother was dead. I took a large stone and closed the mouth of the cave, since I was afraid the asura would come out and kill me, too. Sadly I returned to Kishkinda and told my story. After due consideration the ministers decided to crown me king.
“One day after a fairly long gap, Vali returned. He was furious when he saw that I had been crowned. He spoke very harshly to me and accused me of having contrived a plot to oust him from his heritage. I spoke very sweetly to him, told him the whole story, and begged him to take back his rightful inheritance. He would not listen to anything I had to say. He hounded me out of the kingdom and kept my wife for himself. For many years I was a wandering mendicant. Eventually I took refuge on this mountain, which is the one place to which Vali cannot come. O Rama! I can never forget the pain and humiliation that my brother has caused me.” So saying Sugriva burst into tears.
Rama comforted him and promised to kill Vali and get his kingdom back. But though he believed Rama, Sugriva had some doubts whether Rama could actually defeat Vali, for he knew his brother to be very powerful.
Sugriva said, “Vali is as strong as a thousand elephants. Just for sport he would pull down trees along the forest paths as he went along. He would snap off the peak of a mountain and fling it far away into the sea. Come, I will show you the huge skeleton of the asura, Dundubi, which is lying not far from here.”
So saying, Sugriva took Rama to the skeleton. He also showed him seven huge palmyra trees, which Vali used to shake simultaneously as a joke and denude them of their leaves.
Lakshmana was amused at this description of Vali’s prowess. He realized that Sugriva doubted whether Rama could conquer Vali. He said to Sugriva, “I see that you have doubts about Rama’s prowess. Tell me what he can do to banish your doubts and restore your faith in him.”
Sugriva hung his head in shame, for Lakshmana had correctly gauged his fears. “Please do not misunderstand me,” he said, “my fear of Vali is so great, that I find it difficult to accept that someone so slim and handsome as Rama can vanquish him. Do you see those trees? Vali could pierce each tree with one arrow. Can Rama do that, and will he be able to lift this skeleton of Dundubi with one foot and fling it a distance of one hundred lengths? If he can do these two tasks, my mind will be at rest.”
Turning to Rama he said, “Please do not think I am trying to test you or that I am trying to insult you by asking you to display your ability, but I do not want you to meet Vali until I am sure that you can beat him.”
Rama smiled reassuringly at him and said, “Your doubts are quite understandable. I’ll try to convince you.” Saying this, he walked up to the skeleton and lifting it with his foot, flung it about ten miles into the distance. Sugriva was impressed but he still wavered.
“When Vali threw the body of Dundubi, it was much heavier, covered as it was with flesh and blood. If you can pierce at least one of those trees with a single arrow, I will be convinced.”
Rama smiled, and fixing an arrow in his bow, he shot it. The arrow sped like a golden streak, and piercing all seven trees, it fell to the Earth along with the trees, which were all split in two by Rama’s arrow.
All five monkeys were jubilant when they saw this feat and jumped up and down with excitement. Sugriva’s doubts were cleared and he rushed to embrace Rama and begged his pardon for having doubted him.
“Let us go immediately to Kishkinda and kill Vali,” he said with great excitement.
Rama agreed but he asked Sugriva to go first and challenge Vali to a duel. He promised to conceal himself and kill him when the opportunity arose.
Rama asks :
‘‘Holy One, please describe the Lord. ”
Vasishta replies:
“That intelligence in which the universe of names and forms ceases is the Lord.
He is the emptiness in which the universe appears to exist.
In him, there is no subject-object relationship.
In him, consciousness stands still like a mountain.”
Hari Aum Tat Sat
Valipramadhanaya Namaha!
CANTO II
Pact with Sugriva
Lakshmivilasam jagathamnivasam!
Bhudeva vasam sharadinduhasam!
Lankavinasham Bhuvanaprakasam!
Sri Ramachandram sathatam namami!
I bow to Sri Ramachandra
Who is the abode of Lakshmi,
Who is God on Earth,
Whose smile is as bright as the autumn moon,
Who is the light of the whole world and who destroyed Lanka.
Though he was quaking inside, Sugriva went up to the fortress gates and roared, summoning Vali to a duel. Vali could not believe his ears. Sugriva must have gone mad, he thought, or else he would never dare do such a thing. Vali took it as a huge joke and laughed loudly. Sugriva roared again, and Vali decided it was high time he was taught a lesson and went out with an angry bellow. As he charged forth from the city gates, he looked like a mountain in motion and Sugriva’s heart lurched with fear, but he stuck his ground, confident that Rama would come to his aid. They came to grips on the open ground just beyond the city gates. Rama and Lakshmana were hidden behind the bushes that surrounded the ground. Rama carefully watched the pair but the brothers looked so much alike that he was not sure which was Vali and which Sugriva. The latter was no mean fighter but he was certainly no match for Vali, who thrashed him to pulp within minutes. Rama was quite helpless and dared not shoot for fear of hitting Sugriva. Poor Sugriva had no choice but to run for his life toward Rishyamukha, hotly pursued by the irate Vali, who threatened to kill him if he dared make a nuisance of himself again.
Rama, Lakshmana, and Hanuman now approached the chastened Sugriva, who was literally licking his wounds. Naturally he was most unhappy about the whole affair and said, “Why did you force me to challenge Vali if you did not wish to kill him? You could have told me so in the beginning and spared me this humiliating defeat.”
Rama was full of remorse. Having pledged his word to Sugriva, he was bound to kill Vali and he told Sugriva the reason he could not shoot.
“In size and form and even in the way of fighting, you were so much alike that I dared not shoot my arrow for fear of killing you instead of your brother. What a tragic mistake that would have been! Never mind, take heart. Lakshmana will put a garland around your neck so that I am able to differentiate between the two of you. Please do not lose your courage. Go once again and challenge him, and this time, I assure you, my arrow will find its mark.”
All of them went once more to the bushes behind the arena. Rama, Lakshmana, and Hanuman stood behind the bushes, while thick-necked Sugriva bellowed his war cry and strode forth once again like a lion and shouted for Vali in front of the city gates. Vali was in his seraglio at that time and he could not believe his ears. His amorous mood gave way to one of violent loathing. He gave a roar of anger and decided to finish off his foolhardy brother once and for all. Sugriva had been a thorn in his side for many years and it was high time he made an end of him. That way he could keep his sister-in-law, Ruma, without any feeling of guilt. He knew the laws and he knew that he had done a despicable thing in consorting with the wife of his younger brother, whom he should have treated like a daughter. He had somehow stifled his conscience repeatedly with various excuses, but if Sugriva were dead, he would have a legitimate excuse for keeping her, for it was well within the dictates of moral law for a brother to marry the widow of his dead brother in order to protect her. Thinking thus, he was about to rush out of the gate when his wife Tara stopped him.
“My lord,” she said, “please do not go to fight with your brother now. You have just thrashed him and sent him away. How has he dared to come again, almost immediately, unless he is being helped by someone? Our son Angada told me something a while ago. His spies found out that Rama and Lakshmana, the sons of King Dasaratha, are here in this region and they have made friends with Sugriva and agreed to help him. I have heard that Rama is a most noble person and a great warrior. If he is helping your brother, you have no chance of victory. Remember that you have done Sugriva a great injustice by throwing him out of the kingdom for no fault of his and appropriating his wife. Please go and make friends with him and agree to take him back and make him yuvaraja. After all you are the elder brother and it is for you to set an example. By doing this you will make friends with Rama also. Please take my advice and do not make an enemy of Rama. I feel very frightened for you.”
Her plea fell on deaf ears. Vali’s time was up and he was drawn to face his brother once again, feeling sure that this time he would kill him.
“How can I bear to make friends with that arrogant coward? This is the end. I will not brook his audacity anymore. As for Rama I have heard that he is the soul of honor. He has no quarrel with me, so why should I fear him?”
He forgot that though Rama was the soul of honor, he was also the soul of dharma and he would never be able to brook such harsh treatment of a younger brother by an elder in the misappropriation of his wife.
Tara embraced her husband and prayed for his safety. She wearily returned to her chambers with a premonition that she would never again see him alive.
Vali rushed out with a roar and the brothers locked themselves in fierce combat. Sugriva fought with all his might, and for some time the only sounds to be heard were grunts and groans. Rama watched the fight closely. Perhaps he hoped that Sugriva would manage to defeat Vali by himself, but soon he saw that his friend was weakening and looking around desperately for help. Rama knew that the time had come for him to do something he really did not like to do, but it was unavoidable if he wanted to keep his promise to his friend. He fixed the arrow to the bow and let it go with a tremendous twang. It flashed forward and hit its mark with deadly accuracy, and the mighty Vali fell with a groan. He lay on the ground like a fallen god, drenched in blood yet filled with splendor, even in death. Rama and Lakshmana came out of the bushes and walked toward the fallen hero.
Vali watched them come, and when they were close enough he said, “I was fighting with my brother when suddenly an arrow hit me from somewhere and felled me, like a mighty tree. I had no quarrel with you, Rama, yet you deemed it right to kill me while hiding behind the trees. Why did you do this? What have you gained by it? You are the son of an emperor and said to possess all great qualities. They say you are valiant, generous, and righteous. You are famed for having observed the rule of dharma all your life. Why have you forgotten your own rules? When Sugriva challenged me a second time, my wife Tara warned me that he might have been helped by you but I was not afraid of that, since I was sure you would never stoop to anything unrighteous. You are the king of this land, and we are only monkeys living on this small piece of territory and fighting over trivial things. Why should you concern yourself with our squabbles? Rama, today you killed me and I am innocent. This act of yours will always be questioned. It is against all the rules of dharma. I know that you lost your wife and Sugriva has promised to help you, but had you approached me first, I could have aided you without any difficulty. I would have brought her back to you in a single day. I already defeated Ravana once, long ago.” So saying, Vali fell back exhausted to the ground. The monkey king was fast losing his strength.
Now the question is often asked as to why Rama did this. Why do all our ancient scriptures revel in such dilemmatic situations? They could surely have avoided the whole problem instead of putting their heroes in such controversial positions. We find the same thing in the Mahabharata. Arjuna was put in the difficult position of having to slay his own kin. The whole of the Bhagavad Gita is Lord Krishna’s answer to this d
ifficult question.
The fact is that in life we are often placed in such perplexing situations. The way we face these situations depends on our character and view of life and the type of dharma we follow. It is often asked why Rama did not challenge Vali himself. Valmiki has taken pains to show us that he was far superior to Vali in strength, so certainly it was not fear of defeat that stopped him from facing him. However, there are many other reasons. Vali was actually a great soul and had he seen Rama face to face, he would certainly have desisted from fighting and done his best to become friends with him. This meant that Rama would not have been able to keep his promise to Sugriva. He had already forged a pact of friendship with Sugriva in front of fire, a solemn covenant that could not be broken. Moreover Vali had done the very thing for which he was going to punish Ravana—he had abducted Sugriva’s wife. The punishment for one who abducted a brother’s wife was death, and Rama, as the embodiment of dharma, had to mete out this punishment. Considering all these things, Rama did not challenge Vali to a fight, for he knew that Vali would immediately have surrendered to him and taken refuge at his feet, and Rama could never resist pardoning anyone who surrendered to him, as we shall see in the war with Ravana. This meant that he would never have been able to kill him, as he had promised Sugriva. For these reasons he sent Sugriva to call Vali for a fight.
Rama waited patiently for Vali to have his say, for he knew that on the face of it he had every right to berate him. After Vali had exhausted himself, Rama spoke, with compassion in his eyes, even though he put on a semblance of anger.
