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When Jambvant reminded
Hanuman about his extraordinary latent powers, Hanuman became ready to
leap across the mighty ocean. Hanuman climbed the nearby mountain on the
shore and then crossed the ocean in one giant leap. While flying over the
ocean, he was tested by Mainaak and Surasa for his intelligence and power.
Needlessly to say, Hanuman came out with flying colors. True to any
devotee, for Hanuman, there was no rest without completing his master's
work.
Hanuman landed and saw the
prosperity of Lanka. Search for Sita brought him to Vibhishan's house.
There, he got knowledge about Sita's whereabouts and straight headed for
beautiful Ashoka-Vatika (garden). Hanuman saw Sita being tormented by an
amorous Ravana, who was trying to force her to marry him.
Hanuman then met Sita while
she was lamenting about her fate, and gave her Ram's ring and message. He
sang praises of Ram to bolster her moral up and told her that Ram was on
his way to rescue her. Sita was in doubt whether the monkey army would win
over mighty demons of Lanka. In response to Sita's doubt, Hanuman showed
his grand form, looking at which Sita was relieved.
Hungry Hanuman could not
resist temptation of eating juicy fruits on surrounding trees. This caused
trouble and in a display of his heroism, Hanumana killed many demons
including the son of Ravana - Akshay kumar. Later, when Meghanada used his
ultimate weapon - Brahamstra, Hanuman decided to respect it and ended up
deliberately caught and taken to Ravana's palace.
Hanuman met Ravana in his
great court, and taunted him, asking him to restore Sita to Ram lest he
should face Ram's wrath. A furious Ravana lost his temper and ordered to
kill this strange and eloquent monkey. However, with the intervention of
Vibhishana, Ravana agreed to teach Hanumana a lesson in a different way.
He called for his guards to set Hanuman's tail on fire. Hanuman, unhurt by
the flames, jumped from one to another place in rapid succession with his
tail ablaze and burnt the city to cinders leaving the place of Vibhishana
untouched. He then jumped into the ocean and extinguished the fire on his
tail and returned to see Sita for final salutation. Sita gave Hanumana one
of her jewels as her sign, to pass on to Ram.
Hanuman then returned to
Ram, who was overjoyed to see Sita's jewel. On hearing Hanuman's account,
Ram decided to gather his forces and attack Lanka.
Here, in Lanka people were
taken aback by the velour of Hanumana and wondered about the might and
power of that man whose mere envoy single handedly caused havoc in Lanka.
Mandodari, queen of Ravana tried to persuade him that he should return
Sita. His council of ministry including Vibhishana advised that way.
Ravana got angry with this advise and kicked Vibhishana out of Lanka.
Vibhishana, knowing Ram's
compassion and mercy headed to take refuge unto Ram's lotus feet. Sri Ram
welcomed him with open arms and marked a Tilak in his forehead signifying
him as a future King of Lanka.
Vibhishan then advised Ram
to pray to Sea God for finding a solution to cross the ocean and reach
Lanka with monkey warriors. Ram observed fast for three day and prayed to
Sea but in vain. At last, Ram decided to dry the ocean with his fire-arrow
when ocean god appeared before Ram. Ocean deity gave ceremonial welcome to
Ram and told him that Nala and Nil are two engineers in Ram's army blessed
with extraordinary powers so as to make a bridge across the ocean. Now, it
was just a matter of time before the whole army reach Lanka for the final
battle.
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