362. Hanuman brings the mountain containing life-saving herbs for Lakshmana.

              When Ravana suddenly vanished from his sight, Rama was perplexed for a moment. Then he came to the correct conclusion that that rakshash, unable to resist the thrashing he was getting, must have run away.
            Rama then turned his attention on Lakshmana bathed in a stream of blood. He then told Sushena, who was also  around there 

"My dear Sushena, look at Lakshmana wiggling like a serpent. I am highly distressed to see him in this condition. All my energy seems to have been drained and I am not inclined to fight anymore when Lakshmana, who is dearer to me than life is bathed is terribly wounded........."
           The highly distressed Rama went on lamenting in this manner as he could not think of anything in this situation. He didn't know what to do. He looked pathetically distressed.

         The vanaras around them were very much distressed to see Rama in this condition. Sushena, the great vanara physician of that time stepped forward and told Rama "O! Sir!  you, possessing all the nonpareil characteristics of a man, prince, warrior et.al. should not lament like this. The raison d'être for you agony,  Lakshmana, is not, repeat NOT dead. His countenance is not changed, nor has it become dark. You can see for yourself that his face looks bright and very much placid. The palms of his hands are resembling the petals of a lotus. His eyes too are very bright, as usual.

         "O Sir! Though Lakshmana is not dead, he is very much injured. O! Sir! I assure you I can cure him."

\        Sushena then turning to  Hanuman, who was standing nearby, told him "Dear fellow! You have already visited the mountain called Oushadhi (Mahodaya), which was already described to you previously by Jambavan. Go there again immediately with your utmost speed and get the precious herb Vishalyakarani from its southern peak, and Savarnakarnani, Samjivakarani and  Samdhanakarani. Now SHOOT PRONTO!"
        Hanuman, having reached the Mount Oushadhi, could not identify those precious herbs. He then decided to repeat what he did last occasion.

            Like the previous occasion, Hanuman took that mountain-peak, in his hand jumped up into the sky. Like his dear dad, Hanuman reached the battle field in a short while. There, placing down the mountain-peak  on the terra firma, he told Sushena: "Hi! Doc! As I could not identify which herb is what, I have brought the entire mountain-peak."

          I consider it is needless to explain how Dr. Sushena cured Lakshmana. Lakshmana was not only completely cured, but he also felt that he acquired more strength and energy than before.

          Embracing Lakshmana, Rama told him "Thank God! You are quite OK now. Without you I do not have any interest in Seetha or anything else."
          Lakshmana told Rama with a smile, in a feeble voice "O! Dear brother! I am very happy to hear that you love me so much. However, I do not at all agree to what you said. Having solemnly taken a pledge to liquidate that lousy rakshash Ravana earlier, you ought not to speak as you did like a weak and a coward man. Those who speak the truth never render their promise futile. Fulfilling their pledge is one of  the attributes of the greatness.

          "Shedding everything for my sake is not befitting of you. Fulfill your promise now, by killing Ravana. An enemy, who falls victim to your arrows, cannot turn out alive, as a huge elephant which gets into the path of a roaring lion possessing terrible tusks.

        "I, for my part, wish to see the death of this evil-minded fellow instantly, even before this sun, having finished his task, does not sink below the horizon. O venerable hero! If you wish to kill Ravana in battle, if you wish to fulfill your promise and if you feel affectionate towards Seetha, do as I tell you soon and now."

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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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360. Ravana fights valiantly.

                 The mind of Ravana was in absolute turmoil. It never occurred to him that all his three valiant aids Mahodara, Mahaparshva and Virupaksha would be killed in a row, that too by monkeys. He felt that he should revenge that immediately. He shouted at his charioteer "Hi! fellow! I wanna kill those two chaps, Rama and Lakshmana, now. Then only my intense sorrow for the loss of my those three valiant and faithful ministers will somewhat subside. Now take me to the proximity of Rama, pronto. All the worlds and all the spectators in the firmament will now see how valiant and capable I am."

              On his way to Rama, Ravana was making some tremendous noise in all the ten directions filling the entire earth including its rivers, mountains and forests. And all of them trembled, throwing lions, antelopes and birds, into fright. Simultaneously he set out a very highly terrific and exceedingly frightful astra called Tamasa, which began to hit and kill a bunch of vanaras at a time.

         Seeing that, the other vanaras started running away in terrific fright. On learning about the unfair,  unreasonable, unjustified and unscrupulous action of Ravana on the hapless vanaras, who were trying hard to escape the astra , Rama rushed to accost Ravana, duly armed himself with his bow Kodandam et. al. and accompanied by his dear brother Lakshmana.

      Seeing lots of vanaras dropping dead and the others were running away to escape death, Ravana laughed merrily with contentment. He then noticed some figure was coming toward his chariot. When he looked up he found that it was Rama, along with his brother Lakshmana. He was waiting for that to happen. Now that Rama and his brother Lakshmana were in front of him, Ravana, feeling both happy and angry got ready with his bow and arrows to vanquish them.

      The duel between Ravana with his ten heads and twenty hands and Rama and Lakshmana started. Ravana split the arrows of Lakshmana one with one, three with three and ten with ten arrows. Bypassing Lakshmana, Ravana turned towards Rama. The sight of Rama made Ravana seethe with anger making  his eyes turning red. He then released streams of arrows upon Rama. Rama tore off all those arrows, which were blazing and looking very terrific like enraged serpents, with his arrows.

         Both were thus fighting furiously and tirelessly. As it was the fag end of the monsoon, the sky, which was covered with clouds making flashes of lightning, became more dark and dense with arrows of various kinds, obscuring the lightning.

      They continued their duel even after the sun-set. Ravana was fighting with the determination to kill Rama, by hook or crook. 

      Both the duelists were excellent archers. Both were skilled in war-fare. Both were eminently skilled in the use of missiles. Both moved unhindered in the battle-field. In whichever course both of them went, in the same respective direction, streams of arrows went, like waves in two oceans, whipped by the wind.

       Hissing like an angry serpent, Ravana who was endowed with extraordinary energy and conjuring tricks, released towards Rama astras having the heads of donkeys, boars, dogs and cocks as also of alligators and venomous snakes. He was pretty sure that Rama would get thoroughly confused and get killed.
          Without flinching a muscle, Rama countered those astras from Ravana by an astra with the potential of various astras. To the utter disappointment of Ravana his astras were blown into smithereens in the sky and fell down in thousands of pieces. Rejoiced to see that missile struck down by Rama, who was unweary in action, all the happy vanaras cried "Bravao! ....".

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359. Angada killed Mahaparsva.

              Mahaparsva, on getting the info about the killing of his pal Mahodara by Sugreeva,  was totally stunned. Then he decided to avenge his killing by liquidating Angada and his army who were in his close proximity. He then exerted his full prowess on the army of Angada with his men and arrows. Very many vanaras including the chiefs under that army of Angada were tormented and the heads of many of them were swept down just like an hurricane would throw down fruits from their stalk.

           That rakshash Mahaparsva started hurling innumerable arrows towards the vanaras. Those arrows chopped off the arms of some vanaras and struck down the region of the ribs of some others. All the guys in his army followed suit. As the hurling of the arrows by Mahaparsva and his army was so sudden and  so multitudinous, the hapless vanaras were totally at a loss as to how to defend themselves. Tormented by the flight of abundant and copious arrows of Mahaparsva and his chaps, all those vanaras were downcast with despair and lost heart.

        Seeing his army depressed by the torments of the rakshashas, Angada, who was endowed with a great impetuosity, acted like lightning. Taking hold of a steel rod, which was quite strong and sturdy, hurled it on Mahaparsva with all the force he could muster. It found its target. The sudden hit like a bolt from the blue made Mahaparsva senseless and fall on the ground from his chariot. Seeing that, Jambavan  killed the charioteer and horses. Not satisfied with that he he broke the chariot to pieces. 

          The very strong and sturdy Mahaparsva regained his conscience very quickly and resumed his strikes with his arrows on Angada. He struck Jambavan, too with three arrows in his chest and struck Gavaksha, too. Ignoring the pain caused by the arrows of Mahaparsva,  Angada  seized hold of a terrific iron rod. (Do not ask me 'How such and many iron rods were found in the battle field ? I intent asking Maharishi Valmiki if and when I meet him). Firmly holding that iron rod, Angada hurled it on Mahaparsva. This time that iron rod knocked the bow with the arrow fitted to it, from the hand of that rakshash and also his helmet.

       Seeing that rakshash was not dying  Angada jumping like a monkey, as he was, over to him, slapped him on his temple. Unfortunately the slap was not forceful enough to kill that rakshash. Mahaparsva  took a huge axe in his hand and hit it on Angada. Angada evaded that axe with alacrity.

          Angada determined to kill that rakshash in his next move. Tightened his fist, Angada punched that rakshsh on his chest with all the force he derived from his illustrious dad Vali. With the blow of that fist in that great combat, the fleshy part of his heart was blasted and he fell down dead on the ground. When Mahaparsva fell dead on the ground, his army got confused. Ravana went almost mad with desperation.

            Seeing the killing of Mahaparsva all the vanaras started roaring like a lion and dancing happily. Hearing and seeing that rejoicement, Ravana decided to do the fighting himself.

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