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

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Sadagopan • April 10, 2000 


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
  


 


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