INTRODUCTION :
Sundara Kandam is one of the chapters in the great epic Ramayana. It was written in Sanskrit by Maharishi Valmiki, who has written the entire epic Ramayana. In Sundara Kandam, the great tasks performed by Lord Hanuman were mentioned and also the various good qualities of Hanuman like his selflessness nature, obedience, confidence, great strength, and his Rama Bhakti is mentioned in the holy text.
He is the one who makes impossible things into possible. Since Hanuman contains beautiful face as well as he contains very good nature, he was fondly called as “Sundara” by Sage Valmiki. In the Sundara Kandam, Hanuman’s journey to Lanka is mentioned clearly.
The Sundara Kandam forms the main portion of Ramayana and it tells about the greatness of Hanuman, his involvement in searching for Mata Sita, and the interesting incidents happened during his travel to Lanka.
While he was on his journey to Lanka, he met the Mighty Mountain king Mainaga, and blessed him. He also won in the game kept by the Naga Devata Surasa, and received her blessings also. He flew in the sky like the divine bird Garuda, and after reaching Lanka, Hanuman defeated Lanka Devi, the goddess of Srilanka, and then Hanuman took the shape of a small person, and walked down in the streets of Lanka, and he finally found her in the Ashok Vana.
In the Ashok Vana, Sita was threatened by Ravana and she was guarded by various demons, and they insisted her to marry Ravana. When the demons were slept, Hanuman approached Mata Sita and narrated about the life history of Lord Rama to her, in order to bring confidence on him. Sita wept with tears, and gave one of her necklaces to Hanuman, and asked him to give it to Rama.
Hanuman then went inside the city of Lanka and fought with the demon soldiers and killed them. Finally, he met Ravana, and insisted him to set free Mata Sita from the Ashoka Vana. Due to that, Ravana had become very angry, and asked his soldiers to set fire on his tail. The soldiers tied clothes on his tail, and burnt the fire on his tail.
The angry Hanuman, with the fire on his tail, destroyed most of the houses of the demons and the buildings in Srilanka. And then he went to Kishkinta, and narrated the entire incidents happened in Srilanka to Lord Rama, Sugriva, Jambavan and to other Vanaras, and also he gave the necklace to Rama, which was given by Mata Sita to Hanuman in the Ashoka vana.
It is an ancient practice to recite the story of Sundara Kandam, and a copy of Sundara Kandam book must be kept in the puja room by each and every Ram devotee. Listening to divine discourses on Ramayana, and reciting Sundara Kandam during Saturdays, would give us all kinds of prosperities in our life, and after our death, we would attain salvation.
In this present period, running our life is very difficult without the help of the almighty. We are suffering from lot of problems and from various kinds of diseases. Hence let us develop the reading habit of Ramayana, and especially the main chapter Sundara Kandam, and be blessed.
“OM”
SENT BY
R.HARISHANKAR
