The process of writing Ramayanam Starts.- 10

The process of writing Ramayanam Starts.- 10

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Continued from earlier post ..

राक्षसीतर्जनं चैव छायाग्रहस्य दर्शनम्

सिम्हिकायाश्च निधनं लङ्कामलयदर्शनम्।

रात्रौ लङ्काप्रवेशं च एकस्यापि विचिन्तनम्॥२९

rākṣasītarjanaṁ caiva chāyāgrahasya darśanam

simhikāyāśca nidhanaṁ laṅkāmalayadarśanam|

rātrau laṅkāpraveśaṁ ca ekasyāpi vicintanam||29

The progress in Lord Hanuman’s flight towards Lanka over the southern seas was where we stopped yesterday..

The mountain Mainaka offered hospitality to Hanuman, which the Lord accepted in token by touching the summit of the mountain by his hands and soared up and proceeded towards Lanka..

The gods and other denizens of heaven were watching in great adulation the activities of Hanuman..

They first saw the first glorious feat of Anjaneya in jumping from the Mount Mahendra..

Then they witnessed the second great feat too.. Negotiating the huge mountain Mainaka which rose in his path..

The king of Devas, Indra was pleased with the attitude of Mainaka in offering help to Hanuman..

Therefore, he reassured Mainaka that the mountain need not have any fears about any aggressive attack from indra..

The Gods were impressed by the two feats of valour by Lord Hanuman.. His strength and valour were revealed in abundance through these feats.. But still they were interested in testing his resourcefulness.

So the devas approached Surasa, the daughter of Daksha Prajapathi, and the mother of all the Nagas and requested her to stand in the way of Hanuman taking the form of a huge Rakshasi or demoness, and obstruct his way and test him..

Accordingly the mother of Nagas assumed the form of a demoness and manifested in the middle of the sea, in a huge and awe inspiring form.. with huge read eyes and a wide mouth with curved and crooked teeth..

Just as Hanuman approached her in his onward air-born odyssey, the demoness accosted him and told that he was ordained as the food for her at that moment, and that he should enter her mouth..

Hanuman understood the greatness of the Divine daughter of Daksha and requested her politely allow him to proceed towards Lanka in his mission of discovery of Sita..

He assured her that once his mission was completed, he would return to her and offer himself as food for her..

The demoness Surasa was adamant..

She said that it was the command and boon of the Creator that anyone crossing her presence should enter her mouth as food.. and the law was immutable..

Hanuman was rather upset..

He told her that she should open her mouth wide enough to accommodate his entry..

Surasa opened her mouth as wide as ten yojanas.. and then Anjaneya made himself as large as ten yojanas so that her mouth could not accommodate him…

Then the demoness opened her mouth by a larger width of twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, seventy, eighty ninety yojanas, and hanuman enlarged himself to identical girth so that Surasa’s wide mouth could not accommodate him..

Finally Surasa enlarged her mouth to a width of one hundred yojana..

Hanumanji was clever enough not to carry on with the game any more..

He suddenly reduced his own girth to the size of a thumb , and entered the huge cave-like recess of the mouth of Surasa, and before she could understand the trick played by Hanuman, he just floated back out of that wide mouth.

And floating on the sky outside, the revered monkey lord told Surasa..

‘ My pranams to you, Devi Dakshayani, the mother of Nagas, As commanded by you I have entered your mouth, and has emerged out.. May I be given permission to proceed ahead in furtherance of the duty assigned to me in the service of my Lord Rama.. May I go ahead in search of Sita.. The boon given to you by Brahama about people not going away from you without entering your mouth has been obeyed”

Surasa was pleased with the resourcefulness exhibited by Hanuman.

She assumed her divine form.. and told Hanuman..

“ Son, I am pleased with your resourcefulness..

You may now proceed in furtherance of your mission for the benefit of that great Soul Rama and may you succeed in uniting Rama and Sita the daughter of Videha king Janaka..”

Seeing this act of great wisdom and alacrity on the part of hanuman, the Gods were greatly pleased.

Hope to continue with the story the next day.. if permitted by God..