The Seventh day of Srimath Sundara KaaNDa NavAham: Sargams 41-52(385 skOkams)

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Dear Sri Raama BhakthAs:

 

There are 12 sargams for PaarAyanam today

that deals with the valor of HanumAn ,

the greatest of Raama BhakthAs .

 

In the last slOkam of the 40th sargam ,

Hanuman took leave of SeethA piraatti

and referred to the small piece of work

to be attended to (alpAvasEsham prasamIkshya

kaaryam ) prior to return to RaamA's side

to bring the good news on finding His consort

at LankA. This alpa or svalpa kaaryam was

the plans for the destruction of portions of LankA

and the killing of some of the generals of

RaavaNA's army . All of these heroic deeds

of HanumAn got the attention of RaavaNA

and HanumAn was brought before him with the power

of BrahmAsthram. At RaavaNA's court, HanumAn

instructed RaavaNan to desist from his evil

ways and to surrender SeethA to His Lord

and make peace. The deluded RaavaNan bent on

his destruction did not heed the sadhupadEsam

of the Raama dhUthan and ordered HanumAn to be killed.

Saner minds in the court persudaed RaavaNan

to rescind his order and RaavaNan ordered

" to punish " HanumAn by setting fire to

his tail . HanumAn in turn burnt the significant

portions of LankA with that fire on his tail .

 

(1) Sargam 41: AsOka Vana Bhanjanam/Destruction of

AsOka Vanam

 

(2) Sargam 42: Kinkara Vadha:/Killing of the Kinkaraas

by HanumAn

 

(3) Sargam 43: ChaithyaprAsAdhadhAha:/Burning of

ChaithyaprAsAdham

 

(4) Sargam 44: JambhumAli Vadha:/The death of JambhumAli

 

(5) Sargam 45: Manthriputhra vadha:/The destruction of

the sons of ministers of RaavaNA

 

(6) Sargam 46: Pancha sEnApathi Vadha:/The killing of

the five generals of RaavaNA

 

(7) Sargam 47: Akasha KumAra Vadha:/The destruction of

AkshakumArA

 

(8) Sargam 48: HanUmath Bandhanam/The binding of HanumAn

by BrahmAsthram

 

(9) Sargam 49: RaavaNa PrabhAva Darsanam/Experiencing the

mahimai of RaavaNa at his court

 

(10)Sargam 50: Prahastha Praschana:/The questioning by

Prahasthan

 

(11)Sargam 51: HanumadhupadEsa:/The Upadesam of HanumAn

 

(12)Sargam 52: DhUtha vadha nivAraNam/ prevention of

the death order by RaavaNA

 

After accomplishing his main task of locating

SeethA pirAtti , the minor task left for HanumAn

was to assess the strength and the intentions of

RaavaNan.HanumAn evaluated the four means at his

disposal , Saama, DhAna , BhEda and DhaNDam , and

chose Dandham as the most appropriate one to use

to get the job done.

 

The 41st sargam describes the execution of HanumAn's

plan of action to get RaavaNA's attention .As a first

step, HanumAn destroyed the beautiful AsOka vanam dear

to RaavaNan .He spared only the section, where SeethA

was staying. The Raakshasis (Jailors of SeethA) were

terrorized by the destruction caused by the mighty monkey

and grilled SeethA to reveal the identity of the monkey,

whom they saw conversing with Her earlier. SeethA deflectd

the questions deftly to protect Her husband's dhUthan.

 

In the 42nd sargam ,the Raakshasis ran to RaavaNA

and briefed him on the terrible happenings at

AsOka Vanam.RaavaNan was infuriated and ordered

80,000 top soldiers from his army known as Kinkarars

to destroy the mighty monkey causing havoc.HanumAn used

the heavy door latch of the gate of LankA and

destroyed all the KinkarAs.

 

In the 43rd sargam , HanumAn decides to destroy

the temple for the kula dhaivam of RaavaNan at

ChaithyaprAsAdham.HanumAn got on the roof of

the temple and tore it apart.Next , HanumAn went after

the defenders of the temple complex and killed them

all with the uprooted golden pillar of the temple.

He told them before destruction that none of them

including RaavaNan and his city would survive in

the ensuing battle because of their enimity

to Raamachandran:

 

nEyamasthi purI LankA na yooyam na cha Raavana:

yasmath IshvAkunAthEna bhaddham Vairam MahAthmanA

Sargam 43.23

 

In the 44th sargam,HanumAn encounters JambhumAli,

the son of Prahasthan, the minister of RaavaNan.

Fierce fight ensued between them.HanumAn used

the same door latch to dispatch JambhumAli

to the house of death.

 

The angry RaavaNan now sent other manthri puthrAs

to battle against the heroic monkey . The 45th sargam

describes the mighty battle between HanumAn and

the manthri puthrAs.HanumAn played as it were

with them first and tore them apart in the next

phase of the battle.

 

The 46th Sargam describes the destruction of

the five generals of RaavaNan's mighty army.

RaavaNA ordered them to overpower the monkey

and bring it to him.The generals arrived at

the entrance of the gopuram , where HanumAn was

waiting for them.The generals sent clusters of

arrows, which HanumAn broke.Then HanumAn jumped

on the chariot of one general and crushed it

along with the general.HanumAn dispatched next

two generals with the blow from a mighty teak tree

that he used as a weapon.The others were killed

with big boulders.After that display of valor,

HanumAn waited for the next set of enemies

to handle.

 

The 47th Sargam deals with the battle between

HanumAn and Aksha KumAran , a son of Raavanan.

His bow showered copious rain of sharp arrows on

HanumAn. After evading these arrows, HanumAn

killed the eight horses tied to the chariot of

the young prince and caught hold of him by

his ankles and rotated him violently over

the head and threw him on the earth to crash.

Thus died the brave son of RaavaNa .

 

The 48th Sargam describes the encounter between

the older son of RaavaNan , the mighty Indhrajith.

RaavaNA placed his trust in Indhrajith and instructed

him to be careful.HanumAn was eager to do battle with

the hero Indhrajith.After a long battle , Indhrajith

gave up on using conventional weapons and decided to

use the BrahmAsthram to tie down the fast moving

HanumAn. BrahmA had given the boon to HanumAn

that he can not be killed by His asthram.Out of

respect for BrahmA , HanumAn decided to submit

to the power of BrahmAsthram for a limited time.

His real intentions was to meet RaavaNA and assess

his intentions and mood . Thus HanumAn let himself

bound.The joyous soldiers of Indhrajith came closer and tied

HanumAn with ordinary ropes to immobilize him.The power

of BrahmAsthram is negated , when other bonds are used.

HanumAn got free as a result.He pretended however

to look like he was bound by the ropes.The soldiers

dragged HanumAn and brought him before RaavaNA .

 

The 49th sargam describes the encounter between

HanumAn and RaavaNA at latter's court.HanumAn took

a good look at the great wealth displayed at

the court of RaavaNA and the prabhAvam of RaavaNan .

 

The 50th Sargam covers the dialog between RaavaNan's

key minister, Prahasthan and HanumAn , who had made

a high seat for himself with the help of his long

tail.He coiled it to the height of RaavaNan's throne

and sat at the same level.Prahasthan questioned

HanumAn tightly about his identity and the purpoose of

his visit to LankA and the reason behind the destruction

that he had caused.HanumAn responded by saying that

He had come to LankA as the ambassador of Sri Raaman

and to give a message to RaavaNA .

 

In the 51st sargam , HanumAn gives good advise to

RaavaNan.He told RaavaNan about the aprAdhams that

he had committed by abducting SeethA and imprisoning

Her in LankA.He reminded RaavaNA that no one , who

committed apachAram to Raaman is safe in all the thre

worlds.He asked RaavaNan to return SeethA to Raamaa

and seek His pardon. RaavaNan got enraged by the good

counsel of HanumAn and instead of thanking HanumAn ,

he ordered his servants to kill HanumAn.

 

In the 52nd sargam , VibhishaNan , the righteous one in

the court of Raavanan advised his elder brother Raavanan

that killing of the messenger is not permitted by

the dharma SaasthrAs.RaavaNan heeded the counsel of

his brother and decided against the killing of

HanumAn and decided on an alternate punishment.

 

Sri Raamachandra parabrahmaNE nama:

Daasan, Oppiliappan Koil V.SadagOpan