The verse and its meaning · Sundarkand · Sundarkand — Hanuman Crosses to Lanka

Hanuman Departs for Lanka

Sundarkand 1

जामवन्त के बचन सुहाये । सुनि हनुमन्त हृदय अति भाये । तब लगि मोहि परिखहु तुम्ह भाई। सहि दुख कन्दमूल फलखाई १ । जब लगि आवउँ सीतहि देखी। होइ काज मोहि हरष बिसेखी । अस कहि नाइ सबन्हि कहूँ माथा ।चलेउ हरषि हियँ धरि रघुनाथा ॥२ । सिन्धु तीर एक भूधर सुन्दर।कौतुक कूदि चढ़ेउ ता ऊपर । बार बार रघुबीर सँभारी । तरकेउ पवन-तनय बल भारी ॥३ । जेहि गिरि चरन देइ हनुमन्ता । चलेउ सो गा पाताल तुरन्ता । जिमि अमोघ रघुपति कर बाना । तेही भाँति चला हनुमाना ॥४ । हनूमान तेहि परसा,कर पुनि कीन्ह प्रनाम । राम-काज कीन्हे बिनु, मोहि कहाँ विश्राम ॥१

Meaning · English

Jambavan's words pleased Hanuman. He told the others to wait, eating roots and fruit and bearing hardship, until he saw Sita and returned glad. He bowed to all and left, Raghunath in his heart. On a shore mountain he leapt, and it sank to Patala. Touching it, he bowed: without Rama's work, where is rest?

Three words carry the passage. Bhūdhara is a mountain, literally the one who bears the earth. Amogha means never failing, never missing; Tulsidas uses it for Rama's arrow. Viśrāma is rest, a stopping place. Now the clauses. Hanuman hears Jambavan's counsel and is glad at heart. He asks the other vanaras to wait, living on roots and fruit and enduring hardship, until he has seen Sita. Then, he says, the work will be done and his joy complete. He bows to everyone and sets out, glad, with Raghunath held in his heart. At the sea shore he finds a beautiful mountain and climbs it for sport, as if it were play. Again and again he remembers Rama, and then he springs with great force. The mountain cannot bear his push and sinks into the netherworld at once. He goes like Rama's unfailing arrow. Then Hanuman touches the mountain, bows to it, and says that without finishing Rama's work there is no rest for him. Tulsidas places this at the start of the Sundarkand so the reader sees where Hanuman's strength comes from. He remembers Rama before he moves. It asks nothing of the listener except to notice that order: Rama first, then the leap, then the courtesy to the mountain he has just crushed.

A runner at the start of a race touches the ground, steadies his breath, and only then pushes off the block. The block takes the full force and gives way a little. Hanuman's remembering Rama is that steadying moment, and the leap is the push that follows from it.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

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• Next: Surasa's Test of Wit · Sundarkand 2
• All of Sundarkand · Ask Krishna about it

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