THE FOLLOWING IS A CLASS GIVEN BY HIS HOLINESS BHAKTI CHARUSWAMI ON THURSDAY JULY 1ST 2010, AT THE NORTH AMERICAN RETREAT, VRAJ,PENNSYLVANIA (RAMAYAN DAY 4)

Transcription  : Suvarna Manjari Dasi

Editing : Hemavati Radhika Dasi

HH Bhakti Charu Swami leads a sweet, melodious kirtan, thereafterstarts the class. Hare Krishna So out of seven kandas we have coveredup to five, until yesterday. We did up to Sundara kanda. Hanumanbringing the message of Sita Devi from Lanka and after finding SitaDevi, what did Hanuman do? Hanuman burned Lanka and then he came backthe same way he went and Ramachandra was very pleased with Hanuman. Andthen Ramachandra told Hanuman – That you are the best of the servants.There are three kinds of servants; the best is one who accomplisheswhat he has been asked to do and even more than that. He accomplishesmore than what he has been asked to accomplish. And Hanuman was toldthat you had been asked to find Sita’s whereabouts, find out where Sitawas and you not only found Sita’s whereabouts, you also consoled herwith the assurance that we will go and rescue her soon, then you foundout the strength of the enemy. You found out about their fortificationand other such arrangements. And on top of everything, you haveinstilled fear in their hearts, in the heart of the enemy. And thenRamachandra said that the second class is he who just accomplishes whathe has been asked to do although he is capable of doing more than that.And the third class one is the third class one is – he doesn’t even dowhat he has been asked to do. So these are the three kinds of servants.And Ramachandra told that Hanuman was the best, he was the first class.And Ramachandra told him that, “Look I am in exile, I don’t haveanything to give you as my appreciation for your service. I am just aperson banished into the forest. So all I can do, all I can offer you,is my embrace”… and saying that Lord Ramachandra embraced Hanuman. ThenRama asked Hanuman “So tell me about the situation of Lanka” andHanuman told that “Lanka is in an island. Lanka is an island and it issituated on top of a Mountain. The top of the mountain is flat. And thecity of Lanka is situated on top of the Trikuta Mountain. It issurrounded by a huge and massive golden wall. The walls of the city isalso made with gold, with solid gold and then the place is guarded byhundreds of thousands of very very powerful soldiers. And around thataround the wall there is a moat all around. And those moats are filledwith crocodiles and other ferocious aquatics. So this makes Lankapractically invincible, unapproachable. And on top of that, the wholecity all around is surrounded by a deep and dense forest. So the onlypeople who can approach Lanka are the monkeys (laughs). So now you seewhy the demigods were asked to take birth as monkeys. So there was aspecial necessity. So after getting all the informations and He wastold about Ravana how powerful he was and so Rama said that “Now is theauspicious time when the Abhijit nakshatra is in the ascending, so letus start our march towards Lanka. Because Abhijit is the star thatbrings victory. So in order to confirm the victory of their onslaught.So they started and there were billions of Monkeys all around. And theystarted towards Ramkishkinda. They all started for Lanka in the South.And Hanuman was carrying Rama. And Angad was carrying Laksman. And theMonkeys marched towards the South then finally they arrived in theSouthern most part of India. They came to the bank of the ocean.

In the mean time, after Hanuman massacred Lanka and killed so manysoldiers, so many generals, even Ravana’s son was killed. Prahasta’sson, his commander in chief’s son was killed. Seven sons of hisministers, chief minister were killed and five generals were killed. Soit caused a massive, just one monkey caused such a massive, massivehavoc. So then Ravana called all his ministers and advisers and hisother important family members. And Ravana told them that that thismonkey has come and he caused so much damage. So it seems soon Rama isgoing to come with his full force so what to do? So different Generalsof Ravana just assured him, that “Don’t worry, I will single-handedlytake care of Rama.” Some said “I will kill all the monkeys and eat themup! Some said “who cares about Rama and Laksman? Two mortal humanbeings! In no time I will finish them off!” And some said “Ravana, youhave captured Sita, Sita is in your custody, why don’t you enjoy her?What is preventing you from? And then the whole affair will be takencare of, because the whole business is about Sita, so why are youwaiting for her consent?” Because Ravana gave Sita, after kidnappingher, when Sita was completely unsubmissive, Ravana gave her one year’stime and out of that one year, ten months already went by. So he saidthat “these two months I am giving you, if you do not submit now,submit to me by that time, I will… kill you.” And so then Ravana toldabout one incidence, he told that once Punjikasthala, one Apsara wasgoing to Lord Brahma and Ravana saw her and he became so attractedtowards her, that he approached and she refused, saying that she isgoing to Lord Brahma. So Ravana then molested her, raped her. Sofinally this girl approached Brahma and narrated the whole incidence.So then Brahma cursed Ravana that if he ever forces any other woman,against her will, then his head will split into a hundred pieces. SoRavana said “That is why I am afraid to force her, because of Brahmascurse.” And so other Generals just assured Ravana, “So don’t worry, weare your loyal servants. So you just take it easy and you carry on withyour life, we will take care of Rama and Laksman, and all the Monkeys.”And they all were shouting and screaming and jumping up and down inexcitement. So at that time Vibhishana, he stood up and he asked all ofthem to cool down. And then Vibhishana told Ravana, that “Ravana, youknow, that it is due to your austerities that you have become sopowerful. You have received the benediction from Lord Brahma, becauseof your punya, because of your pious activities. Now, just this act ofyour stealing Sita, somebody else’s wife, is wiping out all your piousactivities and is causing you, an inconceivable sin for you.”Vibhishana actually knew that Rama is the Supreme Personality ofGodhead. Actually Ravana, although Vibhishana was Ravana’s brother, hewas very pious. And so in this way, he tried to pacify Ravana and bringhim back to his senses, saying that “Ravana return this lady back toher husband and spare your own life and spare the lives of all theRakshashas. Because if you don’t do that, then the entire RakshashaKula, will be destroyed.” Ravana didn’t want to hear that. Wheneversomebody advised him to return Sita, Ravana became very, very upset. Hewas completely possessed with the desire to have Sita. Many others alsoadvised him earlier to return Sita, but Ravana didn’t listen toanybody. Vibhishana also started to advise him. Vibhishana was alwaysgiving Ravana good council, but Ravana did not listen. So Ravana thendismissed the assembly and returned to his quarters. He just didn’twant to hear Vibhishana’s words. So next morning, Ravana was, when hewoke up and all the birds were singing his, that is, the Brahmans weresinging his glorification and chanting auspicious mantras, thenVibhishana again came to him and he started to give him the sameadvise, telling that “Look, you can see what Hanuman has done, just onemonkey has done. Rama himself didn’t even come as yet. Just one of hismonkey associates caused so much damage. So you can well imagine whatis going to happen to Lanka when Rama comes with his entire force.” Andhe started to glorify Rama, that “this Rama is not an ordinary person,He is Vishnu Himself. And so at that time Ravana became extremelyangry. Ravana just told him that “You are not my brother”… no he firsttold him that, “Had you not been my brother, I would kill you rightnow.” He said that “What kind of ally you are? That instead ofglorifying me, you glorify my enemy. You are minimizing me, right infront of me, which nobody ever dares to do.” Vibhishana said, “Theydon’t do that, because they are simply your flatterers. They’re notyour friend; they’re not your well-wisher. They’re actually causingyour destruction. They’re just the cause of your destruction. So, donot succumb to their flattery, rather come to your senses.” So in thisway, Vibhishana tried to reason with Ravana, but Ravana became sofurious, that Ravana just told Vibhishana to just leave him, hebanished him, he told him to get out and not to come back to him again.So being insulted in this way, Vibhishana just left and along withVibhishana went his four associates. Vibhishana had four associates, orfour ministers, who always used to be with Vibhishana. They also leftwith Vibhishana. So Vibhishana went across the ocean and came to Rama.And in the meantime, Sugriva and Hanuman and other monkeys saw, theseRakshashas coming, so they immediately wanted to accost them. SoVibhishana told them that “We have come here to surrender to Rama.” So,Sugriva didn’t want to believe them, so they wanted to get into a fightwith them, or he wanted to kill them, thinking that they were spies. SoVibhishana at that time told him that “We came to submit to Rama, soplease go and report to Rama with that message. I am Ravana’s brother,Ravana’s younger brother and I have come to surrender to Rama.” SoSugriva then went to Ramachandra. So Rama asked Sugriva, “So what doyou think about their intention? And what we should do?” Sugriva saidthat “We shouldn’t trust them, after all, he is a Rakshasha and if wetrust them, he’ll probably cause a great damage to us. So we shouldn’ttake a chance.” And so then Rama asked other monkey leaders also whatthey thought, and they all practically thought the same way, that thisshouldn’t be trusted. Some said “Maybe we can watch them for some timeand see if they are really trustworthy.” But then Rama said, “No, wedon’t have the time to watch them and then make the decision. We haveto make the decision right away.” So then Rama asked Hanuman, “Hanuman,what do you think?” Hanuman said that “I think that his intention ishonest.” And he gave various reasons: A person who is pretending or isduplicitous, he cannot be so composed. Vibhishana, the way he spoke,from his speech it appeared that he was speaking the truth and in thisway Hanuman gave his impression of Vibhishana. Like, he is honest, fromhis approach, from his way of speaking and so then Rama told that,“Yes, I agree with Hanuman.” and Rama also said that “If somebody hadto spy, if Ravana had to send a spy, why would he send his brother,such an important person to spy, when he has so many trained spies todo that job?” and then Ramachandra said something very, very wonderful,he said “On top of everything, if somebody comes to surrender to me andsays that he is surrendering to Me, I accept him, even if he is nothonest about his admission, even if one pretending to surrender comesto me, still I accept him.” And then he said that “And I take care ofhim, not only throughout his entire life, I take care of him life afterlife.” So that is the reward that is the result of someone surrenderingto Lord Ramachandra, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If oneapproaches him with, even if his intention may not be that pure, butstill if he comes with a mood of surrender, Lord accepts him. And byaccepting him, the Lord purifies him, whatever he’s lacking, Hecompensates for that. So in this way, Lord Ramachandra declared thereward for surrendering to Him. And in the meantime, Vibhishana wasbrought to Rama. Vibhishana immediately fell flat at Ramachandra’slotus feet with respect and surrender. So then Rama asked Vibhishanawhat happened and Vibhishana narrated everything of all that happenedbetween him and Ravana. Actually there is a reason also, I mean thereis an anecdote behind that, and it was, there were three principledemons, those, Sumali, Malivan and Mali. And these, Mali were theyoungest brother and they got into a conflict with Vishnu, because theywere causing distress to the Demigods and their situation was actuallyin Lanka. Lanka was built by Visvakarma for these demons, Danavas. Andthen Vishnu came in support of the demigods and they were driven out ofLanka and they were in the lower planetary systems, Patalaloka, theywere driven out of there. And then they lived there and Malivan had adaughter. One day Malivan came out to the upper planetary systems andthen he saw, Visravas son Kuvera, he was so powerful. Brahma gave himLanka. Visrava actually gave him Lanka as his kingdom and Brahma gavehim the chariot, the Pushpaka chariot. And Brahma also made him one ofthe Lokapars one of the four Lokapars the protectors and so Malivanbecame very envious seeing Visravas son Kuvera. And he wanted to havesomeone as powerful as Kuvera and he thought that it has to be a son ofVisrava Muni. Visrava is the son of Pulasta. There are original tensons of Lord Brahma, out of them there were nine who were prajapatis,and Pulasta is one of them. Pulasta, Bulaha, Kratu, Anjira, Marici.They’re the initial progenitors or prajapatis. So then Malivan wentback to his abode in the Patalaloka and he had a very beautifuldaughter. Her name was Koikashi. So he suggested that Koikashi approachVisrava. And so Koikashi came up to the place where Visrava wasmeditating, performing his tapasya. So Koikashi, a very beautiful younggirl approached Visrava and told him that she wanted a son from him. SoVisrava said, “Okay, since you approached me I will fulfil your desire,but since you have approached me at a wrong time of the day, in aninauspicious moment, your sons will become demons and they’ll cause alot of damage to the creation.” You remember the same thing happenedwith Diti also. When Diti approached Kasyapa and as a result of that,Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksa were born. So Koikashi was very sad tohear that her sons would become such miscreants, such sinful ones. Soshe prayed that “Please, give me a son who will be pious. And as aresult of that, Vibhishana was born. Ravana and Kumbhakarna wereextremely sinful, but Vibhishana was very, very pious. So pious means,what is the ultimate consideration of piety? The ultimate considerationof piety is to become of devotee of the Lord. There are relativeconsiderations of punya. That is achieved by austerities and penancesand performing sacrifice and truthfulness and so forth. But they’rerelative piety. The result of those piety remains on the materialnature. But the ultimate consideration of piety is to surrender to theLord and become his devotee and that result is both in the material aswell as in the spiritual nature. When one becomes a devotee of the Lordhe becomes most pious and as a result of that piety, he derives benefitin the material nature and when he leaves the material nature and goesback to the spiritual sky there also he receives the actual benefit ofbecoming a devotee of the Lord. So Vibhishana was a perfect example ofthat. So he submitted to Lord Ramachandra and Rama asked Vibhishana,“So tell me about Ravana and his strength, his background”. Vibhishanathen told all the exploits of Ravana and he described how Ravana, howpowerful Ravana was how Ravana defeated not only all the Demigods,Ravana actually defeated even Yamaraja and Ravana conquered death inthat way. Which I described yesterday. Ravana went and challengedYamaraja and Ravana defeated the Yamadutas, who are actually thesupervisors of death. And then Yamaraja was surprised that theseYamadutas are defeated by this person. So he came with his Yamadandaand he fought and then finally when he was about to strike him withYamadanda which would have killed Ravana, then Brahma intervened andtold him not to do that. And he explained why he shouldn’t do that,because Brahmas benediction was there which made Ravana invincible toany Demigod. So Yamaraja principally could not actually kill Ravana,but then Yamaraja’s prowess also is undefeatable and Brahma told himthat “If you do that then it will create a tremendous anomaly in thecreation and Ravana is actually meant to be killed by the Lord Himself.So just wait for that time.” So then Yamaraja disappeared. So in thisway Ravana defeated even Yamaraja. Ravana’s son, Indrajit captured,arrested Indra and brought him to Lanka as a prisoner. Then Brahmahimself came and pleaded that, “Let him go.” So this is how powerfulRavana and his son, his eldest son Indrajit was. And he has such apowerful army and he’s so powerfully situated. So Vibhishana told allthe, the entire background of Ravana.

So then, now the army has arrived, the monkey soldiers,Ramachandra’s army arrived at the bank of the ocean. So now theconsideration is how to cross the ocean? Hanuman proposed that him,Angad, Nila, Jambavan, Dvivida and Mahinda go across the ocean anddefeat Ravana. They were confident that just five or six of them coulddefeat Ravana. And it’s understandable also, like we saw what Hanumandid, and Hanuman actually told Sita, that if he wanted he can carry theentire Lanka. Which also we can see, he carried the Rishaba, later onwe will see, that he carried a mountain. If he could carry a mountain,he could carry Lanka also. And he could carry Lanka along with Ravana,bring him to Rama and take care of him. So this is how powerful Hanumanwas and Hanuman used to consider himself to be just an ordinary monkey.He used to think that other monkeys are even more powerful than he was.And so then Hanuman proposed that just few of them go and take care ofRavana and Ravana’s army. And he also suggested that Asvini Kumars sonMahinda and Divida, they had a benediction that they would never bedefeated in a battle. Hanuman himself also had the benediction, thateven brahmastra wouldn’t even work on him, so, but Rama said “No, Ihave taken a vow, that I myself will destroy Lanka and rescue Sita, soI’ll go.” So the consideration was, how to cross the ocean. So thenVibhishana suggested that Rama invites ocean to come and assist him.Let’s decide how ocean will assist. So Ramachandra sat down on kushagrass in order to make the ocean god come down to Him. For three dayshe sat there in meditation, but ocean god didn’t come. So Rama becametoo angry, that this person has become so arrogant, that even I amcalling and he’s not coming. So Rama just took his bow and arrow. Hetook his bow and placed a Brahmastra and He said “Now I’m going to wipeout this ocean. I’ll dry out the ocean, so that my monkey soldiers canwalk across the ocean and onto Lanka.” So when Rama became so angry,Laksman tried to pacify him, but Rama was just completelyuncontrollable and he was determined to chastise the ocean god. Thenfinally the ocean god came out, trembling with fear. And so he toldRamachandra that, “I didn’t come up, because I didn’t know how tofulfil your desire here. Like how could I make this, the ocean isinsurmountable, how to take them across?” Then finally he said “You doone thing, you just place, whatever, boulders, trees, rocks, mountainpeaks, and I’ll make them float.

And in this way you build a bridge. And your associate Nala, themonkey, is a son of Visakarma and he has been endowed with the similarpower as his father. Visakarma has invested his architecturalengineering skill to Nala. So Nala will be the engineer for thebridge.” So then the construction started. The first day the ocean is,how much? How long? It is four hundred miles, hundred yojanas…isit…anyways (laughter) I forgot..I was thinking that it is, one croshais two miles, and is two croshas or four croshas make ayojana?..Anyway, whatever it is, it’s a long distance..(laughter) So,anyway, lets count in yojanas, whether it’s four hundred or eighthundred. So first day, they constructed 14 Yojenas, the next day theyconstructed 21 yojenas.  First day it was 14 yojenas, second day it was20 yojenas and third day was 21 yojenas, fourth day was 22 yojenas andthen on the fifth day the bridge was complete. It went all the way toLanka. And it was 100 yojenas long and 10 yojenas wide. That bridge wasbuild, and then the monkeys marched to the other side of the ocean, toLanka. And then in Lanka they had the, there’s a mountain, called theShubala mountain, they climbed up the mountain and from the mountaintop in the evening, they say Lanka, a majestic city. As it has beendescribed earlier. A city with palaces made of solid gold. And there,all the palaces were seven stories high and this city was surrounded bya wall and that wall was made of solid gold. And hundreds of thousandsof soldiers were guarding the city. So, then that night, they all tookrest. In the meantime the message was sent, the information was givento Ravana that, Rama has arrived with His monkeys and they’re justwaiting outside the city gate. So this was also, a solid wall allaround the city and the city had four gates, one in the North, one inthe West, one in the South and one in the East and all these gates wereguarded with a draw bridge over a moat, and so the next morning, Ramajust went again, looked at Lanka from Shubala mountain, but this timeafter receiving the news that the monkeys have arrived with Ramachandraon the outside of the city gate. So Ravana came to see what thesituation was. So Ravana was surrounded by his Ministers and Generalson the top of the city gate and Rama saw Ravana and Ravana’sdescription has been given, as I also mentioned yesterday. Ravana usedto have ten heads, and twenty arms only when he used to be in thebattle, otherwise he used to carry just one head. And it was a verymajestic looking person, very powerful, very handsome. And so Rama wasjust looking at Ravana and in the meantime, Sugriva, he couldn’trestrain himself, when he saw Ravana. So from top of Shubala mountain,he just jumped and came right in front of Ravana. Ravana was a littlestartled when Sugriva just landed. And Sugriva just took thatopportunity and just hit Ravana on the head, so hard, that his crownwent flying. So it took Ravana sometime to figure out what washappening (laughter), but then, Ravana and Sugriva just started tofight, just wrestling and they were scratching each other with theirnails, they were hitting each other. And then Ravana saw, that it won’tbe possible for him to defeat Sugriva in a straight battle, so he triedto use his magical Rakshasha, magical tricks. So then Sugriva realizedthat and he immediately jumped back to Ramachandra. And when he cameback, all the monkeys were really excited, they just started to(laughter) jump with joy , (laughter) “Well done Sugriva! Well done!”But Rama chastised Sugriva, he said “A king should never act sowhimsically. Sugriva, what would have happened if you were killed? Thenour entire endeavour would have been lost. And if you died, then I alsowould have killed myself. So anyway, in future, never do that, but whatyou have done is really heroic.” He saw the other side, He said that,“It has caused, A LOT of confidence in the heart of the monkeys.(laughter) Seeing you, the way you treated Ravana.” So then Ravanalaunched his attack. Oh no, before that, Rama told Angad, “Angad, carrythe last message, give Ravana the last chance for compromise.” Because,this was a noble gesture from Rama’s part. Before they get into thewar, give him another chance to compromise. If he didn’t, okay, then welaunch the attack. So Angad immediately jumped and came in front ofRavana. And told him, “I am the messenger of Rama. So I have come witha message that, you have lost all your piety. Because of your sinfulreactions, sinful activities. The way you have been treating the Sages,the Rishis, the Ascetics. The way you have been causing damage to allkinds of innocent people. The way you have been insulting women. Sothese are all leading you to your death. So please check yourself andbecome situated in proper way of life. And you have stolen Sita that isthe most heinous crime. So you return Sita and have peace for both yourside and our side. If you do not, then your days are numbered. Youalong with your entire Rakshasha race will be killed.” So Ravanacouldn’t tolerate that. So he said that, he ordered his Rakshashasaround him, “Kill this monkey!” So immediately four Rakshashas went tocatch Angad. So they grabbed onto Angad, and at that time, Angad, justas they grabbed him, all these four Rakshashas, Angada jumped high upand all the four Rakshashas also (laughter), clinging onto his hands,they also went up and then Angad just shook them off and they all wentflying and landed on the ground. Then Angad went onto Ravana’s palacetop, on top of Ravana’s palace, the dome and with one kick, he justbroke the dome. And that was an insult, because that is the cause oftheir pride, the flag is there, so in this way, insulting Ravana Angadcame back. Then the war started. Ravana sent his Generals, first one hesent was Dhumraksha, and Hanuman killed him with his army. In this wayone of them came, Vidujipa, then Angad killed him. Then another generalnearly killed him. So in this way, waves of army, were being sent byRavana and the monkeys were just wiping them all out. And of course,many monkeys also died in this battle, both the monkeys and therakshashas, so many of them died. There was a flow of river, and thewhole field, the battlefield became muddy, soaked with blood. So then,Ravana sent Indrajit. Indrajit is the person, Ravana’s principle wifeMandodari son. Indrajit had an inconceivable amount of power. He was aspowerful as Ravana. In some ways he could even be considered morepowerful, because he had one benediction that he received from Brahmathat he could fight invisibly. So Indrajit, hiding, rather invisibly hestarted to shoot some Nag arrows. Kadru, is the original Nag, themother of the serpents. Kadrus sons are the celestial serpents, headedby Vasuki. Vasuki is of course is very pious. Two of her sons arepious. Vasuki and Sesa. Sesa is Ananta, who is holding the universes onthe tip of His head. And so, these serpents turned into arrows orserpents were made into arrows and they were shot by Indrajit and thoseserpents pierced Rama and Lakshmans bodies. So in this way, They becamecovered, Their whole body became covered with such arrows, that therewas not even any space left to put a finger in Their body. And in thisway, injuring Rama and Lakshman, Indrajit went back to Ravana, hethought that now he killed Them. So very proudly and confidently hewent to his father and he said that ” I have finished these enemies ofyours.” So Ravana was very pleased hearing that. So he immediately sentfor Sita and told his messengers, that, tell these Rakshashas who areguarding Sita, to take Sita to the battlefield, with a pushpakachariot, a flying chariot, so that from the chariot, Sita could see thecondition of Rama and Lakshman. And so Sita was taken to thebattlefield and Sita could, when Sita saw Rama and Lakshman in thatcondition, Sita just started to cry piteously. Wailing, that, lamenting“When I was young, the saintly astrologers predicted that I will be themother of children. I’ll live a long life and that I will not see thewidowhood. That means that I will die before my husband, but now, theyhave all gone wrong, now that whatever they said was all lies.” So shejust started to cry in this way. So seeing her condition, Trijata theleader of the Rakshashis was actually friendly to Sita, was quitecompassionate to Sita. She gave a few points to Sita, “Sita, don’tworry, Your husband is not dead, because pushpaka chariot will notcarry a widow and from here we can see, that the monkeys are guardingRama and Lakshman, so if They were dead, then there is no need forguarding Them. So since they are guarding Them, then it means that Theyare still alive and from here I can see, that Their face has the lustrewhich depicts, which displays that they are still alive.” So in thisway, she consoled Sita. Now, and in the mean time, when Shushena, themonkeys doctor, the expert physician of the monkeys. So Shushena wasconsidering how to save Rama and Lakshman from this situation. Theywere thinking of different ways and means, then all of a sudden therewas a terrible wind started to blow. And due to the winds, the waves ofthe ocean became gigantic, high and then they saw one bird comingthere, flying there. And that bird came, and as soon as the bird cameto the site, all the snakes ran away from there, leaving Rama andLakshman. So who is this bird? Garuda. Garuda came there, and Rama andLakshman opened Their eyes and Garuda offered His obeisances to Rama,“My Lord, I am Garuda, Your eternal servant.” and then he told him,that “You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, so no one can ever doanything to you.” Saying that, Garuda said “Anytime you need me, justcall me.” Saying that, Garuda flew away. The news reached to Ravana,and then all the monkeys started to jump with joy, roaring, “Jay RamaKi Jay! Jay Sri Rama! Jay Sri Lakshman!” And Ravana heard thetumultuous sound, the roars of the monkeys, so he asked, “Whathappened?” Then he got the news that Rama and Laksman had revived. Sothen, Ravana got back into the battle again, completely disappointed,he thought that now his enemy is now dead, but now he’s come back tolife. So Ravana started to send different generals, but they all werekilled, one after another. Then finally Ravana told Prahastra, hiscommander in chief that “You, me, Kumbhakarna, Indrajit can deal withRama, so, go and kill Him.” But Prahastra went to fight, but he waskilled by Ramas soldier, I think it was Angad who killed Prahastra. Soagain, when the news reached to Ravana, then Ravana’s six sons when andlead, I’m sorry, three sons, lead an attack, with the three othergenerals, they also were killed. And the situation became sofrustrating for Ravana, that he started to lament in the assembly,saying that, “When Brahma gave me the benediction, that I will not bekilled according to my desire, by the Devas, the Danavas, theRakshashas, the Yavanas and so forth. Then after giving me thebenediction, Brahma warned me, “Be careful of the human beings, becauseyou forgot to ask about your immunity from humans.”.so he gave me thatwarning at that time.” And then he narrated the story of Vedavati, thatthe daughter of Kind Kushadas, who wanted to marry the SupremePersonality of Godhead, Vishnu, and she was performing severeausterities in the Himalayas, and while Ravana was flying above in hischariot, he saw this ascetic, beautiful ascetic woman in the mountain.So he approached and he wanted to win her, appeal to her – “You becomemy wife.” But she politely said that she actually accepted Vishnu,Narayan as her husband, so, she can’t accept anyone else. At that time,Ravana forcibly caught hold of her hair and tried to abduct her, atthat time, she converted her arm, into a sword, and she cut her hairoff and she said, “By your touch, my existence has become polluted,with this body I cannot approach Vishnu, Narayan anymore.” Saying that,she gave up her body. And she, at that time, she told, “In my nextlife, I’ll come to be the cause of your death.” And most probably, thisVedavati had become Sita. Then he told about Brahmas curse, Rambascurse, Nalakuveras curse (laughter) and then in the Iksvaku dynasty,there was a king called Anaranya and he fought a battle with Anaranya.After a long battle, Anaranya was dying, by Ravana’s onslaught, andwhile dying, Anaranya cursed him that, “In my dynasty, in my family,someone will come, and He will kill you.” So this Rama, he has appearedin the Iksvaku dynasty. So probably, Anaranyas curse is also now beingfructified. So in this way, Ravana was just lamenting, and then hesaid, “Wake up Kumbhakarna, he is the only one who can actually dealwith them.” Now, Kumbhakarna was so dangerous, that when Kumbhakarnawanted to have the boon, Ravana got the boon from Brahma, but all thedemigods could see, that if Kubhakarna gets the boon from Brahma, thenthat will be the end of creation. So they approached Sarasvati, BhagDevi, who controls the speech, the Goddess of learning, and said, “Dosomething about it, that he cannot ask, for an inauspiciousbenediction.” So when Brahma asked Kumbhakarna, to ask for abenediction, Bhag Devi entered into Kumbhakarna’s mouth and the wordthat came out was that, “Let me sleep.” (laughter)and Brahma said, “Ok,granted!” (laughter) So as a result of that, Kumbhakarna got thebenediction of sleeping, so Ravana realized, that something went wrong.He said that “Look”, he told Brahma, “Please have mercy on him, likehe….I don’t know WHAT happened (laughter) he asked for such abenediction, but it doesn’t make any sense.” So then Brahma said, “Ok,he’ll sleep for six months, and he’ll wake up for a day.” But Ravanawas so desperate, that, although he knew, that if Kumbhakarna was wokenup, before his scheduled time for waking up, then Kumbhakarna will die.But he was so desperate, that he thought, let Kumbhakarna fight andkill Rama and then he let Kumbhakarna die, (laughter) that’s a demon.Doesn’t have any mercy, any thought, any compassion for anybody. So, itwas an incredible endeavour, after which, Kumbhakarna was woken up.Thousands of elephants were just crawling over his body, (laughter),twenty thousand drummers were beating the drum, next to his ears. Andin this way, after a whole lot of endeavour, finally Kumbhakarna wokeup. And they knew, after waking Kumhakarna up, he would want to eat anddrink, so they had a few thousand barrels of wine (laughter) for him todrink and mountains of meat. So after that, Kumbhakarna went to thebattlefield and before going to the battlefield, he chastised Ravana,he said that, “You, you get into this fight…why did you steal someoneelse’s wife? Why did you not consult with anybody? Now that you are ina difficult situation, you are asking for our help…you should haveasked, you should have consulted us before hand, before gettinginto…anyway, since you have done it, ok, what can be done? Ok, I’lltake care of Rama and Lakshman.” So Kumbhakarna went in the fight. Anelaborate description of the fight is there in the Ramayana. But whatKumbhakarna was doing, he was putting hundreds of monkeys in his mouthand eating them up and their blood was dripping from his mouth and hewas just, in this way, he was just slaughtering and killing so manymonkeys. So, seeing that, Hanuman confronted Kumbhakarna and one of theother monkeys was trying…so finally Kumbhakarna hit Sugriva and madehim unconscious and then he thought that he has defeated the king ofthe monkeys so he put him under his arms and went back to the city,Lanka. Hanuman thought of rescuing Sugriva, that the king has now beencaptured and taken into imprisonment. But then he thought that, if herescued Sugriva, then Sugriva would feel, somewhat insulted, that hehad to take the help from somebody to get saved from a situation likethat. So seeing that, Hanuman just stayed back. And in the meantime,Kumbhakarna, huge, like a mountain, it has been described, anyway, hewas a huge person and with him, under his arm, Sugriva under his arm,he just walked into the city. And everyone was jubilant, that now, theking of the monkeys has been captured. And the entire woman started tothrough fragrant water, indicating auspiciousness and appreciation.Now, when this water was splashed onto Kumbhakarna that fell on Sugrivaalso. So Sugriva came back to his senses. So when Sugriva came back tohis senses, he just freed himself from Kumbhakarna’s arms and jumped upto Kumbhakarna’s ears and then he ate up his one ear, (laughter) thenhe bit into the other ear and dislocated it and he grabbed onto hisnose, took away a part of his nose also and Kumbhakarna screamed, andSugriva just leapt out, and came back to Rama. So Kumbhakarna, veryangry, he took a massive hammer and he went to the battlefield, andstarted to kill the monkeys. So when they saw that there was no way toconfront, no-one could really stop Kumbhakarna, then Rama finally cameto confront him. So with one arrow, Varuna arrow, Rama cut offKumbhakarna’s right hand. And Kumbhakarna kept on fighting with hisleft hand with Rama. Then, with agni astra, he cut off Kumbhakarna’sleft hand, still Kumbhakarna was fighting. Then he cut off his twolegs, then opening his mouth, Kumbhakarna came to devour Rama. Ramashot so many arrows, that Kumbhakarna’s mouth became filled of arrows.And then with another weapon, Rama cut off Kumbhakarna’s head, so thatKumbhakarna’s head rolled into the main street in the city by the gateand Kumbhakarna’s body just fell into the ocean. And it has beendescribed, that his body was so big, that when it fell in the ocean,half of his body was submerged in the water and the other half, up tohis torso was still above the ocean. So when the news reached thatKumbhakarna is dead, Ravana fainted. Just the news was so shocking,that Ravana just fainted. And then, when he was lamenting, thenIndrajit came and said “Father, don’t worry, don’t lament, I will takecare of them. I’ve already taken care of them once, I will take care ofthem now.” So again Indrajit went, and started to fight, invisibly. Andall the monkeys, they couldn’t see where the arrows were coming from ,they were seeing the weapons coming, but they couldn’t see anybody. Sothey were completely baffled, even Hanuman was baffled. Then Rama andLakshman said, “Let’s pretend that we have been injured.” So they alllay down on the ground, and thinking that they had been defeated,Indrajit left the battlefield. So at that time, and then another thinghappened, now, this Indrajit came back with an illusory Sita on hischariot and this illusory Sita that was flying on the chariot, everyonesaw Sita on the chariot. Hanuman was about to attack the chariot, butwhen he saw Sita, he couldn’t attack, and this Sita started to cry, “OhRama, please save me save me.” And when Sita was crying like that,Indrajit just hit her on the face. And seeing, Hanuman saw that she wasbeing treated like that, and he was so angry, but still, he didn’t knowwhat to do. Then, Indrajit said, “See, everybody now see, to end thisbattle, I’m going to now end this person, because all this battle, allthis struggle is for this woman, so let everything come to an end,along with her.” Saying that, he took his sword and diagonally slashedher body. And when Rama saw that, Rama fainted, thinking that Sita hasbeen killed. Vivishan was not there when the news reached Vivishan thatthis is what happened, and Rama is in such a condition. So Vivishancame and told Rama that, “Ravana will never allow anyone to kill Sita.He’s too attached to Sita to let anyone kill her, so it is just anillusory trick that this Indrajit has done.” So then Vivishan said,“Our biggest impediment to our victory now is this Indrajit.” And hetold that, “There is only one way that this Indrajit can be killed, andthat, is, before coming to the battlefield, Indrajit performs a yajnacalled Nikumbila. And after performing the Yajna, he becomes invisible.So before he becomes invisible, you have to deal with him.” So, early,early hours in the morning, when Indrajit was about to perform thisyajna, Lakshman and Hanuman and other monkeys, were led by Vivishan.They arrived, into that area, where Indrajit was performing hissacrifice. And a terrible battle took place between Lakshman andIndrajit. And then finally Lakshman killed Indrajit. So, when the newsreached of Indrajits death to Ravana felt that now, it’s, he reallystared to lament, that, “I wish I had listened to Vivishansadvice.”.But it was already too late. So as a hero, Ravana himself cameto the battlefield. He came to the battlefield, and a terrible battleactually ensued between Ravana and Lakshman was confronting Ravana.Ravana took up a lance, that was, that pierced Lakshmans body. AndLakshman became unconscious. So that is a time, as you know, like torevive Lakshman, Hanuman had to bring the Gadhamandan mountain. Hanumanjumped all the way to the Himalayan mountain to bring these herbscalled Vishalakarani. Actually, there were four types of herbs thatwere needed, Vishalakarani, Suvarnakarani, Sandhini and Mritasanjivini.Hanuman could not find these herbs himself, so he just uprooted themountain and carried the whole mountain to Lanka. Then Shushena foundthe herbs, and he made a paste of it, and made Lakshman to smell it.And when Lakshman inhaled it, Lakshman came back to life.

Then Rama confronted Ravana. Ravana was fighting from a chariot, soin order to match Ravana’s situation, Indra sent his own chariot,driven by Matali, Indras chariot driver and then a terrible battle tookplace between Ravana and Rama. Rama found, it was very difficult tosubdue Ravana. Because he would shoot an arrow and cut one of the headsof Ravana, the head would fall on the ground, but another head wouldjust appear. In this way, hundreds of heads of Ravana were chopped offand all those things were lying, but Ravana was totally unaffected bythat. So then, Agastamuni came there, actually, at one time, Ravanabecame mortally, fatally injured, that his chariot driver took him outof the battlefield. And when Ravana was away from the battlefield,Agasta came and reminded Rama to chant the Adityahridaya Mantra and hereminded Him to use the weapon that he gave Him when Rama came to visithim in Dandakaranya. This was a weapon that was personally created byLord Brahma. And so, in this way, Agasta Rshi advised Rama, to use thatweapon, not to cut his head, but to pierce his heart. Ravana actuallyhad nectar in his heart, preserved in his heart, that’s why he becameimmortal. So this time when Ravana came back to the battlefield, Ravanawas very upset. He told his chariot driver, “Why did you take me out ofthe battlefield?” And the chariot driver said that, “I took you out, sothat you could regain your consciousness.” And so finally Ravana waspersuaded. So when he came to the battlefield this time, Rama just usedthis terrible weapon, Brahmastra. It hit Ravana in his chest and Ravanawas dead. So after Ravana’s death, when the news reached Lanka, all hisQueens came crying and they were lamenting and seeing their condition,Rama told Vivishan, “We have to cremate him, we have to conduct hisfuneral as soon as possible, otherwise these ladies will not bepacified. Because, as long as his body is there, they will be wailing.”Vivishan refused to do the funeral conduct of Ravana. The funeral ismeant to be conducted by a family member. Now in his family all hissons were dead. The only male person, family member that was alive wasVivishan. But Vivishan refused to do that, he said “He is such a sinfulperson, I don’t want to conduct his funeral.” But Rama reasoned withhim that, “whatever he has done, he has done, but now that he is dead,he is not subjected to that. After all, it is his body that has to becremated. Finally, Vibhishana conducted Ravana’s funeral. And afterRavana’s funeral, Vibhishana was coronated to the throne by Ramacandra.Then news was sent to Sita. By Hanuman news was sent about Rama’svictory and Ravana’s death. And Sita became so excited, she immediatelywanted to come. But Hanuman said, no you take your bath, get dressed upproperly and then come. When Sita came, she found that Rama was verygrave and she wondered why Rama seems to be so grave at the time likethis. Then Rama told :“You have been kidnapped by somebody, stayed inhis house for so long. So, naturally people will question about yourpurity. And here it is not my feelings which are of consideration. Whatis of consideration is the honour of our dynasty. So Sita was crying.Sita was saying: “Why did you not tell me before that you are not goingto accept me ? Then I would have given up my life. What was the use ofkilling of so many monkeys, killing of so many rakshashas, so manylives have been lost for nothing. She said that: “I am going to enterinto fire and give up my life”. And then Rama consented to that. Hesaid: “Laksman, light the fire.” A huge fire was lit and Sita enteredthere. But then Agnideva himself appeared from the fire with Sita.Everybody saw that Sita’s dress, her hair not even a touch nothing gotburned,. And then Agnideva declared Sita was pure. In this way, Sitawas united with Rama again. Then Rama told Sita :”I knew about yourcondition, but just to pacify everybody, so that no one will everquestion your character, that’s why I have arranged that. Then it wasarranged that Rama along with Laksman and Sita will go back to Ayodhya.Vivishan requested them to stay for longer, but Rama insisted, “No”. Hewanted to go. So then, it was arranged that Vivishan wanted to comewith Him. So then it was arranged that Vivishan wanted to come withRama, so did Sugriva. And all the monkeys also wanted to come. So theyall got into the pushpaka chariot and they all came to Ayodhya. And atthat time Bharata was not in Ayodhya. Bharata actually shifted thecapital to Nandigram. And there, living like an ascetic, living in acottage, eating only fruits and roots, Bharata was spending his days.So Rama arrived and Bharata came back with His shoes. He saidthat:“Making these shoes your representatives, I have been ruling thiskingdom, conducting the affairs of the kingdom for all these years. Sonow you please take your kingdom back. So in this way Ramacandra cameback to Ayodhya and took his kingdom back. And after that, for eleventhousands of years He reigned over the earth planet. Sri Ramacandra kijay ! Gaurpremanande Hari Haribol! Does anybody have any question ?Yes, (Question unclear) BCS: You see in the Age of Kali, CaitanyaMahaprabhu said that one should not, devotees specially shouldn’tresort to violence. That’s one point. The time has changed. The otherthing is that a ksatriya may resort to violence but not the Brahmans,what to speak of devotees. Devotees, especially the followers of SriCaitanya Mahaprabhu will not, they are all very gentle and noble. Sothey don’t get into such uncivil acts, ungentle manly act. Devotee 2:What is the action then, Maharaja, is there any action to be taken ornothing ? BCS: Well, I mean if it is too unbearable leave the place. Ifsomeone superior is being insulted or spoken harshly or badly about,then leave the place. Devotee 3: Maharaja, is that time that the realSita came back ? BCS: Yeah, right that’s one thing. The actual thing isthat when Ravana came to steal Sita, Sitadevi took shelter of Agni andAgnideva gave her the shelter and in place of Sita appeared the MayaSita. After rescuing or the killing of Ravana, when Sita was rescuedand she came back to Rama, then Maya Sita disappeared and Agnidevabrought the real Sita. Devotee 4: I had a question, I had twoquestions. First one is that Lord Brahma, he is the leader of theSampradaya the Brahma Madhya Gaudiya Vaishnav sampradaya. So, I’m notclear why so many demons are getting benedictions from him. As thecreator of the universe, does he understand the future, that thesedemons will use their powers ? BCS: There are two ways of looking atit. One way of looking at is, that, in the material nature everythinghappens according to guna and karma. Right, Karma means action andresultant reaction. These resultant reactions are of two kinds ofactions. Pious activity and sinful activity. So, pious activity automaticallyleads to certain reactions. So, these austerities that the demonsperform are pious activity and as a result of that they become entitledto certain reaction, which means their fulfilment of their desire. SoBrahma, the demigods, even up to Brahma, what they do, they actuallyneutrally make arrangements of things. They remain neutral. They arenot at all affected or partial in that sense. So that is the reason,that’s the first consideration. And the second consideration is that,yes, Brahma knows past, present and future. And as a result of that,Brahma knows about the Lord’s pastimes also. So, if these arrangementswere not mad Like the other day, I was discussing about a drama. Adrama means conflict. Without conflict there cannot be a drama. Orrather, the bigger the conflict the better the drama. So, the Lord’spastimes are like drama. Therefore there has to be conflict. Conflictbetween whom? Between the Lord and His antagonists. So, this is how theantagonists are set up. To create the conflict when the Lord comes toperform His pastimes. Devotee 4 asks another Question : I like to askalso about : When Sugriva first pounced on Ravana, and knocked off hishelmet, and was fighting with him, then he realized that Ravana wasusing his mystic powers. So, how was it that the army was makingprogress. When Sugriva realized it that Ravana was using all thesemystic powers how was it that the monkey army was actually makingprogress against all these super powerful weapons and mantras, whenthey did not have the same weaponry really as the Ravana’s. BCS: Well,the monkeys also had the mystic power. These are not ordinary monkeys.These are all the demigods. Right? They have the mystic power. LikeHanuman or any other monkeys, they could transform into any form. Theycould expand themselves to any degree. His thing was, it is not a fairfight now. His resorting to mystic power, it is not that he could notresort to mystic power, he could have. But that would have beenunnecessary. And he felt that he would give vent to his anger. He toldRama :”When I saw that rascal, I could not restrain myself.” “When Isaw that he is the one who has stolen Sita and has caused so much agonyto you, so he could not restrain himself. Out of impulse he just actedthe way he did. And after doing that he just came back. Devotee 5 :Maharaja, what happened to Ravana and the others who died on thebattlefield? Did Rama liberate them? BCS: Okay, very good point. Asura,Harina hata. When the demons are killed by the Lord, they also attainliberation. Yes, Ravana got liberation. But these pastimes, he gotsayuja mukti. He merged into Brahma-jyoti and slept in brahma-jyoti. Orhe remained in brahma jyoti until it was time to come as Sisupala. Sothen he came as Sisupala. Yes, another good point, the demons, Ravana’sside the rakshasasas, they actually got some sort of benefit, likesayuja mukti. But after the battle Rama revived all the monkeys. Allthe monkeys came back to life and participated in Rama’s pastimes.Devotee 5 asks another question : Maharaja this is a general question,When this type of battles happen, when the Lord Himself intervenes, allthese demons they become good human beings in the next birth or whathappens to them ? BCS: It will depend, did Ravana become a good humanbeing ? In the next life he became Sisupala. But then, after that, yes,then he became Jagai. So, it was a gradual process of purification.Devotee 5: Thank you Maharaja. BCS: Yes, Steve… Steve’s Question : HareKrishna Maharaja, I was wondering what we could take from Sita’s questfor purity, her jumping in the fire. We should always strive tomaintain purity in our lives or not associate with those who are impureor could bring impurity to us or am I completely wrong ? BCS: Well, youhave to consider what time (end of the recordings)