Raghuveera Gadhyam: Yuddha KhAndam--Part 11

[Guest guest]

Salutation:

 

kAkuthstam dasakanta bahuvidhaLthkodhaNda bANAnvitham

papagnam visadhAyatAkshi YugaLam sowmithri samsevitham

bhakthAnAm paramoushadham munivarai: samsthuyamAnam bhajE

 

GS 60 : abhicharaNa huthavaha paricharaNa vigatana

sarabhasa paripatadh aparimitha kapibhala jaladhi lahari

kalakalarava kupitha maghavajith abhihanana kruth anuja

sakshika rakshasa dwandhwa Yuddha ! Jaya! Jaya !

 

( Meaning ) : O Raghuveera ! Hail to Thee , who used

the GaandarvAsthram on the troops of RavaNA's choice fighting

unit known as mula Bhalam and caused them as a result to

be deluded to fight with each other instead of fighting with the

members of your army. Your brother LakshmaNA was the witness

to that scene of utter confusion in the ranks of RavaNA's soldiers

after he himself had dispatched Indrajith in a fierce battle. Earlier

Indrajith's eforts to acquire invincible powers through the performance of

necromancy was interrupted by the huge army of monkeys which noisily

invaded the site of that abhichAra homam and interrupted the completion

of that homam . The angry Indrajith stopped the homam halfway

through and came to fight your brother and lost his life in that battle.

Hail to thee O Lord , who dispatched the GandharvAsthram !

 

(Background ) : After the defeat of RavaNA in the battle field and

the death of KumbhakarNA at the hands of Rama and loss of

many generals of the army of his father , Indrajith returned once again

to the scene of combat and aimed the powerful BrahmAsthram

at Rama , LakshmaNA and the simian army . That missile rendered

the princes of AyodhyA and the monkey army of Sugreeva totally

unconscious . Rama and LakshmaNA decided to honor the power

of the missile presided over by Brahma and stayed motionless and

helpless. Sugrreva and a host of other high-ranking generals

of his army were also knocked out .

 

VibhishaNa and Hanumaan were the ones , who were not affected.

They found the old bear JAmbhavAn lying semiconscious

on the battle ground . JaambhavAn advised the approaching VibhishaNA

that Hanuman alone can save the day . He suggested that HanumAn

known for his speed in the air should rush to a specific site in HimaalayAs

and fetch the four powerful medicinal herbs to restore Rama , LakshmaNA

and all the monkeys that were rendered unconscious by Indrajith . The bear

king described the four medicines and their power this way :

 

(1) Mruthasanjeevini , which had the power to bring the dead back to life

 

(2) Visalyakarani , which had the power of extracting the weapons and

healing the wounds caused by those weapons

 

(3) SuvarNakaraNi , which had the power to restore the body

to its original complexion

 

(4) SandhAni , which had the power to join back torn limbs

and broken bones

 

Earlier , Sugreeva"s father -in-law had suggested bringing of these

medicinal herbs by HanumAn. That occasion was when Rama and

LakshmaNA were bound by the Naga Paasam of Inderjith. Garuda

appeared and chased off the snakes and embraced the brothers back

to their original state. HanumAn did not have to go then in search of these

four herbs.

 

HanumAn set forth on this mission and jumped off from the top

of the Trikuta mountain of Lankha in search of the four divine herbs .

As he approached the site of the herbs, they hid from HanumAn's sight .

AnjaneyA got angry at their lack of compassion to help even Rama ,

Hnauman tore of the whole mountain housing the herbs and sped away

with frightening speed back to the battle field and put the mountain down

in the midst of the simian ranks. This expedition gave Hanuman

the name of Sanjeevi Raayan .

 

Rama , LakshmaNA and every one of the members of the simian

army recovered from their state of torpor or state of death

after inhaling the wind-blown fragrance of these herbs.

Even monkeys , whose dead bodies were cast into the oceans by the ogres

were restored back to life . The joyous monkeys ran through the gates

of LankhA and set fire to the city. More ogres were killed by the monkeys

and Rama. The surprised Indrajith returned to the battle field and engaged

in a formidable fight . He used black magic and became invisible and began

to torment the princes of AyodhyA once again . He then retreated to the city and

 

returned with an illusory image of Sita and killed her in front of Hanumaan .

Sri Rama fainted on hearing the death of Sita. LakshmaNA and VibhishaNA

consoled Rama. LakshmaNA vowed then to kill Inderjith. VibhishaNA

told Rama that Sita was alive and that his nephew was only creating an

illusory act so that he can return to a secret place( Nikumbhila) to gain more

magical powers through performance.of a homam based on necromancy .

 

VibhishaNA guided the simian army and LakshmaNA to the

site of the abhichara homam . The monkeys fell on the site

in huge numbers and disrupted the completion of that homam .

There was a mighty battle between LakshmaNA and Indrajith.

LakshmaNa used a missile presided by IndrA and addressed

the following prayer to IndrAsthrA : " If Sri Rama , son of Dasaratha

has set his mind on virtue and is true to his promise and is

unrivalled in prowess , make short work , the , of this son of RavaNA ."

 

Sage Valmiki's sloakm housing this prayer of lakshmaNA is as follows :

 

dharmAthmA satyasandhasccha ramO dAsarathiryathA I

powrushE chAprathidhwandhvasthadhainam jahi ravaNim II

 

After this prayer , LakshmaNA released the Missile presided

over by IndrA . Flying at lightning speed , that missile severed the

head of Indrajith .

 

RamA was delighted with the news of Indrajith's death at LakshmaNA's

hands at Nikumbhilai . RavaNA was grief stricken over the loss of his son.

He sent his diverse battalion known as mula Balam to avenge the death

of his beloved son. Rama dispatched the mystic GandharvAsthram

presided over by the GandharvAs . That asthram created the illusion of

many Ramas in the middle of the ranks of the Mula balam . The rank

and file of RavaNA's powerful army mistook each other for Rama and

killed each other . There was utter confusion in the battle field . Two

lakhs of ogres fighting on foot were eliminated by Rama single-handedly

through the use of GandharvAsthram . LakshmaNa was the thrilled

witness to the prowess of his brother , which he ahd invoked in his

prayer to the IndrAsthram to decapitate Indrajith. That is what Swami

Desikan refers to in the sixtieth salutation of Raghuveera Gadhyam, when

he addresses Rama as " Maghavajith abhihanana kruth anuja

SAAKSHIKA rakshasa dwandhva Yuddha ."

 

Thus ends the ninety third canto of the Yuddha KhAndam of

Sage Valmiki's Srimadh RaamAyaNam from which Swami Desikan

drew his inspiration .

 

Sri VaishNava Daasan ,

 

Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri Sadagopan