The verse and its meaning · Sundarkand · Sundarkand — Lanka Burns

Hanuman's Plain Answer

Sundarkand 22

जानउँ मैं तुम्हारि प्रभुताई। सहसबाहु सन परी लराई । समरबालि सन करि जस पावा।सुनिकपि बचन बिहँसि बहरावा॥१ । खायेउँ फल प्रभु लागी भूखा। कपि सुभाव तेँ तोरेउँ रूखा । सब के देह परम प्रिय स्वामी। मारहिँ मोहिँ कुमारग-गामी ॥२ । जिन्ह मोहि मारा ते मैं मारे। तेहि पर बाँधेउ तनय तुम्हारे । मोहि न कछु बाँधे कइ लाजा । कीन्ह चहउँ निज प्रभु कर काजा ॥३ । बिनती करउँ जोरि कर रावन । सुनहु मान तजि मोर सिखावन । देखहु तुम्ह निज कुलहि बिचारी । भ्रम तजि भजहु भगत भयहारी ॥४ । जाके डर अति काल डेराई । जो सुर असुर चराचर खाई । तासोँ बैर कबहुँ नहिं कीजै । मोरे कहे जानकी दीजै । प्रनतपाल रघुनायक, करुनासिन्धु खरारि । गये सरन प्रभु राखिहहिँ, तव अपराध बिसारि ॥२२

Meaning · English

I know your might: you fought Sahasrabahu and Bali. Hunger made me eat fruit; a monkey breaks trees. Those who struck me, I struck. Your son bound me; I feel no shame, I want my Lord's work done. Return Janaki; Rama shelters the surrendered.

Three Awadhi words carry the passage. Prabhutai is lordship, the might of a ruler. Baira is enmity, a grudge that is kept alive. Sarana is refuge, the place a frightened person runs to. Hanuman starts by granting Ravana his prabhutai, since he knows of the fights with Sahasrabahu and Bali. Then he answers Ravana's charges one at a time. He ate the fruit because he was hungry. He broke the trees because a monkey does that by nature. He killed the guards because, as he puts it, everyone holds their own body dear, and those men attacked him by the wrong road, which is what kumargagami means. Ravana's son bound him, and Hanuman says he feels no shame at the binding. He wanted to be taken, so that he could do his master's work. Then he asks Ravana, with folded hands, to drop his pride and think of his own family line. He says the one who frightens even Time is the one to worship, and that enmity with him is never wise. The closing doha gives the reason for all of it. Rama protects the humble and is an ocean of compassion, and the text says he will shelter even Ravana if Ravana comes to him, forgetting his faults. Hanuman asks for the return of Sita.

A courier is stopped at a checkpoint and lets himself be searched and held. He does not mind it, because the officer he came to reach sits just beyond the gate. Hanuman's binding works the same way: the rope is the road into Ravana's court, where the message can be spoken.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: The Messenger of Rama · Sundarkand 21
• Next: Hanuman's Counsel to Ravana · Sundarkand 23
• All of Sundarkand · Ask Krishna about it

Sacred Sargam

The sacred texts with their meaning, read aloud, with Ask Krishna, a Panchang and bhajans. Free, on the web and as an app. Open Sacred Sargam