by Vanamali
Hanuman was furious and attacked Shiva, abusing him for having killed the brother and son of Vishnu in his avatara as Rama. Shiva told him that he had to defend his own votaries and uphold their bhakti. Each of them now started to fight with redoubled vigor. Hanuman started to rain mountain peaks and trees on Shiva, who retaliated by hurling fiery darts at his breast. At last Hanuman encircled him in his tail and thrashed him on the ground again and again. Even Nandi, Shiva’s bull, was terrified to see this. Shiva released himself and told Hanuman that he was satisfied with his special puja and offered him a boon. Hanuman smiled and said that he had received everything he could ever want by Rama’s grace, but he begged Shiva to look after Shatrugna and his son while he went to Drona Mountain to get the life-reviving herb that had saved Lakshmana.
He reached the Drona peak on the shore of the milky ocean and was just about to uproot the peak when the yakshas appealed to him to stop from uprooting the peak that belonged to them and by the power of which they kept up their immortality. Hanuman graciously agreed and took only a portion of the herbs. He returned to the battlefield and placed the herbs on the breasts of the dead and dying soldiers and reconnected Pushkala’s head to his body. He then said, “If my devotion to Rama is unwavering, let the prince revive.”
The prince immediately sat up as if from sleep. He then revived Shatrugna also. Father and son now resumed their fight with Shiva and Virabhadra. Seeing them weakening, Hanuman advised Shatrugna to meditate on Rama who alone could save them. Rama instantly appeared on the scene dressed for a sacrifice, holding an antelope’s horn in his hand. All of them bowed at his feet and praised him as the Supreme Being. Rama replied that there was no difference between him and Shiva. “He is in my heart and I in his. Only a person of tainted intelligence would see a difference between us.” Shiva passed his hand over the dead and wounded and revived them, and all of them joined in praising Rama. King Veeramani returned the sacrificial horse to Shatrugna and the party resumed its journey.
The royal army followed the horse and reached a meadow on Mount Hemakuta or the Golden Peak. The horse suddenly became paralyzed and fell to the ground. Every effort to make it rise up failed. Shatrugna went to a nearby ashrama where he met a sage and asked him the reason for this. The sage declared that the horse was possessed by a spirit who was once a Brahmin and had been cursed by some sages. When he begged for reprieve they told him that he would be released from the curse when he heard the story of Rama and that this would take place when he took possession of the sacrificial horse that Rama would let loose. Hanuman sat next to the horse and lovingly recited the whole of the story of Rama in the horse’s ear. When he finished, he called on the long-suffering spirit to depart to its proper destination. A divine being now appeared and thanked Hanuman for having released him from the spell. Immediately the horse got up and started grazing contentedly on the meadow.
The next person to attack them and steal the horse was a relative of Ravana known as Vidyunmali. He created a haze through which he spirited away the horse. Then he started attacking Shatrugna and the rest from between the fumes that he had created. Hanuman advised Shatrugna to repeat the mantra of Rama and he would undoubtedly be able to overcome the rakshasa. Shatrugna now sent the missile known as the mohastra, which completely cleared the illusion created by the ogre, after which he was able to kill him easily and retrieve the horse.
The horse next approached the city of Kundalapura ruled by the great king called Suratha, who was a great devotee of Rama. He had received a boon from Yama, the god of death, that he would never die until he had had darshan of Rama. When the king learned of the identity of the horse grazing outside his city, he decided to capture it so that he could obtain an audience with Rama. When he heard of this, Shatrugna immediately sent Angada to the king demanding the release of the horse. The king frankly told Angada of his intentions and that he would keep the horse captive until Rama came and gave him darshan. Though Angada sympathized with the king, he told him in no uncertain terms that it was his duty to safeguard the horse at all times and if he didn’t release it, he would have to face the wrath of Rama’s army. Suratha cheerfully told him that in that case he would take all of them as prisoners and never release them until Rama came! Angada returned with this message and preparations for battle began.
The king rode out accompanied by his ten sons and a huge army. Prince Pushkala was captured by Suratha’s son Champaka. Hanuman challenged the latter and after a severe fight, he managed to knock him unconscious. He then turned to face Suratha, whom he recognized as a great devotee of Rama. The king vowed to take him prisoner and Hanuman smilingly told him to do so since Rama would definitely come to release him. However, he continued to resist the king, warding off all his supernatural weapons with ease. The king was amazed when Hanuman proved to be impervious even to the brahmastra. He then devised a ruse to capture this great devotee. He sent a weapon with the name of Rama written all over it. Hanuman refused to retaliate to this weapon and bowed low before it, allowing himself to be captured.
Once Hanuman was captured, Suratha was able to overcome the rest of the army with ease. All the heroes, including Hanuman, were taken to his throne room as prisoners. The king then asked Hanuman to invoke Rama and request him to come to their aid. Hanuman now composed a long paean of praise to Rama describing his adventures and begging him to come and release them. Rama immediately appeared in Kundalapura, in the king’s throne room. Overcome with joy, Suratha fell at his feet and begged him to pardon him for having captured his men. The Lord smiled and displayed his form as Vishnu, clasping the king in his arms. When he glanced at Hanuman and the other fallen heroes, all their bonds fell off. The king, along with his citizens, now worshipped both Rama and Hanuman and thanked the latter for having fulfilled his heart’s desire.
The horse then roamed into an ashrama on the banks of the Narmada. There in a leaf hut resided the great sage, Aranyaka, who was constant in his worship of Rama. When the members of the royal party paid their respects to him he was overjoyed and delivered a sermon on Rama’s glories, including the teachings he had learned from the sage Lomasha.
“There is but one god—Rama; one discipline—his worship; one mantra—his name; one scripture—his praise!”
All of them were delighted to hear this, but Hanuman felt a thrill go through him. The sage recognized him as a kindred spirit and embraced him with great joy. Both of them were drowned in bliss.
All of a sudden the horse made straight for Valmiki’s ashrama. When Lava went to the forest with some of the other children, he saw the horse, and after reading the proclamation, he was determined to show his prowess and tied the horse to a tree. The army followed and ordered him to release it, but Lava refused. The army started to advance, but Lava reached for his bow and cut off their arms. Shatrugna was informed about this and sent his general with another consignment. The general tried to reason with the boy, but Lava said that what intrigued him was the proclamation on the horse’s head, which he took as a challenge. A battle ensued in which Lava killed the general and most of his troops. Pushkala and Hanuman arrived on the scene, and Lava felled Pushkala and made him lose consciousness. As soon as he saw the boy, Hanuman thought that this must indeed be his Lord’s son, but since his orders were to protect the horse at all costs, he took up a tree and a boulder and hurled them at the boy. But the child shattered them to pieces. Then Hanuman wrapped his tail around him and whipped him into the air, but Lava meditated on his mother and freed himself. He then struck Hanuman so forcefully that he fell to the ground stunned. Shatrugna now came to the front and with great difficulty, managed to wound and bind the boy and put him in his chariot.
The rest of the children who had accompanied Lava were watching all this in great astonishment. When they saw him taken, they ran and told Sita about it. She was quite distraught at the news, but her other son Kusha told her not to worry and he would go and free his brother. By the time he reached the battleground Lava had recovered con
sciousness. When he saw his brother, he managed to free himself. He jumped out of the chariot, and both of them took up positions and started to ravage the army. When the troops identified themselves as the king’s army, the boys merely laughed and very soon they decimated the army. Even Hanuman finally succumbed. However, they desisted from killing him. They tied him with the naga pasha and dragged him before their mother to be kept as a pet!
Sita was overjoyed to see her sons return but horrified when she saw their prisoner, whom she recognized at once. She ordered them to release him and tell her the whole story. They gleefully described the whole episode to her of how they had caught and tethered a stallion that belonged to a king called Rama, and how they had killed many people, including some persons called Shatrugna and Pushkala! Hearing this, Sita began to weep and said, “My children! Do you know who they were? They are your uncle and his son, and as for this monkey that you have brought, do you know who he is? He is the great Hanuman, who is the greatest devotee of Rama. He has immense strength.”
Lava and Kusha said, “Mother, do you know what message was hung around the horse’s neck? ‘If anyone with Kshatriya blood dares to capture this horse, he will have to pay the penalty.’ O Mother! We know we are Kshatriyas and we thought it our duty to tie the horse and prove our point.”
She ordered them to release the horse immediately as it belonged to their father. The boys were surprised to hear this, since they didn’t think much of a father who had abandoned their mother. However, they went to do her bidding. In the meantime, Sita conversed with Hanuman, who told her the whole story of why they were there.
“How did two young boys manage to put down a hero like you?” she asked.
Hanuman replied, “O Mother! A son is the very soul of his father. The bright and brilliant faces of these two precious boys are exactly like my beloved Lord’s. So when they bound and harassed me, I felt that my Lord was having some fun at my expense. Forgetting everything else, I dissolved myself in that sweet thought and knew nothing else.” In this incident Valmiki portrays beautifully the great humility and devotion of this great bhakta.
Sita now used the power of her chastity and prayed to god to revive the fallen warriors. All of them rose up and Hanuman and the rest of the army returned to Naimisharanya where the yaga was being conducted.
Pay no heed to any other deity,
Serving Hanuman, one obtains all delights.
SRI HANUMAN CHALISA BY TULSIDAS
Aum Sri Hanumathe Namaha!
Aum Shashwathaaya Namaha!
32
Lokabandu
Ashwamedha Yaga
Tat Sarvamakhilenashu prasthapya bharatagraja,
Hayam lakshanasampannam krishnasaaram mumocha ha.
After having sent all the things needed for the sacrifice [to the spot where it was being held],
Rama released a black horse possessing all the most auspicious characteristics.
VALMIKI RAMAYANA, UTTARA KANDA
The yaga was conducted on a gigantic scale for one full year after the return of the victorious stallion that was accompanied by Shatrugna and Hanuman.
In the meantime, a hundred-headed rakshasa called Sahasramukha Ravana was causing havoc in the country. He was actually a son of Ravana who had been a baby when his father was killed. When he came of age he did tapas and got a boon from Brahma that only a woman who was completely chaste in thought, word, and deed would be able to kill him. After having got this boon, he started harassing his uncle Vibhishana in Lanka and Sugriva in Kishkinda. His next target was Ayodhya, and with this in view, he entered Kosala. Rama was forced to send his army to defeat the rakshasa. However, the army found itself helpless against this foe. When they heard of his boon, the women of Ayodhya volunteered to enter the battle and stop the demon from advancing. However, there was not even one woman who came up to the high expectations of the boon and thus none of them could stop the progress of the demon. Rama knew that Sita was the only one who could save his city and his people, but he doubted if she would agree to enter the city that had rejected her. So he sent Hanuman and told him to tell her that he was very ill. Naturally, she rushed to Ayodhya where she was stopped by the demon that was standing outside the gates. When he refused to let her enter, she was furious and picked up a blade of grass, charged it with the power of her chastity, and hurled it at the rakshasa, who was killed instantly. The citizens now acclaimed her as their savior. She cared not for their acclaim and asked after her husband’s health. When she heard that he was hale and hearty, she realized that she had been tricked.
Turning to Hanuman, she said, “Because of you, I have experienced the horror of thinking my husband dead. You will outlive Rama and will also experience the pain of separation.” So saying, she returned to the ashrama.
Having witnessed the amazing power of her chastity, which none of their own wives seemed to possess, the citizens of Ayodhya were anxious to welcome her back as their queen and requested Rama to bring her back. He was only too willing but did not know how to go about it. In the meantime, the yaga was still going on.
Valmiki decided that this was a good opportunity for the boys to meet their father and sent the two boys to the yaga to make them sing the whole Ramayana in front of Rama and the others. The children did as they were told and sang twenty cantos in a melodious voice before the noble audience. People were spellbound by the sight of these two hermit boys who sang so sweetly. They also remarked on their uncanny resemblance to Rama, who had looked exactly like them when he went to the forest so many years ago, wearing bark, with his hair in matted locks. Rama was enchanted with the boys and told Lakshmana to give them twenty thousand gold coins and expensive clothes, but the boys refused and said that hermit boys who lived on fruits and roots had no necessity for such things.
Rama was astonished and asked them, “Who composed this poem and how many cantos does it have?”
The boys replied, “The venerable sage Valmiki is the composer of this wonderful poem that recounts the doings of your Majesty. It has twenty-four thousand verses and six kandas. The seventh and last is the Uttara Kanda, which describes events still going on. With your leave, we will recite the whole poem in its entirety to you between the functions of the horse sacrifice.”
“So be it,” said the king.
For many days, Rama and his brothers, as well as the collection of sages, kings, and monkeys heard the whole splendid story of Rama. All were enthralled by the recital. By the end of it, Rama realized that these boys were indeed his own sons, the children of Sita. All the pent-up emotions that he had bottled up for so many years now surged forward and he was filled with an intense desire to see her once again. He could no longer suppress his feelings. The day that he had banished her, he had enshrined her in his heart and thrown away the key. But these young boys, who looked like him and smiled like her, had broken open the door of his heart and let loose a flood of emotion that threatened to overwhelm him with its intensity. Their smiles brought to his mind only too vividly Sita’s charming face. The desire to see her again was too strong to be subdued. Surely the fates would not deny him this final bid for happiness. The citizens had already informed him of their decision to have her back. He sent messengers to the hut of the sage with this request.
“If the Queen of Ayodhya is prepared to take an oath in front of this assembly and thus give proof of her innocence, I am prepared to take her back.” Valmiki assented to this.
The next day everybody from all over the realm, as well as the guests who had been invited for the sacrifice, assembled in the yajnashala in the forest of Naimisha to watch the final scene in the drama of the lives of their king and queen. Into that motionless crowd of expectant citizens, Valmiki arrived with Sita, the daughter of the earth. Her head was bent to the ground, her palms folded in devotion, her eyes filled with tears and her heart with Rama. At the sight of their queen dressed in bark as befitting an anchorite, yet looking divinely beautiful, the fickle crowd set up a spontaneous cheer of
welcome. They who had not made any demur when Rama banished her now appeared eager to take her back.
Valmiki entered the yajnashala accompanied by Sita and her two sons, who were the very images of their father, and said, “O Son of Dasaratha! This pious lady was abandoned by you near my hermitage out of fear of the censure of the citizens. For the good of your people, you were prepared to sacrifice your noble wife, whom you loved dearly. However, she is purer than Agni. Fire itself will cool at her approach. If Sita is tainted, then let my austerities be in vain. These twins are indeed your sons as their valor will prove. I assure you that Sita is indeed as pure as gold and totally devoted to you. You may now take her back and no one will say a word against this decision of yours, O noble king!”
Then Rama spoke, “With the gods as witness, the Queen proved her innocence once before in Lanka and I accepted her, but still the people whispered and maligned her, and I was forced to send her away to uphold my dharma as king. I hereby acknowledge Lava and Kusha as my own sons and will accept Sita too as my wife, if she proves her innocence once more in front of the people of Ayodhya as she did long ago before the vanaras and rakshasas at Lanka.”
As he said this, Rama allowed himself the luxury of gazing at his beloved wife once more. Bereft of jewels and adornment, dressed in bark, with matted hair tied in a knot on top of her head, stood his queen, the queen of Ayodhya and the queen of his heart. His own heart smote him as he looked at her. Involuntarily he stretched out his hands to her. Without thinking, she put her delicate, pink-tipped palms into his. Despite her lack of adornment, she was still incredibly lovely and he could not tear his gaze away from her. Sita gazed back at him and as their hands and eyes locked in a mutual embrace, they felt as if they were drowning in an ocean of love, mirrored in their eyes. They held infinity in their hands and eternity in their eyes.
