361. Ravana ran away from the battle field.

            Ravana was greatly disappointed to see his astras, about which he was very confident of denting the pride of Rama, failed miserably against the counter astra from Rama. His disappointment immediately turned into immense fury. 

              Then Ravana hurled another powerful astra which emerged from his bow with  blazing pikes, maces and clubs on all sides. Various kinds of furious mallets, deceptive nooses and blazing thunderbolts came forth, like a piercing gale.

          Rama, with his usual nonchalance, struck down that astra with the counter astra viz. Gandharvastra.

         Ravana then tried sauram-astra (Astra of the deity The Sun), which sprang out of his bow with the resplendent and large discuses of terrific speed. It looked much more brilliant than the Little Boy .

       Rama coolly neutralized that missile with multitude of arrows.
      Ravana did a foul deed by piercing the body of Rama with ten arrows in all his vital parts. And he consoled himself by murmuring that all was fair in love and war.

     Even though those arrows hurt him very much, Rama did not flinch a nerve. Wearing his fabulous smile he  struck back Ravana in all his organs with a multitude of arrows.

     Lakshmana joined the battle with his brother Rama. He hurled powerful arrows which tore off into many pieces, the flag-staff of Ravana. He, then followed it up with a single arrow, which tore the head of Ravana's charioteer, which was adorned with blazing ear-rings. With another five sharp arrows, Lakshmana then chopped off Ravana's bow, which looked like an elephant's trunk.

     Vibhishana joined the battle, too. He killed, with his mace, the horses of Ravana, which looked like black clouds and were tall as mountains. Ravana then had no option other than to jump out of his chariot.

      From the terra firma  Ravana hurled a spear looking like a blazing thunderbolt, on Vibhishana. Even before the spear reached Vibhishana, Lakshmana tore it with three of his arrows. Those three pieces fell like a large meteor with sparks of fire falling from the sky.

     Ravana then took another spear which was much more powerful than its predecessor.  Seeing that, Lakshmana hurled streams of arrows on Ravana making him to drop the idea of using that spear. Had it been used, Vibhishana would have become the 'late Vibhishana'.

         Seeing Lakshmana saved Vibhishana, Ravana shouted at Lakshmana "O Lakshmana! You saved Vibhishana from this spear. Now I'm gonna use it on you. As this spear will surely kill you, bid good bye to your brother and others now itself."

        Ravana promptly and unceremoniously hurled towards Lakshmana, that unfailing spear, which was adorned with eight loudly clamoring bells, which had been designed by Maya the rakshash by the dint of his conjuring trick, capable of destroying adversaries and blazing as it was with splendour. That spear, with a sound like that of Indra's thunder-bolt, hurled with great glee by Ravana, quickly penetrated the bosom of Lakshmana, who was facing it fearlessly.

         That spear, looking like the tongue of Vasuki, blazing with a great dazzle, hit the broad chest of Lakshmana with enormous force. Unfortunately the chest bones of the hapless Lakshmana were not strong enough to stop that spear, which pierced through his heart making Lakshmana  to fall down flat on his back.

         Seeing his dear brother Lakshmana in that state, Rama's heart missed a beat. He, then got infinitely angry on the person who caused this to his dear bro. He then determined to kill the person  who did this to his brother.
           Seeing Lakshmana in that state, the vanara leaders who were nearby to Lakshmana rushed to him to pull that spear out from the body of Lakshmana. They were, however, prevented to do so by Ravana, who was driving them away from the body of Lakshmana by a stream of his arrows.

            Rama noticed that the spear entering and passing through the chest of Lakshmana came out of his back and was struck in the terra firma. Rama gently pulled out that spear without any more hurt to his brother, broke it with vehemence. From the time Rama came near Lakshmana to pull out that spear, Ravana was trying his best to prevent him doing so by his arrows, which Rama ignored, in toto.

      Rama, then embraced Lakshmana fondly. He then told Hanuman and Sugreeva "O! dear fellows! Please order your valiant vanaras to encompass Lakshmana and ensure that he is not hurt any more. I am not going to spare that rakshash Ravana for what he has done to my dear Lakshmana. Sooner than later the world will have only one of us."

          Then, Rama moving toward Ravana and started hitting him with his powerful arrows. Ravana retaliated with his arrows. A fierce duel started and continued quite some time. Their arrows split asunder and scattered off, with their blazing points, fell from the space on to the surface of the earth. The loud sound, produced by the impact of the bow-string on the palms of those two heroes Rama and Ravana, was horrendous.
           Ravana did not expect Rama to fight in the way he was doing then. He started getting jitters. He then coolly sneaked out of that battle field like a cloud when pushed by a tempest.

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