In the previous episode, we had witnessed Hanuman narrating his entire journey to Lanka and how he managed to find Mother Sita imprisoned at Lanka. Hanuman emotionally explains how Mother Sita is being tortured by Ravana’s Raakshasas every passing day and how she is not giving in to Ravana’s repeated requests of marrying her. Hanuman moves Bhagawan Rama’s heart by explaining that Mother Sita wants Him to come to Lanka city as soon as possible, destroy Ravana and his Raakshasas and take her back victoriously to Ayodhya! As Lakshmana and Sugriva are listening to Hanuman’s heart-moving accord, Hanuman also hands over the crest gem ornament to Bhagawan Rama that Mother Sita had given to him while he had met her. As Hanuman hands over the precious ornament, Bhagawan Rama is completely in tears of joy as well as tears of sorrow! On one hand, He is relieved that Mother Sita is safe and secured, and on the other hand, He is sad of being separated from her! Thus with this, Bhagawan Rama hugs Hanuman with Him, as a token of acknowledgement of the great help that he has rendered. Lakshmana looks at Hanuman with an enormous amount of respect! Sugriva too is happy with what Hanuman has just achieved.
As this exchange of information happens, the planning begins. Bhagawan Rama directs the army to proceed towards the southern direction and the entire set of Vaanaras commence their journey. They travel all the way down south to reach the coastline near Rameshwaram. At this point, Vibhishana, who had earlier protected Hanuman from Ravana, has a bad verbal duel with Ravana, and with this, Ravana kicks Vibhishana out of Lanka! Broken at heart, Vibhishana decides to come to Bhagawan Rama and surrender to His divine lotus feet. As we know, Vibhishana is a a “Dharma-Atma”, even though he was born in a Raakshasa family. With this insult meted out to him by Ravana, Vibhishana crosses over the ocean and meets Bhagawan Rama to express his surrender. Bhagawan Rama too acknowledges Vibhishana’s unconditional surrender and accepts him graciously.
Thus, in order to cross over the ocean, with the help of Samudra-Raja and the others, the Vaanaras build the famous “Ram-Sethu” bridge. Once the bridge is ready, the entire army crosses over into Lanka city, thus sending shivers to Ravana and Co.! The marquee battle between the two armies begins. Ravana sends sections after sections of his army to defeat and kill Bhagawan Rama, but in vain! Mass destruction happens on both sides, but at the end, somehow the Vaanara army emerges successful. At one point, Indrajith directly comes for a fight and manages to make Lakshmana fall unconscious! Lakshmana clearly could not give a matching fight to Indrajith and with this, the entire Vaanara army including Bhagawan Rama started panicking! Again, at this crucial juncture, Hanuman comes to the rescue. He immediately takes the initiative to fly all the way to the Himalayas to find out the “Sanjeevani” herb. En-route, he finds a cliff that is full of the “Sanjeevani” herbs growing! Thus, instead of just plucking a few of those herbal plants, Hanuman takes the entire cliff along with him and brings it to Lanka. With the application of the herb, Lakshmana regains his consciousness and is ready to fight.
Now the fight intensifies. Ravana’s brother, Kumbhakarna, comes to the battlefield with a huge army. Hanuman, Jambhavan and Angadha go forward and destroy Kumbhakarna’s army altogether! Now, as Kumbhakarna is left alone to defend himself, the battle between him and Bhagawan Rama takes place, where Kumbhakarna is defeated and killed by Bhagawan Rama! This sends shock waves to Ravana who once again sends Indrajith. But this time, Indrajith is also neutralized, thanks to Lakshmana’s unending prowess! Left with no other option, Ravana himself decides to take on Bhagawan Rama head to head! A marquee battle is about to begin and for today, let us understand up to this point. We shall wait till the next episode to witness what happens next! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 