The process of writing Ramayanam starts….11

The process of writing Ramayanam starts….11

( This is in continuation of earlier posts in the series on valmiki ramayanam.. the link for the last post is given at the bottom of this … and earlier links could be found in the respective earlier posts..)

The story of Hanuman’s journey to wards Lanka, continues..

After taking leave of Surasa, the Nagamata, Hanumanji rose again to a comfortable height in the sky over the Southern sears and continued with his navigation towards lanka.

A fierce demoness by name Simhika, was occupying the surface of the sea..

Her way of capturing her prey for her food which were the sky borne beings, was very queer.

She could capture the shadow of anything moving over her in the sky, and the moving object too got trapped..

Then she would capture the moving being by growing to a huge form and opening her wide mouth to swallow the prey..

In fact, the king of Monkeys Sugriva had mentioned about the demonic capturer of the shadows in the mid sea, while discussing the possibilities our search operations in the southern direction.

As Hanuman was happily going ahead with his flight in the company of birds, gandharvas, Vidhyadharas, Stars, and clouds of myriad colours, he suddenly felt a drag, a slight feeling of discomfort at being pulled down to the water level..

He remembered Sugriva’s warning about the Chayagrahi (the capturer of shadow ) monster.

And before long the demoness, who had been starved for a long period, made her appearance and told Hanuman that she was happy that such a huge monkey with all flesh and muscles had come to her grips, while she was waiting exactly for such a windfall..

She grew up, opened her mouth and tried to drag Hanuman through her strong breath..

But Hanuman enlarged himself beyond the size of the mouth as and when demoness started opening her mouth wider and wider Hanuman also puffed up this torso..

This was almost similar to what de did with Surasa the Naga mother, ealier in the flight..

Meanwhile, the clever Hanuman was making a through survey of the contents of the mouth of the demoness.. and had seen the crevice leading to her heart..

So when the demoness was holding her mouth wide open, Hanuman just shrunk himself a little, made a fast move, entered the dirty mouth of the demoness, piereced the fleshy layers inside the throat with his sharp fingers, caught hold of her heart, pulled it and managed to pluck it and jump out..

Once her heart was plucked away the demoness died a painful death and fell plump into the bottom of the ocean..

So Hanuman had passed four tests by the Gods now..

First, his take off from Mahendra Moutain, Second his encounter with mount Mainaka, third his rendezvous with the mother of Nagas Surasa and final and fourth, his victory over the demoness Simhika..

The gods all gathered around him and praised four of his great qualities brought to use in the course of this odyssey.. They told Him,

“ You have come out with flying colours in all the four tests given for you.. your victory over this demoness is all the more praiseworthy..

You best among monkeys, you have the four qualities, boldness, discretion, intelligence and efficiency.. all in great abundance, and you have put such sterling qualities to effective use in your recent encounters..

Our expectation and faith that you will emerge successful in your mission undertaken for the welfare of Rama is greatly reinforced.. May you go ahead and may your mission meet with resounding success”

By this time, the journey had reached almost its last lap.. Looking down, Hanuman could see a beach, thick vegetation and edges of rocks and fortressed on the farther side of the ocean.. He knew that he was about to land himself on the shores of Ravanas land.. the Island of Lanka.

As he progressed, the saw a huge mountain on the shores of Lanka.. the mountain was called Malaya mountain of the south.

Further progress of Hanumanjis mission could be discussed in the next post.. which I expect to publish the next day…God willing..