Chapter 9: Hanuma`s adventures on Sri Lanka

All these stories were going through Hanuman's mind as he stood therebefore Sri Lanka, how Ravana got cursed in many places, and how he isso foolish. Hanuman actually felt very compassionate, and he wasthinking, "If I see Ravana, by any method, I will give him goodadvice. I will tell him that he is very intelligent, and that maybehe could use his intelligence. Just give back Sita, and everythingwill be alright." Hanuman went into the city, and it was just beforemidnight. The moon was present, and he could smell wine all over thecity. Practically 99.9% of the population was drunk. Everyone wasin the enjoying mode, and in Sri Lanka there was plenty of enjoymentto be had. These demons went all over the world, and brought womenfrom all over the world. Ravana had more than 12,000 wives. All ofthem liked him, although he was a demon. He had a brownish colour,but the form of his body was next to the beauty of Upendra (thebrother of Indra, not the dwarf incarnation of Visnu). He had a verybroad chest and a beautiful face. Sometimes he is depicted as veryugly, but actually he was not ugly. When he got angry or lusty, hecould produce such ugly forms, but Ravana's true formlooks verybeautiful. Visnu Purana, Valmiki and all the narrators describe as aperson of great granduer. When Hanuman and Sugriva, or anyone forthat matter saw him for the first time, they would think, "Thiscannot be Ravana, because his body is so beautifully designed. Thisman must be full of good qualities. He cannot be a demon. We musthave made a mistake." He was so beautiful. He had this hole in hischest which was from the tusk of Airavata. He had other holes in hisbody from Sampati, but he covered these with his silk cloth. He hada beautiful hairstyle. His speech of course was so excellent that hecould speak and make day look like night. These are the glories ofRavana. Amongst his queens were nagas, and there were princessesfrom Satyaloka, Siddhaloka, Caranaloka, Gandharvikas, every speciesof life was present in his palace as queens. They all liked him andrespected him. Ravana's country was so good. There was plenty offruit and food, and they had dharma which was followed. Ravana wasruling wonderfully, and no-one had any fear in Sri Lanka. They hadno fear even from Indra, Candra or Agni, because Ravana was sorespected. So Hanuman was going from room to room. "Is Sita here?Is Sita there?" In every room he found about ten beds and so manyqueens sleeping. Hanuman was a naisthika brahmacari, and he wasthinking, "Oh God, I have to do this. All these queens of Ravana aresleeping here, and most of them are drunk." It is not good for abrahmacari to see a woman while she is sleeping, and Hanuman had todo this. At first he thought, "Should I do this?" And then heconcluded, "I am serving Rama, and if I don't look at all of them,Sita may be somewhere in between, and I will miss her." So he madeup his mind, "I'm not going to be attracted. How will I not beattracted? I won't stop chanting Rama's name." So he was chanting,"Rama, Rama, Rama, Rama," and he was looking everywhere. WhenHanuman saw so many queens, their make-up and dress, their beds andtheir silk, he was completely shocked. "What kind of place is this?It is like a heavenly planet." They had false eyelashes, they hadshaven their eyebrows, and they had coloured in 12 tones from theeyelash up to the eyebrows. Hanuman actually saw this. He gotscared by looking at them. He said, "If they are so beautiful, whydo they have to put false eyelashes on?" Hanuman saw all this, andhe was very happy. "This man, whatever he has done, is enjoying hissenses very nicely. At least he is good at that." And then he cameand saw in the middle of a room a wonderful bed made of coral anddiamonds, and on top of it was white silk covering the bed. Therewas a brown figure lying there with big shoulders and wonderfulbodily beauty, and he was snoring. Hanuman said, "So beautiful, buthe is snoring and his mouth is wide open. He must be very ignorantperson." Although Ravana has so much knowledge, still there isignorance." Then Hanuman looked around and saw that there was awhite umbrella on the side of the bed. That means he is the king.So Hanuman looked at him, and then he walked backwards to get abetter look. And then closer and closer. He looked from all angles."Oh! What a great fighter." Then he saw the hole, and he said, "Ihave heard about this hole. This man would have fought withAiravata." Hanuman was getting fired up, and he thought, "I wouldlike to fight with him. But if I wake him up everything will bespoiled." And then he looked around on the other side, and he saw avery beautiful woman laying down on the bed. The smell of wine wascoming from her mouth. Hanuman had never seen Sita. He inspectedthe woman and said, "Oh! A heavenly body. This person must be Sita.No, how can it be Sita? She is the chaste wife of Ramacandra. Hereshe is brought by the demon, and she is dressing herself nicely withsilk and ornaments, and she's laying there with wine on her breath.I am a monkey, but I do have some discrimination. How can this beSita? Sita would be lean and skinny and crying with demonessesaround her. That is Sita, not this. This is not Sita." Then helooked everywhere but he couldn't find Sita. So he came out of thepalace, and he was thinking, "What should I do? I was preaching toAngada, `Don't give up your body. And don't try for some security.'But now it looks like I will have to do that, jump in the ocean anddie. How can I go back and tell them, `Yes, I went across the ocean,I saw Ravana, but no Sita'. What will they do to me? If I go toSugriva he will kill me. Even Angada himself may kill me. And If Isee Ramacandra's dissatisfied face I will die myself. What is theuse of my existence? Let me die." And then he was walking andcrossing the gardens and coming to the ocean. He thought, "Let mecheck once more." He looked at the garden. It was Ashoka-vana,Ashoka trees. Very thick garden. He thought, "Sita must be in thisforest. Why? Because Ravana would have kept her in a nice garden,but she will be thinking of these Ashoka trees. In Pancavati whereRavana lifted Sita from, there were Ashoka trees. I rememberRamacandra telling me that he was going to the Ashoka trees andcrying, "Oh Ashoka trees, please tell me where is my wife?" So shemust be remembering that when she sees these Ashoka trees. She musthave walked in here. At least she must have been through here atsome stage. Let me ask the Ashoka trees, they may tell me" In thisway, Hanuman, with some little glimmer of hope came into the Ashokaforest. There was a very tall tree which he climbed up, and when hegot to the top he looked down. To his surprise, under the same treewas Mother Sita. She was sitting there with Vibhisana's daughter,Trijata. Trijata was consoling her. "I had dreams that Ravana wassmearing oil all over his body and drinking oil with his two hands,and he was sitting on a chariot driven by monkeys. This chariot wasbeing driven through the southern side. This means he will die. Ialso saw that Sri Lanka was burning, and a monkey was flying over. Ialso saw that Ramacandra was sitting in the coronation ceremony withyou. So don't lose faith. Don't give up your body. One day orother Ramacandra will come here." Hanuman was listening to all thisand he was so happy. Then Ravana came and gave so much preaching toMother Sita. "You must marry me!" She refused and he said to thedemonesses, "You kill her if she won't listen to your advice." Thedemonesses were preaching to her, and then when she wouldn't listenthey decided, "We will kill her." Exactly at that point, Hanumanjumped. As soon as they saw this monkey jumping, they all fled thisway and that. Sita looked at him and she said, "Ravana, you can takeany form, but I'm not going to be attracted. Why did you think thatif you took a monkey form I would be attracted?" Hanuman said, "Waitwait, I a m not Ravana! I am the servant of Rama, and I have comehere to serve you." So she said, "I don't believe it. If you arefrom Rama, then how did you cross the ocean?" Hanuman said, "Oh,that is very interesting. I grew big." "You grew big? How canmonkeys grow big?" Hanuman said, "I will show you," and then hegrew, and he touched the skies. Sita got so scared, she said, "Maybethis is another demon." While he was growing he was chanting, "Rama,Rama, Rama, Rama," and she thought, "Ravana would not chant so manyRama-namas. It is not possible. He can't be a demon." Then Hanumanreduced this form, and said, "Here I have the sakshi, the evidencethat I am coming from Ramacandra. This is his ring." Hanuman talkedwith Mother Sita and she gave him the hair ornament. Hanuman tookit, and after taking it he said, "I am a monkey. I cannot just comelike a saintly person and go, I want to do some naughtiness here inthis forest. You won't be affected, don't worry. Some nonsense mustbe there. You just watch." So he put the cudamani hair ornamentsomewhere safe, and then he started uprooting the Ashoka trees,throwing them here and there. There was a rock waterfall, and hedestroyed it, and the water flooded all over the place. He took thecreepers and threw them this way and that. Then he took thedemonesses and put them in his mouth, biting them and spitting themout. He was shouting and slapping his shoulders. He was yelling, "Iam the servant of Rama! Who will stop me? I will destroy Sri Lanka!I will swallow Ravana! Anyone who is as powerful as me should comefor a fight! Challenge! Challenge!" And then he jumped up on theentrance of Ashoka-vana, and he was eating fruits and spittingeverywhere. The minister for Ravana in charge of the Ashoka forestcame in front of Hanuman. It had been a long time since he hadlanded in Sri Lanka, gotten in the gate, checked everyone, seen andspoken to Sita, but he had not passed water the whole time. It hadbeen six or seven hours. When the minister came and opened his mouthyelling, "What are you doing?" he got Hanuman's blessing. Theminister said, "Hey! Hey! Stop!" Hanuman said, "I am a monkey,what do you expect?" The minister felt very bad, and he went intothe forest and asked the demonesses, "What are you doing? A monkeyis doing so much harm." They said, "What are you doing? The monkeyis doing so much harm, but why are you telling us?" "Yes, what am Idoing?" the minister said, and then he went to Ravana. He said, "Amonkey has passed urine in my mouth." Ravana said, "You came toreport this?" And he gave him a slap. "What kind of a caretaker areyou? You come and tell me that a monkey passed water in your mouth."The minister said, "What was I supposed to do? I was speaking tohim." Ravana said, "Don't you know that you never open your mouthwhen monkeys are around?" The minister said, "Well you have to dosomething, he has destroyed the whole Ashoka forest." Ravana said,"What? One single monkey?" Vibhisana closed his eyes and he wasthinking, "Hm, monkey. Monkey. Monkey smashing Ashoka forest. Iremember this." Then he left the palace, and went to his place andhe was sitting and thinking. "Monkey, Ashoka forest. Monkey, Ashokaforest. I heard it somewhere." And he was trying to figure it out.It took him two days to understand it. He understood it. Ravanasaid, "You call Prahasta's son Jambumali. He is the first card."This Jambumali is in a big lake of wine. He is sleeping there, andwhenever he wakes up he drinks a little bit. And then again hesleeps, and he wakes up and drinks more. He can't wait to go fill upthe cup and drink, it takes too much time. So he is in a lake ofwine, and he is kept like that so that whenever war comes he can beused. Jambumali was woken up. They had some anti-liquor medicine,so they gave him that and he woke up. He asked, "Why are you callingme? You want to change the lake or put me in another one?" Theysaid, "No, a fighting!" He came to Ravana and said, "With whomshould I fight? With Indra, with Agni?" Ravana said, "No no, with amonkey." "I'm going back," Jambumali said. "No no, it's not anordinary monkey. It's a very great monkey. He has finished ourAshoka-vana, so we must finish him. Take 80,000 soldiers and go."So 80,000 demon soldiers and Jambumali walked up. He was a veryyoung demon, Jambumali. Hanuman was still sitting on top of thearch, and he was saying, "I am the servant of Rama. Who is there tofight with me? I can swallow Ravana. Come on, challenge!Challenge!" Jambumali said, "Hey monkey, you are talking too much!Do you understand that Ravana's son has tied Indra to a flagposthere? Do you know that the nine planets are serving in the kitchencutting subji? What do you know? You don't know the power ofRavana. You don't know the power of my father Prahasta. He haseaten mountains and digested them." So then Hanuman said, "All past.What about now? This has happened, that has happened. But now youlook, I can also tell you that the whole Ashoka-vana has beendestroyed. That has happened, and now something else is going tohappen. Don't waste time." Jambumali said, "What? You think youcan fight with me?" Hanuman said, "Why are you talking?" and hebegan to pick up rocks and throw them at him. The rocks were comingso fast and furious, and he couldn't fight them. Then he got on thechariot and started shooting arrows. Hanuman said, "Oh, these demonsare very cultured. He is sitting on the chariot doing acaman,chanting mantras and firing astras." All these astras were coming,and Hanuman was holding them, breaking them and giving them back. Noastra can affect Hanuman, that is a benediction. Jambumali saw thisand said, "Now I will have to do some magic," and he started growing,and he became so big. Hanuman was only up to his ankle. That iswhat Jambumali was thinking. He was thinking, "That big? All right,I will grow more." He closed his eyes and grew more. Then hethought, "Now I have grown so much, Hanuman will be this big." Andthen he opened his eyes. He saw some big round thing in front ofhim. He looked at it, and he thought, "What is this? It is notHanuman's face. There is no mouth and no teeth. It's just a biground thing." He looked to the other side, and it was just anotherround thing. "What is this one?" he thought. He was looking, andhe was so confused. Then he heard a sound from way way above,"They're my knees Jambumali!" He looked up, and Hanuman was way upthere. Jambumali thought, "My God, what a growth! This is thetopmost I can do, and I am only up to his knees." So then Jambumalilooked back, because he didn't want to discourage the soldiers.Hanuman said, "What are you looking at? I finished them all." Hehad finished the 80,000 soldiers already. There was a beautifulparliament hall called Caitya, belonging to Ravana. This hall hadvery huge marble and diamond pillars. Ravana took one of thepillars, and he just put it on top of the army. They were nicelyorganized so that simply by a little work Hanuman could finish themall. This happened while Jambumali was growing. Jambumali wasalone. His chariot had been smashed and his horses killed.Jambumali was standing there alone. Hanuman said, "What are yougoing to do? If you want to take shelter of my feet, they are waydown there. You will have to look for them." So Jambumali was veryinsulted, and he said, "No! This is maya! You come before me inyour original form!" Hanuman said, "What are you doing then? Thatis also maya. You come in your original form." So he came down,and then Hanuman came down also. Hanuman said, "All rightJambumali, there are three minutes for you. There is one nicemantra I will teach you. If you chant this mantra while dying youwill attain the Supreme Lord. There is only two syllables in it.Ra-ma. Chant." Jambumali said, "What? I didn't come here to learnmantras. I am here to fight with you. I want to finish you."Hanuman said, "You cannot do that, so you might as well do this.You cannot finish me, so why don't you do something within yourmeans. Just chant Rama, and then go back home." Jambumali screamed,"Aaarghh!" and jumped on Hanuman. Hanuman put his index finger inhis navel and lifted him up, and then he circled and threw him. Allhis liver and everything came out of his mouth, and then he died.When the news came that Jambumali was finished, immediately Ravana'sson Indrajit got up and said, "This must be a demigod, so he must befought nicely." So Indrajit came. With Indrajit there were somescenes, and then Indrajit said, "I am going to use Brahmastra onyou." So he threw the Brahma rope. Hanuman thought, "I have doneenough harm now, so I must see Ravana. If I get bound by this rope,I can see Ravana." He looked at the rope and thought, "I willrespect Brahma." Then the rope came and tied him. Indrajit waspulling the rope, and he pulled Hanuman to the court of Ravana. Asthey entered there, Ravana said, "Hey, you mischievous monkey! Whoare you?" Hanuman said, "I am a servant of Rama, and a messenger.You please give me a seat." Ravana scoffed, "A seat for a monkey?You can climb up in the tree if you want." Hanuman said, "No, thatis not proper. I have come here to talk politics, and I have comehere to give you a message. You must give me a seat." Ravana said,"In my assembly, I don't give a seat to animals." Hanuman said, "Youmean that to get a seat in your assembly I have to be less than ananimal?" Ravana said, "Hey, you are talking too much." By that timeHanuman had extended his tail and made a big big seat. It was aboveRavana's head, and he jumped up and sat on that. Then he said, "SoRavana, I think this is a good seat for me." So then Ravana waslooking up. Then they had a discussion, and Hanuman gave a very goodpiece of advice. "You please give up Sita. I saw your palace. Youhave so many beautiful queens. Why do you want to take Sita? I cantell you, Sita is beautiful." Hanuman was using some sama dhanabheda danda. He said, "Sita is not that beautiful. Vandudari is amuch more beautiful dancer. Surely you must satisfied with that.You can have so many others. I will myself procure women for you ifyou want. Just give up this Sita, for your own benefit." Ravanasaid, "No, I won't listen to this. I will keep Sita, and not onlythat, I will finish you." Hanuman said, "Finish me? How can youfinish me?" And Ravana said, "You are tied up." Hanuman said, "I amnot tied up, I am just holding myself. And then he lifted his handsand Brahma's rope broke. Indrajit's jaw dropped. "What is this?This monkey has broken Brahma's rope." So then Hanuman said, "If youwant you can use ordinary rope and tie me. Only if I want to be tiedcan you tie me. Now I allow you, tie me. Let me see what sort ofpunishment you will give me." So then they tied him with ropes, andgreat demons were pushing him on both sides with tridents. He madeno objection. Ravana said, "Put fire to his tail." So they set histail on fire, and Hanuman said, "Wonderful, you gave me an idea. Iwas just wondering what to do. I wanted to do so many things, but Ididn't want to do it myself, because Ramacandra will say, `Why didyou do it?' Now I have no problem. They put fire, and I was justjumping around and things happened to catch on fire. I didn't wantto burn Lanka. Why should I? I am just a messenger. A messengercannot attack the opponent. But what can I do? They put fire on mytail, and I am a monkey so when I jump the tail goes this way andthat way." So in this way Hanuman was jumping from roof to roof,window to window, and everywhere he put fire. Even in Ashoka-vana heput fire. Everything was burning. Hanuman was jumping up and down."Aah, wonderful! Wonderful!" And then suddenly he thought, "MaybeMother Sita is also burnt! What have I done? Oh no!" So he wentinto the Ashoka forest and he was looking, and he saw Mother Sitasitting in the er a tree. No harm was there. So then he told her,"Why should you wait? Just climb on my shoulder. You know I crossedthe ocean here, so I can also cross the ocean back. You sit on me,and I will take you. Before I fly from here, I will kill Ravana."So Sita said, "No! What are you doing? You already told me thatRamacandra promised He will kill Ravana and take me back. If you dothis, my husband's promise will go in vain. Ramacandra has one word,one wife and one arrow. He uses only one arrow, he has only onewife, and if he says a word, he keeps it. So don't do this, you arenot supposed to do it. Even if you are supposed to do it, I'm notgoing to sit on your shoulder. On the way you may see some fruitthat you like, and you will shake the tree and I will fall into theocean. I don't trust you completely. So you enjoy yourself, and goback and tell my Lord that I am waiting. And if he doesn't come inthis many days, then I will leave my body."