Sunder
means beautiful, since Hanuman has a cute face he is called sunder, sunderkand is
his story in search of Sita, the story of his awakening, his selflessness, his
virtue and his deeds.
Hanuman is
kapi / Vānara (a forest dweller) depicted as a monkey which symbolizes a
restless mind, his story tells us that an individual who has achieved
self-realization, with a controlled mind becomes useful to the lord
The allegory of the sunderkand
Sita
represents the kundalini Shakti which is trapped in the muladhara (root) chakra,
waiting to unite with the lord, the top chakra is north while the lower root
chakra is at the south end and the journey of Hanuman is southwards towards the
Kundalini
Motivation, self-realization and
increase in consciousness
Ram had
formed an alliance with the forest dwellers; he helped Sugriv by killing Bali
from behind which seems to be an unrighteous act, it is said that when Ram reincarnated
as Krishna, he had to pay back this karma when an forest dweller hunter shot
him with an arrow, even God’s cannot escape karma
Now in
turn the forest dwellers are helping Ram to search sita, someone has to cross
the ocean and go to lanka to carry out the search, but who can carry out this
seemingly impossible task; Jambavan, the king of the bears motivates Hanuman,
he asks him to remember who he really is (note that The bear spirit animal is
the energy of courage that replenishes you with power. This animal will take you
through any challenging situation with your head up; the bear spirit animal
personality makes you fearless—hence the allegory of a bear)
Hanuman had
forgotten his true self, now he gets the self-realization; he is ready to leap
He prays
to the God’s and celestial beings, he starts growing in size, for lord Ram’s
successes, which signifies the increase in consciousness, he turns south, and under
his force immovable mountains shook and with this the people also ascetics who
had their abode in these mountains started fleeing leaving behind worldly
pleasures, this signifies the unrest around when one achieves higher
consciousness, he literally kicked the worldly life, huge trees uprooted along
with him but fell and sank in the ocean—the world cannot keep up with the one
of higher consciousness
He leaps southwards towards the
kundalini Shakti which is trapped in the muladhara (root) chakra, he fly’s across
the ocean the ‘abode of crocodiles’
He refused
help from those who wanted him to rest for a while, since even taking rest was
considered as an obstruction to him; on seeing hanuman flying in the sky Devas,
gandharvas and danavas showered flowers on him, the sun did not scorch him, the
wind served him with delightful breeze and all creatures praised him
He fought
with the ones who blocked his path, surasa the mother of the nagas tested him
too—the story of his encounter with surusa is explained in the sub-title—nature
of women is written at the end
He reached the well protected city
of lanka
He realized
that only 4 beings on Earth could enter this forbidden City, it was not
possible to overcome this city with strength alone. He encounters lankini—she
said she herself is the city of lanka (the spirit of lanka) he overcame her fulfilling the prophecy that
when lankani the spirit of lanka falls down it was time for the end of the
region, this is always the case when the spirituality is destroyed what follows
is physical destruction
On
entering the city; ravanas magnificent place appeared to hanuman like a turbulent
ocean filled with crocodiles, sharks and whales and a variety of snakes even
though what wealth possessed by vaishvakarma, kuber and indra—ravanas place had
it all
The lesson for us in the episode
when hanuman enters ravanas bedroom
After
roaming the city of lanka, hanuman enters ravans palace, he enters his bedroom,
there are chapters in the Ramayana which give describe the erotica of what
hanuman saw
He saw the
sensuous women sleeping, some of ravanas wifes in their intoxicated slumber got
close to the mouths of other women thinking them to be ravanas, the others to
out of their interest and love for ravana responded to such advances with love
Then there
is a description of the various wines and meat kept, we wonder why such erotic
description is given, the answer we get the answer from the thoughts in
hanumans mind
The noble minded hanuman
Hanuman
thought to himself that spying on the wifes of others in their inner chambers
is definitely not as per dharma, further hanuman thinks—my graze towards these
women, was not towards sensual pleasures and my intension was not to possess
these women, another clever thought entered wise hanuman, which gave him
clarity of vision towards the task ahead, all the loyal wifes of ravana were
indeed seen by me but within my mind no ill intension towards them arose, it
is indeed the mind which propels the sense organs to act either in auspicious
or inauspicious ways and that the mind of mine is firmly established in
righteousness
Such
should be the character of a being as taught to us in the Ramayana
Never let despair (the state of having lost all hope)
overcome you
Not
finding sita in the inner chamber of ravana, hanuman begain to lose hope, but
he soon overcame this, he told himself—freedom from despair is the root
cause of prosperity, it is the cause of supreme bliss and it is definitely
one which leads one on the path of attainment
The
freedom from despair is what makes human action fruitful and he continued his
search
Hanuman finally finds sita in ashok
vatika
Ashok is a
type of tree and the meaning of ashok is without sorrow, yet sita was in a
miserable plight in spite of being in ashok vatika, she was in a shabby
physical state but having strength of character and rich only in her
austerities
Hiding on
a tree hanuman heard the conversation which sita had with ravana who had come
there to persuade her to accept him willingly
Keeping a
leaf as a border in front of ravan she gave him these wise teachings—there are
no pious ones in this place neither you follow the righteous ones that is why
your mind has become fickle and lacks proper conduct. In the hands of a king who
is engaged in improper deeds even prosperous ad wealthy cities and kingdoms
perish—bad behavior forebodes ill luck, man uses his good karma to enjoy but
creates bad karma by evil deeds
Sita the
entrapped kundalini will not give up her virtue in spite of surrounded by evil
Then Hanuman
meets sita
The wise hanuman before leaving
lanka wanted to collect all possible information of the strength of the enemy
hence he started destructing ashok vatika
Like a
sacrificial fire which cannot be destroyed by weapons he defeated most of the
great warriors including the son of ravana as finally inderjit was sent after
ravana briefed him on the tactics of war and assessing ones enemy, inderjit
fired a Brahmastra to bound hanuman, even thogh hanuman who assesses before he
acts had been blessed to overcome this he decided not to evoke the power given
by Brahma so that he had the opportunity to see the demon king
He was
brought in front of ravana, hanuman too gave some wise words to ravana—the
fruit of dharma does not occur to one who has reached the culmination of
adharma, unrighteousness will destroy the fruit of righteousness
The words
of righteous conduct had no effect on ravana, he ordered that the tail of
hanuman be lit up and he paraded in the city since he could not be given a
death sentence because he was a messenger (on advice of vibishan, ravanas
righteous brother)
Hanuman destroys lanka
His tail
on fire, hanuman takes a gigantic form once again increasing in size, he destroys
and burns down the city and kills the army of lanka, the only place which is
not destroyed and which stands intact amidst destruction is the house of
vibishan the devotee of Ram
Sita prays
for hanuman and the fire on his tail does him no harm it stays cool
Hanuman
returns from the south to the north, crumpling the hill he leapt from
The good news is conveyed to Ram
Hanuman
approaches the shore screaming in excitement, on hearing the happy sounds the
monkeys get the message that sita is alive and found, the monkeys in their
great joy climb up the trees and shake the tree branches just like clothes and
welcome him with folded hands
The army
of forest dwellers, monkeys march happily to convey the good news to Ram on
their way they shatter the honey collecting garden of king sugreev, but they
are forgiven, because once you are on a path of doing good deeds towards the
lord, ones small mistakes are easily forgiven
On reaching
the place where Ram stayed, the monkeys wanted to come close as near as
possible to see the face of Ram
The nature of women
With the
story of surusa (the mother of nagas) who tested hanuman by blocking his path
and wanting to consume him; at first hanuman grows in size and to counter this every
time surusa grows double in size to the form hanuman had taken, finally hanuman
reduces to a tiny size enters the mouth of surusa and exits out, signifying
that one cannot directly defeat the feminine energy but sometimes one has to
bow down
Sita
She had
the lord with her; it is written in the ramayan
जनकसुता जग जननि जानकी । अतिसय प्रिय करुनानिधान की ॥
ताके जुग पद कमल मनावउँ ॐ जासु कृपा निरमल मति पावउँ ॥
janakasuta jag janani janaki. atisay priy karunanidhan ki॥
take jug pad kamal manavun. jasu kripan niramal mati pavun
Meaning
that she is the one who is the universal creator, the mother of all beings and with
her mercy ones intellect (the power to discriminate between right and wrong) is
cultivated
yet on
seeing a magical golden deer she wishes to possess it, even lakshman on hearing
her request goes chasing after the deer not realizing that golden deer’s do not
exist, now when lakshman is away ravana kidnaps her and takes her to lanka the magical
city of gold and promises all the wealth in the world, rejecting all this, now
she longs for ram
When she
had ram she wanted the magical golden deer and when she was taken to a full
magical golden city she was miserable without Ram
One story
she told hanuman so that he could convey to Ram that he had meet the real sita
was that once a celestial crow was disturbing her and he hurt her in the
breast, seeing this Rama took out a straw from the mattress and uttered the
magical mantra and fired a Brahmastra at the crow (astra means a weapon and Shastra
means a weapon which is activated by the power of prayer). Brahmastra is a
powerful weapon yet on seeing a womans plight that a man loves he loses all control
and takes such a drastic step
First time
when sita met hanuman he told her that he can carry her across the ocean to her
husband, she refused and told him Ram will not send anyone specially to me
without testing him or his valor yet she had doubt that he would not be able to
overcome the army who would be unleashed to prevent her from fleeing, later
when Hanuman proved his worth by destroying lanka and defeating an entire army
she told him that he was indeed capable of taking her but again refused to go
away with him, since she wanted her husband to come and avenge her insult of abduction
which would be the ultimate disgrace of ravana—such is the character of a woman
who is not capable of forgiving, she is ready to suffer more waiting for the
revenge
Hanuman
told ravan that you do not realize that by abducting sita you are keeping a
five hooded female serpant in your home—such is the dangerous state of a man
lusting for others wife
After many
months of studying I have written this article; note this that the Ramayan was
written in treta yug where there was one ram versus one ravan a 1:1 ratio of good
to evil, the mahabharat was written in dwapar yug where there were 5 righteous
pandavas against 100 evil kaurav
brothers, a good to evil ratio of 5:100
Let us learn
from these great epics
To read other interesting stories from the ramayan, you may click on the topic ramayan on the right hand side
To understand
the Sanskrit translation I have referred the below youtube video