Ramayana Reflection – Hanuman in Lanka 2 – Discouraged yet determined

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. Welcome back.
We are discussing about lessons from the Ramayana and we are discussing about Hanuman. How Hanuman has entered into Lanka after overcoming various obstacles and now he has the task of finding Sita. Actually, Hanuman’s task was extremely difficult.
He was, we could say, a monk, he was unmarried. And those who are living as unmarried people, they often avoid women. Of course, Hanuman was a warrior and he was not exactly a monk in the sense of a renunciate, but still he had to search for a woman.
And not only did he have to search for a woman, he had to search for a woman whom he had never seen. So how was he going to identify her? So not only that, even after he identified her, how was she going to identify him? How was she going to find him trustworthy? So the task that Hanuman had been given was phenomenally difficult. First of all, he just had to travel the world over to find out where Sita is.
After he finds out Sita, then he has to find out a location, the whereabouts of Sita, then he has to recognize her in that particular place. Then he has to earn her trust. So by his unflinching faith in Ram, he had done the first part.
By his own heroism, by his devotion, he had flown across the ocean and come to Lanka. And now in a tiny inconspicuous form, he started going through the various parts of Lanka, trying to find out where he could find Sita. And actually all of us face Herculean challenges sometimes in life.
And Hanuman’s perseverance, Hanuman’s intelligence, Hanuman’s presence of mind, all these can be very valuable in learning for ourselves how we can persevere in life. So Hanuman, as he moved on, he saw these magnificent palaces. And as he was observing, he was on top of a tree, sometimes on top of a building, jumping from here, jumping there, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible.
The guards, they saw a monkey, but they thought this was just an harmless little creature. Some of them noticed, most of them didn’t notice. He kept moving on.
As he kept moving on, finally he saw one particular palace, which looked huge. As he was going over one palace, one house, another house, he was peering in, looking to see what was the nature of this place. Normally, say, if we go to a foreign country, then the culture over there is different, the lifestyle is different, the language may also be different in some cases.
And we try to get a sense of that place, we get a hang of that place, then we can decide how to act. So Hanuman was trying to do that, trying to get a sense of what was going on. Now, he knew the Rakshasas were demoniac people, but the first time he had penetrated directly into their ranks, into their stronghold.
And he observed some Rakshasas engaged in revelry with their queens, with their wives and their maids. And as he moved on, he came to what looked clearly the biggest of all palaces. And he recognized, oh, this must be Ravana’s palace.
And he entered into that palace, sneaked in. And it is all this Ravana, Hanuman did at night. Actually, he had started off in the daytime from the Indian coast, had flown across Lanka through, across the ocean throughout the day.
And now he had waited till the night came so that he could creep in undetected. And he saw on a huge bed, this giant person reclining. And all around him, he saw there were his queens and maids in various states of undress.
And he is observing, suddenly thought came in his mind, what am I doing here? Why? It’s not proper for me to be looking at women in general and at other men’s wives like this when they are not properly dressed. He says, have I done something wrong? And then he contemplated, he said, no, my purpose is pure. He said that if I have to look for a woman, where am I going to look for? Among women itself.
And night is the time when I can detect, I can move around undetected. So therefore, our actions are to be judged not just by the forms of the actions, but by the intent that underlie those actions. Sometimes we can become very judgmental.
We see somebody doing something wrong and we say, hey, you are a fool, you are a rascal, you are this, you are that. But actually, we don’t know what people’s intentions are. And it is good to give people the benefit of doubt.
Of course, for ourselves, if we are doing something wrong, we cannot rationalize saying that my intention is pure. But the important thing is Hanuman here was introspective and he recognized by his intention that what he was doing was not wrong. He looked around and he saw that Ravana had spent a whole long part of the night in revelry, drinking and everything and now he was in a complete state of deep sleep.
So, he came out and he saw near that, on that bed, a very beautiful looking lady. She started jumping up and, oh, now I found Sita, I found Sita, I found Sita. Although he had been acting like a spy, a very strategically aware, shrewd kind of spy, but still he is in a monkey body.
So, his monkey exuberance started coming up and saying, I found Sita, mission successful. But then suddenly, he stopped. He looked at the face of that lady who was asleep and he saw no sorrow on her face.
He saw that she was sleeping very peacefully. She was dressed very gorgeously and sleeping joyfully. So, he started thinking, Sita will never do such a thing.
Even if… Sita will not submit to Ravana, even if she submits to Ravana, Sita will never submit to Ravana and even if she had to, she would not be happy about it. She would be pining in separation from Ram. He says, this woman cannot be Sita.
So, he realised that he had just got a false alarm and he looked around to see if he had anybody noticed and he came out and started thinking, where can I look for Sita now? After coming out of Ravana’s chambers, Hanuman started looking here, looking there. He spent hours combing through Lanka, going to the various houses, not being able to find any sign of Sita. Normally, sometimes if we go to meet a particular person and we have address and even with the address, sometimes it is difficult to find a particular location.
Maybe the name is not exactly there properly or we just look here, look there. We are not able to locate the address. So, here he had no address and he had not even seen the person before.
Still he was trying to search, trying to find. As he was searching, struggling, not finding, he was getting increasingly disheartened, not knowing what to do, not knowing how to move on. Sometimes in the sky, there would be the moon and he would be able to see and he would take that opportunity and move rapidly.
A few times some guards became suspicious and immediately he disappeared. They tried to give chase but he was just too fast and they thought he is just a monkey and considering the monkey to be harmless, the monkey has gone away, let’s not bother. That’s what the guards thought here and there.
Hanuman was searching, searching and when he just couldn’t find, he had combed through practically all of Lanka. He became disheartened, he became almost devastated. He had come so far, he had survived such great dangers, he had accomplished such a superhuman feat in flying across the ocean and yet now it seemed that his mission was doomed.
It seemed that he was going to fail. Just because he could not find Sita, all kinds of thoughts started rushing through his head. He said, what could have happened? He says, could it be that Sita while she was flying through across the ocean with Ravana, thinking that she did not want to give in to Ravana, she just jumped off the chariot of Ravana and she fell into the ocean and she sank there or she was eaten by some crocodiles or could it be that after he came to Lanka, being unable to tolerate separation from Ram, she gave up her body.
What could have happened? He says, no, no. He says, Sita must be alive. Ram has sent me to search for Sita, Sita must be living.
But he says, what if I am not able to find Sita? My mission will be unsuccessful. Oh, how will I have to go back? What face will I show to Angad and Jambavan? And what face will we show to Sugriva, our king? And then how will Sugriva tell this news to Ram? He says, Ram is already so agonized in separation from Sita. If he hears that Sita is no more there, she is not locatable anywhere, it will shatter him completely.
Ram will die in separation from Sita. And seeing Ram die, Lakshman will not be able to live. Lakshman will die.
Seeing Lakshman and Ram both dead, the Ayodhya Vasis, when they come to know about this, they will all die. And hearing about the death of Ram and Lakshman, Sugriva will not be able to live. And Sugriva will die.
And being without a king, all the Vanaras will also die. Thus, the Ayodhya Vasis and the Kishkindha Vasis, all of them will die. And without a king to rule the earth, the earth will sink into disorder.
And for all that, I will be responsible because I could not locate Sita. No! As he was thinking about this dystopian scenario, how everything could go wrong. He could, by thinking like this, he could have very well become further disheartened.
But his resolve to serve Lord Ram was unbreakable. And by remembering the consequences of failure, he did not become disheartened. Rather, he became enlivened.
He became even more determined. No! I must. I cannot be the cause of all this.
I cannot give Ram the news that he is, that Sita is no more, Sita is not locatable. I must find Sita. And as his determination took a new rise, and he jumped up, standing tall at that very moment, reflecting the brightness in his own consciousness because of the determination, the moon also came out from the clouds.
Earlier, as his own mood had darkened, the sky also had darkened. The moon had gone hidden behind some clouds. Now, the moon came out of the clouds.
And Hanuman was looking here, looking there. Had he missed any houses where Sita might have been? Suddenly, as he looked out, he saw on the outskirts of the city, a garden. Maybe this is the place where Sita might be.
Normally, people don’t stay in gardens. People visit gardens. So, he had not thought of looking in gardens earlier.
But now, when he had searched all the palaces and had not found Sita anywhere, he looked and he saw the garden. And he thought, maybe Sita is there. And he immediately jumped off the house and moved towards the garden.
As he kept moving, as he kept sneaking into the garden, going from one tree to another, Ashoka, Vatika was the name of that garden, he moved in, moved in, moved in. And as he moved closer and closer, he noticed one clump of trees where there seemed to be a lot of people over there. The whole garden was deserted.
But here, there were a lot of people. As he peered carefully, he noticed there was some kind of guard formation over there. And curiously, whereas in the whole of Lanka, he had seen male guards, he saw female guards over here.
His curiosity as well as his hope started increasing. As he came closer and closer, he saw that these guards were standing guard to someone who was in the centre. And as he looked carefully, he saw a figure lying forlorn, seated on the ground with tears trickling down her eyes.
It is the early morning time, just as the brightness of early morning which promises, which heralds the rising of the sun and the coming of a new day. Like that, hope started rising in the heart of Hanuman. As he saw this woman, although her clothes were disarrayed, although she was dishevelled, she was strikingly beautiful.
She was divinely beautiful. And he could see she was mouthing some words. As Hanuman tried to see, he couldn’t hear, but he could see the movements of the face.
She was chanting the names of Ram. And who else would be chanting the name of Ram in Ayodhya except Sita? Hanuman became delighted. But now, seeing these women in guard around, seeing these Rakshasis in guard, he curbed his delight.
And he started thinking, what is the way in which I can approach Sita? And suddenly, he heard a big noise and he looked around. So, he saw that there is a big commotion and there is a whole assembly coming that way. And he saw there Ravana, who was there.
Ravana was marching in. And Ravana had just had a night of drunken licentious enjoyment. And as soon as he had woken up, you know, he had thought of Sita.
Every day, he would try to come and win Sita over. And every day, he had been thwarted. Today, he was determined.
Somehow, he would win Sita over. And as he marched past Hanuman, Hanuman was sitting on a tree on top in a branch. And Ravana just walked past.
And the guards who were guarding Sita, they opened. And Ravana went inside. And behind him, Hanuman also sneaked in.
Because everybody’s eyes were on Ravana and nobody noticed him. And then, Ravana started speaking to Sita, trying to tempt her, trying to threaten her. First, he said, you will be my principal queen.
You will be having wealth like no other woman in the whole world. I am waiting for you. He says, your youth is temporary.
With every passing day, your youth is going. Why don’t you enjoy while you can? You are still hoping, finding rest, keeping your hopes in Ram. He will already be dead.
Even if he is alive, he will never be able to cross the ocean. Even if he crosses the ocean, he will not be able to enter into my fort. Give up your hope for him.
Lie with me and you will enjoy delights of the kind you have never enjoyed in your life. Sita, when she had seen Ravana approaching, she had pulled her knees to her body, tried to keep herself as far away from him as possible. And when Ravana tempted her, allured her again and again, she said to him, oh wicked one, how can you expect me to do that activity that is condemned by all pious women? I will never leave my husband for any other man.
Indeed, the fact that you can think of such a means that you have lost your morality. Is there no one in Lanka who can remind you of moral principles? Or is it that you are so proud that you cannot hear good advice from anyone? Return me to Ram right away. Otherwise, you will have no place to hide.
Even if you go on top of the highest mountains or you go into the deepest nether regions, Ram will chase you and will kill you there. Sita spoke all this to Ravana in front of all the Rakshasis. Ravana was furious.
He said, for such speech, you deserve to die, Sita. It is only because of my love for you that you still live. I have given you one year and only one month remains.
If you do not submit to me, then I will have my cooks cook you up for breakfast. He snorted and turned off and walked away. After he went, Sita started sobbing silently.
Now, Hanuman faced a perplexity. How would he be able to win the trust of Sita? He thought, what was the common point? He was a man and he is in a male body and Sita, she would naturally be suspicious. Maybe she might think that he was an agent of Ravana or he was Ravana also.
She had never seen him. So, what was the common point between him and Sita? Normally, if at all you had to form a relationship with someone, we have to look for commonalities. What is it that we share with them? If we focus on differences, then our differences will increase and we will not have a relationship.
For relationship, we have to acknowledge differences, but we have to focus on commonalities. So, he thought, what was the common point? The common point was Ram and devotion to Ram. And thus, after the Rakshasis who had also tried to follow up Ravana’s threat with their own threats, after they had dissipated, the morning had come now and they went a little distance, then Hanuman sneaked on to a tree, very close to the tree where Sita was sitting on.
And then he started speaking in a gentle but clear voice, the glories of Ram. So, here we have Ramayana inside the Ramayana. In the book Ramayana, Hanuman is speaking about the glories of Ram.
He starts speaking right from Ram’s appearance, his childhood, his going to the forest with Vishwamitra, his meeting Sita. He starts speaking all these incidents. And as he keeps speaking these incidents, Sita on hearing about Ram’s enlivened for 11 long months, she has not heard about Ram.
She has heard only criticism of Ram, condemnation of Ram. She has heard about the death of Ram by the Rakshasas in Ravana. But here she is hearing the glories of Ram and her heart becomes enlivened.
And she looks around, where is this voice coming from? And she looks up and she spots this monkey. Monkey is folded hands in a very reverential mood. He is speaking the glories of Ram.
As he is speaking, she sees this monkey and she starts feeling a great sense of peace coming over her heart. As this peace comes over her heart, she starts thinking, how is this? Still she is suspicious. As Hanuman sees that Sita has now become interested, she has noticed him, he jumps down from the tree.
Still he is, in order to not threaten her, Hanuman keeps himself in a very small form. And he tells her that, as he continues speaking the glories, he says, I am Hanuman. I am the servant of Ram.
And he starts telling the whole story. And then he says, how can I know that you are not Ravana or his agent? He says, he speaks with such sincerity, such devotion that itself takes away the suspicion of Sita. And then he tells an intimate story of what had transpired in the Chitrakoot forest when Ram and Sita had once been together.
A bird had come and tried to molest Sita. That was actually Indra coming in that mode. And Ram had shot and taken a grass and made it into an arrow and shot it at that bird.
And bird had to flee all over the universe and come and take shelter of Ram and that’s when he had been forgiven. He had sought forgiveness and Ram had forgiven him. Now, this was an incident that no one knew except Ram and Sita.
It was a private incident and she was amazed. How did Hanuman know this? He says, Ram told me about this. And then he took out a signet.
He took out the signet, the symbol that Ram himself had given. Ram had been confident that Sita will be found by Hanuman and thus he had given a memento, something to prove that it was that this person was Ram’s messenger. And in this way, Sita, she felt relieved.
She felt delighted and her suspicion melted away and she started feeling a great sense of relief as the messenger of Ram and the consort of Ram were united together in a moment of intense devotion. And here, in the absence of Ram, there is the presence of Ram because two of the greatest devotees of Ram are absorbed in his glories and this is in many ways the devotional climax of the Ramayana where in his absence, his intense presence is sensed because of his great devotees being together and discussing his glories. Thank you! Hare Krishna!