|| om tat sat||

Sundarakanda
Sarga 54

Tattvadipika
"न वानरोsयं स्वयमेव कालः।"

"न वानरोsयं " means he is not a Vanara.
Then, who is he?
"स्वयमेव कालः"
means "he is death personified".

This is the dialogue among the people of Lanka.
The dialog is about Hanuma.
All those who went to battle with Hanuma experienced that.

Namely, the Kinkaras, the guards of Chaitya Prasada, Jambumali,
the sons of the ministers, and the five Generals.
All of them have seen Hanuma in the battle.
Now the people of Lanka too realize that.
How this realization came about is the story of this Sarga.

Hanuma was taken around the city of Lanka with his tail on fire.
Having achieved his goals, Hanuman transforms his humongous form.
Becomes smaller and frees himself from the ropes that bound him.
With renewed enthusiasm Hanuma thinks of further action.

The Sarga starts with the line
'वीक्षमाणः ततो लंकाम् कपिः कृत मनोरथः'।
The Vanara having achieved his objectives
looked over at the city of Lanka.

The poet used the word कृत मनोरथः,
to signify that Hanuman accomplished,
what he wished for.
Now it is time for something extra.

Looking at the city of Lanka with growing zeal
Hanuma thought over the remaining work.

Hanuma said to himself.
'Presently the action that is left over as my duty is one
that will torment the Rakshasas even more.
The grove was destroyed.
Powerful Rakshasas killed.
One part of the Rakshasa army is destroyed'.

'The destruction of the citadel is still left.
If the citadel is destroyed it will be a happy conclusion.
In this action success is possible with a little effort.
It is proper to satiate the fire burning on this tail,
y destroying the best mansions of Lanka'.

Hanuman remembered that the Fire god was cool for his benefit.
Govindaraja in his commentary elaborates as follows.
गो टी॥ (अग्निः) अतिसीतलतया मम महोपकारं कृतवान्।
अस्य संतर्पणं न्याय्यं इत्यर्थः॥
So Hanuma decides to propiate the god of Fire with his offering.
We have always seen Hanuma weighing the pros and cons of his actions.
This is one time he is proceeding on his hunch,
to do something that will result in more torment,
"संतापजननं भवेत्"

We continue with the poet's narration.

Then Hanuman with his glowing tail,
looking like a cloud with lightning,
wandered on the top of the mansions in Lanka.
The Vanara wandered without fear, seeing the gardens and mansions,
moving from one house to the other house of the Rakshasas.

The mighty and speedy Hanuman,
equaling the speed of Vayu,
jumped on the mansion of Prahastha,
setting the same on fire, then jumped on the mansion of Mahaparsva.
Hanuman, looking like the fire at the time of dissolution, set fire to the same.

The brilliant and great Vanara jumped on the mansions of Vajradamshtra's,
Then onto Suka's, and wise Sarana's houses setting them on fire.
Then the best of Vanaras burnt the palace of Indrajit.
Then he burnt Jambumali and Sumali's mansions.
Then Rasmiketu's palace.
Similarly, the mansions of the Rakshasas Hrasvakarna, Damshtra, Roma were burnt.
Rakshasas Yuddhonmatta's, Matta's, Dhvajagriva's,
And similarly, Vidyujjihva's, Ghora's and Hastimukha's mansions were also burnt.

Karala's, Pisacha's, Sonitaksha's mansions also were burnt.
Kumbhakarna's palace, Makarakshasa's palace also were burnt.
Yagnyasatru's mansion, similarly Brahmasatru's,
Narantaks's, Kumbha's and the wicked Nikumbha's mansions were also burnt.
Proceeding in an orderly manner,
the best of Vanara's burnt all other the mansions,
leaving the palace of the great Vibhishana intact.

The great Vanara burnt all the treasures in wealthy one's mansions.
The heroic Vanara, after moving past the residences of all the Rakshasas,
finally reached the palace of Ravana, the king of Rakshasas.

Then Hanuman set the palace decorated with different kinds of gems,
filled with exquisite auspicious articles on fire.
The palace that was resembling mountains Mandara and Meru,
was set on fire with tip of his burning tail.
Then he roared like the thundering cloud at the time of dissolution.
With the blowing of wind, the fire grew rapidly.
It glowed like the fire at the time of dissolution.
Aided by the wind the fire spread in the houses.
Association with wind made the fire grow very fast.
Palaces with the golden mesh work were caught in fire,
along with embedded pearls and gems.
With the intense fire, the palaces came crashing down.

Running to protect their own houses,
yet unable to protect them, Rakshasas were saying
'surely the fire has come in the form of the Vanara'.
A tumultuous sound arose allover Lanka.

Some women who were breast feeding their babies,
with hair let loose, jumped out of burning mansions.
And they looked like the lightnings falling from the clouds.

He saw pearls and silver mixed with diamonds and colorful corals
tumbling down from the palaces in molten form.

Like the fire, which was not satisfied with dry sticks and grass,
Hanuman was not satisfied with the killing of Rakshasas,
nor was the earth satisfied with rakshasas thus felled by Hanuma.

Flames of the fire shining at one place appeared like Kimsuka flowers,
some other place appeared like Salmali flowers,
and yet another place like Kumkum flowers.
The swift Vanara, Hanuman burnt the city of Lanka
like Rudra burnt down city of Tripura.

The fire lit by the swift Hanuman
who has fierce valor, created circles of fires.
The fires rose to the mountain top on which city of Lanka was located.
The fire without smoke from the mansions, fanned by the wind,
the fire from the Rakshasa bodies which were offered up to the fire,
grew like the fire at the time of dissolution.

The radiant fire appeared like tens of millions of blazing Suns.
It spread all over Lanka .
It was glowing with crackling sounds,
like the sounds produced by Indra's thunderbolt,
sounding as though the whole universe was breaking.

The fire spread intense brightness like the Kimsuka flowers shooting up to the sky.
The clouds, engulfed by the smoke rising from the subsiding fire, were shining like blue lotuses.

People were saying to themselves,
'This is not a Vanara.
It is the wielder of thunder bolt,
the lord of the gods, Indra or Yama himself or wind god.
Or Rudra or fire god, Sun or Kubera or moon or the god of death himself'.

'Or is it the Grand Sire Brahma the supreme four faced god,
who is enraged and arrived in the form of a Vanara to kill the clan of Rakshasas?
Or else the infinite, indescribable, unthinkable one Vishnu,
the Supreme god of great glory assuming the form of a Vanara,
by virtue of his own Maya came here to destroy the Rakshasas'.

Thus, seeing that the city being burnt,
with all its homes with trees,
including all the creatures ,
many eminent men gathered and spoke to each other.

Then with Lanka burning along with its inhabitants,
including the horses, elephants, flocks of birds, other animals and trees,
there arose a tumultuous piteous sound as they all cried.

Those Rakshasas speaking out in a piteous way,
made dreadful noise saying,
"Oh! father, Oh! son, Oh! dear, Oh! friend,
that life, which is enjoyable and pious, has been destroyed '.

With the power of the anger of Hanuman,
Engulfed in the flames spread by the fire god,
with its hero's dead, with its retreating troops,
the city of Lanka appeared as if it was cursed.

Hanuman, the great soul, saw the city of Lanka
that succumbed to flames of fire god.
With the Rakshasas perplexed, scared and sorrowful.
it looked as if the earth was hit by the anger of Brahma.

Hanuman the son of wind god
having destroyed the grove full of excellent trees,
having killed many Rakshasas,
burning the city with rows of beautiful houses,
stood on the wonderful peak of Trikuta with a glowing tail.,
That lion among the Vanaras,
then shone like the Sun with its brilliant rays.

The great Vanara having killed many Rakshasas,
having destroyed the grove with many trees,
having set fire to many palaces of Rakshasas,
reached for Rama in his mind.

The very brilliant and great Vanara shone
having destroyed the grove,
having killed the Rakshasas in the battle,
having burnt the beautiful city.

Then all the Devas with Gandharvas, Siddhas, great Rishis,
seeing the city of Lanka burnt were very much wonder struck.

Seeing Hanuman, the best of Vanaras,
as if he were the fire at the time of dissolution,
all the beings were terrified.

Then all the sages, Gandharvas, Vidyādharas, Nagas, Yakshas,
and all the creatures experienced great happiness.

The Sarga ends with the line
भूतानि सर्वाणि महान्ति तत्र
जग्मुः परां प्रीतिम् अतुल्यरूपाम्॥
which means that all the creatures experienced great happiness.

In Balakanda in Sarga 15,
Devas complain to Vishnu that 'सर्वान् नो बाधते वीर्यात्' (1.15.6).
Which means that "everybody" is being harassed by Ravana.
No wonder that the act of burning down Lanka
killing many Rakshasas gladdened
'सर्वाणि भूतानि' -"all beings".

Thus, ends the Sarga fifty-four of Sundarakanda.

||om tat sat||

|| This is what we understood from Tattva Dipika of Shri Bhashyam, Appalacharyulu garu"||
|| om tat sat||