Original subtitles

Welcome to our series finale of Ramayana.

By the way, this Setu is called Nal Setu, not Ram Setu.

Ravan was more interested in playing dirty tricks rather than preparing for

battle. He called Vidyujjiva and instructed him to make a replica of

And then Ravan went to meet Sita. He told her cheerfully, your dear husband

dead. It was time to charge on to the gates of Lanka.

What is the kind of weaponry that one should visualize?

This is a very strange war that one side has none of this. The Vanaras fought

with their bare hands and they would punch, kick, throw stones, even bite. Or

they would pick up the weapons of the Rakshasas themselves and hit them. The

Vanaras kept winning again and again. Although both sides suffered heavy

casualties, Ravan wanted to call on Kumbhakarna. They beat drums to try and

him up. Then they started pulling his hair.

He got up and he was famished. They had brought meat for him to eat, pig,

buffalo, deer. Pig, buffalo and deer. As well as big jars of blood. That was his

food.

After months of longing, finally they had seen each other. Their faces lit up

with joy. But then Ram's expression changed and he said to her, Oh lady, you

should know that I did not fight the war for your sake. Now there is a doubt

about your character and I can't even bear to look at you. What sort of a man

would take back a woman who has spent some time in someone else's house?

This is our series finale of our four -part retelling of the entire Ramayana.

The series finale is all about the war between Shri Ram and Ravan,

the king of the Rakshasas or the evil force that was present in the world at

time of the Ramayana. Remember that there's only one accurate Ramayana and

that's the one written by the sage Valmiki.

In today's day and age, there's only one man in India who has studied Valmiki's

Ramayana with that much intensity, with that much force, and has gone that much

into the depths of the Valmiki Ramayana. His name is Yashodhi Devdaso, who

helped us create this very special four -part series.

If you've not watched the first three parts, watch them at the end of watching

this particular part.

Because all of us loosely know the story of the Ramayana, but we do not know the

details. And the details are very different from the movies, from the

from the comic books that you've read.

That's the intention with this whole series, that every single Indian gets to

know the real, raw, unfiltered version of the Ramayana. Make sure you check out

the other three parts. But today, enjoy this very special, war -oriented episode

of Valmiki's Ramayana.

Begins with Yashodeep Deodarsal in 3, 2, 1.

Welcome back, Yashodeep sir.

Thank you very much.

Welcome to our series finale.

Thank you for this beautiful series that's going to stay on the internet for

another 50 years.

Thank you very much for this opportunity to take Maharshi Valmiki's words to all

of your audience.

I'm glad.

Again, in my eyes, I look at this as duty towards Sanatana Dharma because

generation has its own retelling of Ramayana. For me, it wasn't even

Sagar's Ramayana. It was the anime.

That's how I visualized the Ramayan. And I'm hoping that this podcast series is

kind of a cornerstone for many people's visualization. And definitely they

should eventually find your series that you created on your channel. But this

has been a beautiful experience until now. Like very, very educative. Thank

So welcome back to the studio.

This is the series finale.

Yes. Before I let you continue with the story.

Let's do a tiny recap of where we left off and then have an additional question

after that.

Okay. So where did we leave off?

At the end of our last discussion, Hanuman had come back from Lanka. He had

reached Kishkindha and told Shri Ram that he had found Sita in Lanka.

And now the task ahead is very clear. They have to go to Lanka, defeat the

Rakshasas and rescue Sita. That's where we are.

Okay. In my eyes, this...

Episode is about war.

Yes, we will read the book called Yudhkanth, which is called Book of War.

And I also feel that for some reason with a lot of Sanatanis, this is one of

lesser known aspects of Ramayana for some reason. Everyone knows a lot of

aspects of the previous stories, but we don't know the details of the war.

Do you agree? Do you disagree?

Many times in the later retellings, Yes, I have not seen as graphic and

detailed descriptions of the war as in the Valmiki Raman.

Some of them are actually gory, very detailed.

And it's a fairly large book, the Yudhakan.

So today we'll be covering almost a quarter of the entire story.

Perhaps because it's gory, it's not showcased in mainstream media.

Perhaps, yes.

That's the beauty of podcast.

So, sir, before I let you begin, I have a tiny question that the team picked up

from the comment section on the first two episodes, which was that all these

dialogue exchanges that happen between the characters.

How has Maharishi Valmiki written it accurately?

He wasn't present when the dialogues were happening.

Of course. Yes. So what's your take on that?

Well, this is Rama and means Rama say Ayanam.

Ram's journey. This is Ram's biography, Ramasya Charitam.

So like any biographer, Maharshi Valmiki would have to do the hard work of

speaking to all the characters, the people involved and recreate the

that accurately represent the thoughts and emotions of the people at that time.

So that is the hard work. But Maharshi Valmiki was also blessed in the sense

that in the Ramayana itself, it is said that Brahma, Lord Brahma, who

is the creative aspect in divinity, he had blessed Valmiki that he would know

exactly what had happened in each of these events.

That's why we call him a Maharishi as well.

Yes, he was a Maharishi.

You know, I've always thought of this word Maharishi and I discussed it once

with, I think, Rajarshi Nandi.

He said that one of the biggest misconceptions about Sanatana Dharma is

goal is simply enlightenment or moksha or nirvana.

But according to Tantra Shastra and Tantra Vidya, there's many, many stages

beyond the stage of enlightenment and moksha. Like you go way beyond.

Enlightenment is in fact a qualification for the next stage of spiritual growth.

What we commonly know as enlightenment. And there's a long pathway up till God.

Somewhere up there is the level of Rishi and way beyond that is Maharishi, where

you almost become eternal.

And, you know, 12 ,000 BC is supposedly when the Ramayana happened. And we're

sitting here 14 ,000 years later still talking about Maharishi Valmiki.

Yes, this is an extraordinary text. No doubt about it.

Yeah, there was a divine element that was flowing through him to write the

details of this.

Yes. Okay, now let's move on to war.

Okay, so Hanuman had reported back and Shriram asks him before leaving for

Lanka, he asks him all about the layout and fortifications of the city, the size

and strength of the army, where the different troops are located within the

as well as at the gates.

This was valuable military intelligence.

See, Hanuman had observed Lanka.

At night, when he was searching for Sita.

And then again, when Ravan ordered his tail to be put on fire and he was

around, Sri Hanuman made careful observations about the layout of the

this was the military intelligence he now conveyed to Sri Ram.

And then Ram gave orders for the army to proceed south.

Time was running out for Sita. They had to get to Lanka fast.

And when he asked the army to proceed south, Ram gave detailed directions. He

appointed specific people to guard the front and rear of the army, the left and

right flank.

We're talking about Hampi right now, right? Yes. We are in the region of

at Kishkindha and we are going south towards Lanka.

Okay. Many times the Vanaras are shown in popular culture or in popular

of the Ramayana.

as a disorganized bunch. So if this army had to move south, they simply walked

down. Well, they did walk down, but they were very organized in this. Just like

they had launched the search for Sita in a very organized manner to the four

corners of the world.

Even now, there was a forward party under the direction of Neel who found

the best route for the army.

Neel? Yes.

He was a Vanar leader. And the forward party had to determine The path that

offered them enough food and water sources.

Make sure that the water sources weren't poisoned by the enemy.

They had to make sure that they did not cause disturbances in the villages and

agricultural fields that they passed by and so on.

So there was this forward army and then a forward party and then behind that the

main army.

The army was so huge, millions of Vanaras, that Valmiki says, It was

like a sea that was coming south to meet the ocean.

Wow. As they walked, one night they were resting for a while and Lakshman looked

up at the sky and he remarked that the stars seem to be aligned in our favor.

And then he spoke about some specific stars, constellations and their

And these are the kind of clues that are used again by researchers to date the

events of the Ramayana.

The army proceeded further. They walked day and night with very little rest.

And finally, they came to the southern seashore.

As they looked out to the sea, they were stunned.

How were they going to cross this?

Valmiki says, the sea with its foaming waves seemed to be laughing and dancing.

How were they going to cross?

Now, I had said last time as well, the popular story of floating rocks is not

mentioned in the Valmiki Ramayana.

But Valmiki leaves us in suspense as to how the army will actually cross and

then shifts the scene to Lanka.

In Lanka, Ravan was a little unnerved.

Hanuman had caused great damage in the city. He had killed many Rakshasas when

he set fire to Lanka, remember.

And now he had heard that an army was marching towards Lanka.

Ravan's younger brother Vibhishan was telling him to let Sita go.

and to avoid war.

He told Ravan, why this war at all?

Ram has not done anything wrong.

It was Kher who attacked Ram and Ram acted in self -defense.

How can you blame him for that?

This is the Shurpanakha chapter.

Yes. So it started with Shurpanakha.

Shurpanakha asked Kher to attack Ram.

Kher attacked and got himself killed and Ram wiped out all the Raksha's forces

at Janasthan.

Now, interestingly, in these discussions, you know, we often go back

oh, the Shurpan Kha incident, like you just asked me.

But no one mentions Shurpan Kha in this incident.

Between Vibhishan and Ravan, they are only talking about what Ram did to Khar

and the Rakshas forces.

And that is why Ravan wants to take revenge.

He does not, his primary goal is not to take revenge for what happened to shoot

Pankaj. You know, sometimes we think that that was his primary goal. And so

was in some way justified in abducting Sita. But that is totally incorrect.

So Ravan then called a meeting of all his senior most leaders to discuss this

matter.

An army was coming towards them and he wanted to get their thoughts on this.

I want to show you a short video to see what is the Quality of discussion that

is going on in Ravan's court.

Addressing a packed court, Ravan said, There is one matter I wish to discuss

with all of you.

I would have done it sooner, but Kumbhakarna was not available, therefore

slight delay.

I have brought Sita, Ram's wife, from Dandakaranya.

No other woman is as beautiful and charming as her.

Oh, that gorgeous face, that slender waist and those hips.

My lust for her is driving me crazy.

She refuses to climb into my bed.

And Ram is reportedly on his way to Lanka with an army of Vanaras.

Please suggest what we should do now so that Sita remains with me.

Upon hearing this, Ravan's younger brother Kumbhakarna said, What you have

is not right.

You should have consulted us before.

But never mind.

I will still support you.

I will send off Ram to meet the Lord of Death.

And Sita will be yours forever.

My brother, enjoy life.

Mahaparshwa then spoke up.

He did not think a woman's consent or otherwise mattered in any way.

He made this shocking suggestion.

A man is a fool.

if he finds a drink and does not drink it.

O

Lord,

just force yourself on Sita as a rooster forces itself on a hen.

Assault her again and again.

Devour her and enjoy her.

This is shocking.

How could they say such things?

Yes, Ravan's ideas on how women should be treated were shared by those he had

collected around himself.

Ravan liked what Mahaparshwa said, but replied, Let me tell you about an

incident that happened a while back.

I once crossed paths with the gorgeous Punjikasthala.

Afraid of me, she was trying to sneak away.

But, I

caught hold of her, stripped her

and ravished her.

Afterward, she looked like a trampled lotus.

For this, I was cursed by Lord Brahma.

That if I ever violated another woman in such a manner, my head would split into

a hundred pieces.

And therefore, I cannot post myself on Sita.

Kind of stuff you can't show on national television.

That's why you've never heard this aspect of the story before.

Yes.

You know, sometimes people think that Ravan treated women very

well. In fact, his treatment was exemplary.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Maharshi Valmiki has told us clearly what he thought.

Even earlier, he kidnapped Sita because he had a fight with Ram.

That's how it started, right?

So he thought nothing on taking revenge on the man by kidnapping his wife.

And at that time, you would recall he grabbed her by the hair, dragged her to

the rat.

Later on in Ashok one, he was ready to punch her.

And when Hanuman was looking for Sita, he had gone to Ravan's bedchamber. We

that there were hundreds of women that he had abducted from different lands. In

fact, he was very proud of that.

He had showed off to Sita that you will be the chief among them. Say yes to me.

And now you saw the type of comments he as well as his ministers made about

Sita. Now in this assembly, Vibhishan was the sane voice and he was telling

Ravan to let Sita go and avoid war.

He said, for the good of the Rakshasas, for the good of Lanka, let Sita go.

But Indrajit mocked him, Indrajit, Ravan's son.

He said, you are too scared to fight.

And Ravan went on a rant against Vibhishan.

He called him names.

And among them, by the way, he called him an Arya, not Arya -like.

So Ravan considered himself Arya, which is a noble person.

This has nothing to do with race.

Vibhishan could not take it.

He told Ravan, you are my elder brother and I should respect you like a father.

But you have lost your mind and you are not on the path of dharma,

righteousness.

I cannot be a party to this.

I shall leave now.

Be well without me.

And then Vibhishan left.

And he went to meet Ram.

Now Vibhishan also switched sides.

But he was no backstabbing traitor.

Again in popular culture sometimes Vibhishan is thought of as a traitor.

But see here he told Ravan in open court that I am leaving.

And Ram had not induced him to leave.

And he left for a good reason. He was saying what you are doing is wrong. I

cannot be a party to this and so I shall leave.

Vibhishan went to meet Ram and he sent a message that he was seeking refuge from

Ram and he would like to join them.

Sugreev was clearly against this. He thought it was too risky. Here was a

brother of Ravan coming and saying that he wanted to join them.

Perhaps this was a trick. He could try and create divisions among them. So

Sugreev recommended that they should not allow Vibhishan to join.

Angad and Jambavan also thought so.

But Hanuman was willing to give him the benefit of doubt.

Also, Hanuman knew something that the others didn't.

When Hanuman had met Sita in Ashokwan, in Lanka, Sita had told him that this

younger brother of Ravan was trying to secure her release.

So with this information, Hanuman's advice was that they should allow him

Ram made his decision.

He said, I grant him protection.

Please bring him to me.

And he also convinced Sugriv why that was the right thing to do.

Now, this incident brings out Ram's leadership qualities.

See, he was open -minded about Vibhishan, even though he was Ravan's

And for this important question, he asked all his advisors what they thought

it.

The advisors had differing opinions.

Ram then made a decision, which was a risky call.

He was willing to make this risky decision, but he also explained his

brought along the others who were earlier speaking, who had earlier

otherwise. Who were the advisors?

Sugriv, Jambavan, Hanuman, all of them.

Now, compare these leadership styles.

You know, we just saw how Ram treated this question. On the other hand, Ravan,

he made the decision to abduct Sita and pick a fight with Ram without consulting

anyone. That is how...

Ravan made his decision. And when he heard that an army was marching towards

him, he called his advisors for a meeting and Vibhishan spoke up against

threw him out.

So these were two different leadership styles.

So now Vibhishan had joined them.

But still the challenge in front of them was how to cross the ocean.

In fact, even earlier, at the end of Sundarkand, you would remember Hanuman

told Sita.

gallantly, that before long you shall hear the roar of the Vanaras.

And Sita had asked him, but how will they cross the ocean?

Hanuman did not have an answer at that time. But he had assured her. He had

said, if I can do it, so can the others. Don't worry about it.

Even now, Sugriv told Ram, if somehow we can cross the ocean, once we see the

city of Lanka, consider Ravan dead.

But how to cross the ocean was now something Ram had to address.

Valmiki then describes Ram's actions very poetically.

I'll tell you how he has actually described it and then later what it

Ram folded his hands in front of the ocean and then lay down gazing at its

waters for three days and three nights.

That is how Maharishi Valmiki has described it.

And then he fired off arrows at the ocean.

The lord of the sea appeared and then showed him the way to go across.

What it means is that Ram stood gazing at the sea. He was observing the sea for

three days and three nights.

The currents, the tides, the rise and fall of water, how sandbanks and islands

appeared in it.

See, that part of the sea is very shallow.

So as the tide recedes, there are sandbanks and small islands that come

And Ram was trying to determine the best location to construct the Setu.

The place where the distance to the other side is minimal.

The tides and currents are favorable.

And this is likely Rameshwaram? Yes, most likely.

In fact, from Rameshwaram, further out, there is a place called Dhanushkodi. And

then from then...

You can see from satellite images that there are small structures along the

See, right now what we know is Ram has identified the site selection.

And then he asked Nall, the greatest construction experts among the Vanaras,

to construct the Setu.

The idea of the Setu was very simple.

They were going to fill up the sea with big boulders, rocks, mud,

and tree trunks on top.

So this was a bund or an embankment, not a floating bridge.

Although the idea was very simple, the scale of this project was staggering.

Think about it. You're standing at the seashore and somewhere far beyond the

horizon, there is an island and your plan is to fill up the sea and walk

And then under the direction of Ram, hundreds of thousands of Vanaras sprang

into action.

They went to the forest, cut boulders, tree trunks, brought it all back to the

shore and started filling up the sea. Once again, they were very methodical.

They used different types of devices, yantraihi.

Also, different teams were assigned to do different tasks.

Some worked on getting all the material, others on tying up things, others on

making measurements and so on.

And slowly, the Setu started taking shape.

On the first day, they covered a distance of 14 Yojanas.

And then they picked up speed and over the next four days, covered 20, 21, 22

and 23 Yojanas.

And thus, they covered the entire 100 Yojanas of the Setu.

Remember, this was the distance that Hanuman had to go across as well in our

last session. Is anything said about the time it took?

Five days.

Wow. Yes.

In fact, this is very, Valmiki is very specifically told about how much they

covered on each day.

It was a giant Setu, extremely well constructed.

In fact, the scale was astonishing, beyond conception.

And on this, Setu, millions of Vanaras started walking across.

By the way, this Setu, interestingly, in the Ramayan is called Nal Setu, not Ram

Setu. So named after the chief engineer.

They walked across and without any challenge from the Rakshasas, they

close to the city of Lanka.

Note, this is already a strategic mistake by Ravan.

He could have attacked this army as they were landing on Lanka. That would have

been a weaker point for them.

But he allowed them to finish the Setu, come across and come almost up to the

city of Lanka.

And the reason he did that was he was not expecting this at all.

See, Ravan was always very confident that no army could cross the ocean. In

fact, even now he said, what Ram has done is unprecedented.

I still can't believe it.

Making a Setu across the ocean.

He realized that he had clearly underestimated the enemy.

So he asked some of his spies to go into the enemy camp and find out more about

them. How many are they? Who are the leaders? What are they telling Ram? And

on. The spies, when they came back, they reported to Ravan.

And now here, Maharshi Valmiki takes a detour. See, we've taken a few of these

detours earlier.

You would recall when Sugriv was sending the parties to search for Sita.

We looked at a detour about a world atlas, geography, at another time about

botany or the kachit discussion right in the beginning in Chitrakoot between

Bharat and Ram, which was a detour on governance, the oldest text on

And now this detour is on mathematical terms.

So this is an interesting point to put this detour.

Ravan has asked, how many are they?

And the spies are giving that answer.

How large is the enemy?

I'll show you some of the actual verses here.

So the first verse.

100 of 100 ,000 is called 1 crore.

So 100 lakh is 1 crore. He's defining 10 raised to the power 7.

And then further he says.

100 ,000 crores is one shanku, which is 10 raised to the power 12, or in today's

terms, trillion.

1, 0, 0, 0, 12 zeros is one shanku.

And then over the next few slokas, he is describing 100 ,000 shankus make

up maha shanku. 100 ,000 maha shankus is equal to one vrinda.

And it goes on.

Maha Vrinda, Padma, Maha Padma, Kharva, Maha Kharva, Samudra, Ogha and Maha

Ogha.

A Maha Ogha has 10 raised to the power 60 zeros.

Wow. Why do we need math like this? Exactly.

Now that's an interesting question.

The fact that Murphy Valmiki has defined these terms means the mathematicians of

that time required these terms. Whether it's for astronomical calculations or

construction.

Some sort of precision.

And the scale of calculations.

Also, clearly this is an exaggeration.

If you look at the total, so by the way, the spies after they finish all these

definitions, they say the Vanara army is many, many Maha Oghas, right? More than

10 raised to the power 60.

This is clearly an exaggeration because if you look at the total surface area of

the earth, And you assume that, let's say, one Vanara needs even one square

foot.

Then so many Vanaras cannot fit on the earth. Not only the earth, they cannot

fit even if you pack them on all the planets of the solar system. Or even a

trillion earths are not enough. So clearly this is an exaggeration.

Now, so Maharshi Valmiki, as far as the size goes, the answer is it was a huge

army. And he has used this to define these mathematical terms.

So this huge army was at Ravan's doorstep.

But he was more interested in playing dirty tricks and intrigue

rather than preparing for battle.

He came up with a plan to deceive Sita and get her to submit to him.

He called the Rakshas Vidyujjiva and instructed him to make a lifelike

of Ram's head.

Vidyut Jiva was an expert in this and he made a very realistic model.

And then Ravan went to meet Sita.

He told her cheerfully, Your dear husband is dead.

You fool.

You kept refusing me because you thought that Ram will come and save you.

But how will he come now?

Let me tell you how it all happened.

Ram was coming here together with some Vanaras and they had camped on the other

side of the ocean.

And my forces under the leadership of Prahat went there at night.

And while Ram was sleeping, Prahat's sword sliced through his neck without

problem.

I have got his blood -soaked head for you to see.

Then he turned to the Rakshasis and said, Go and get Vidyut Jiva. He was the

who got the head from the battlefield.

Vidyut Jiva came on cue and he threw the head at Sita's feet.

Sita screamed.

She thought this was Ram's head.

She sank to the ground, cried bitterly.

Sita was completely crushed.

But even then, Ravan could not get what he wanted, her consent. That was out of

the question.

Just then, a messenger came and told Ravan, Aryaputra, there is a matter that

the ministers want to discuss with you.

Please come to the court urgently.

And Ravan went away.

Sita was still trembling. One of the Rakshasis that had been put to guard her

had become friendly with her.

And she told Sita, don't worry about it.

This is all a trick.

Ram is well. In fact, the army has crossed over to this side.

There is going to be a war soon. In fact, you can hear the preparations for

war.

Don't worry. You shall soon be with Ram.

In Ravan's court, there were people who were making last -ditch efforts to try

and save, try and avert war.

Ravan's own mother told him to let Sita go.

Ravan's maternal grandfather said, make peace with Ram.

It is not wise to fight him.

But Ravan was clear.

I may get cut into two pieces, but I will never bend.

Meanwhile, in the Vanar camp, Ram was making preparations for the attack.

He assigned specific people to attack the different gates of the city the next

day. He also told everyone not to take off their Vanar attire because this was

going to be a battle at close quarters.

So the Vanar attire will tell who is on which side.

Which probably also means that the Raksha's army looked like normal human

beings. Yes, yes.

Okay. Later that night, as Ram looked up at the skyline of Lanka,

he thought that one person makes a mistake and so many have to suffer. He

that this would be a terrible war.

Both sides would suffer heavy casualties.

And he decided to make one last attempt at peace.

So in the morning, he sent Angad to speak to Ravan.

Angad went to Ravan's court.

Ravan was sitting on his magnificent throne.

Angad introduced himself.

He said, I am Wali's son and Ram's messenger.

My name is Angad.

You may have heard about me.

Honestly, when it comes to Angad, it's a character that fascinated me a lot.

ever since I saw the animated Ramayana because that, again, for the child in

that's my reference point.

They've shown him very beautifully in that film.

You don't hear too much about Angad when someone is skimming through the story

of the Ramayana, but certain retellings highlight him a lot. So there is this

one interaction that he has with Ravan that I loosely remember where he

showcases acrobatics and something around his tail. I can't remember the

story. Yes, in fact, in popular retellings, this is where it comes.

So in other retellings, not in the Valmiki Ramayana, it is said that Angad

his tail to a great length.

He coiled it and then sat on top of it so that he was at an equal height to

Ravan.

Now, in the Valmiki Ramayana, that is not described. But I just told you how

spoke to Ravan, even though he is a young boy, maybe a teenager.

And he said, You know, to this great king of the Rakshasas, he spoke to him

an equal.

Now, many times the story of Ramayana is depicted in sculptures or paintings,

right? How do you show confidence in stone?

So this is a beautiful way.

The coiled tail and raising himself at a height, a beautiful way to depict that

Angad spoke to him with confidence.

So many of the other retellings, you know, they are...

they are true to the spirit of the Valmiki Ramayana, even though they may

telling the story differently.

Just now we had also heard the story of how the Setu was constructed.

Now the later retellings where they talk about the Vanaras writing Ram's name on

rock and because of which the rocks were floating.

Again, it conveys the sentiment that the Vanaras were inspired by Ram in every

step. So once we understand the Valmiki Ramayana, we can actually understand

Understand and appreciate the other versions as well. Even though they are

telling the story in a different way.

And then he gave Ram's message to Ravan.

You vile rakshas.

For too long people have suffered because of you.

But no more.

It was so brave of you to kidnap Sita while I was away.

Well now is the time to show your bravery once again.

But this time on the battlefield.

Come out and fight with me.

But before you come, make sure you have done the preparations for your last

rites.

For I will surely kill you and everyone who supports you.

This was Ram's message delivered by Angad.

Ravan was crazed with anger.

And he ordered, kill this vanar.

Once again note, Ravan paid no heed to the code among kings that an ambassador

or envoy should not be killed.

But he gave the orders to kill.

Four Rakshasas came and grabbed Angad.

And that's when Angad threw them off swiftly and they went tumbling.

And he jumped onto a balcony.

And there he kicked and broke the balcony, destroyed the roof.

And then jumping from one rooftop to the next, he went out of the city.

Ravan had rejected the last peace offer.

So now it was time.

to charge on to the gates of Lanka.

Ram gave the orders.

And remember, Lanka had a boundary wall and outside the wall there was a moat.

But this was hardly a challenge for the Vanaras. They had just filled up the

sea. So filling up the moat was fairly simple. Once again, they filled it up

with rocks and mud and logs of wood and charged on the gates.

The gates came crashing down. They broke the boundary wall as well at some

point. And then Ravan gave the order to counter -attack.

This is the beginning of the battle? This is the beginning of the battle.

There's the very common story about Ravan being a Shiva Bhakt and praying to

Shiva for his powers, etc.

Is anything said about Ravan's spiritual journey or his tantra -based journey at

all in the Valmiki Ramayana?

No, those things are emphasized much more in the later retellings.

In the Valmiki Ramayan, Ravan is a great warrior, no doubt.

And even as far as preparations go, there is no puja that he does at the

beginning. He prepares his arms and gets ready for battle. By the way, in this

first instance, he does not come out himself. So he will come out in some

But there is no mention of him going about any spiritual practice.

Not in the Valmiki Ramayan, from Balakan to the Yudhakan.

Right in the beginning, I think we had once spoken about the Uttarakhand.

Remember that the Uttarakhand was not written by Valmiki.

So whenever I'm saying that something is or is not a part of the Valmiki

Ramayana, I'm talking about Balakand to Yuddakand. Gotcha. These are all

additional anecdotes. Yes. Okay.

Now let's move on.

So Ravan gave the order to counterattack.

And the Rakshasas came with their horses, chariots, elephants.

They had all the yastras and shastras, bows and arrows, spears. See, the

had nothing. They were fighting with rocks, tree trunks, their bare hands.

And the Rakshasami was extremely well equipped.

And they were able to push back the Vanaras a little bit. So most of the

happened outside the city gates.

Although they had broken through the gates on the first day itself, the

battleground was outside the city.

Again, tiny interjection.

You believe after studying the Valmiki Ramayana that this was the island of Sri

Lanka. Yes.

Right? Yes.

My question to you is that part of India where Rameshwaram is, right? You see

that little strip of land that joins the island of Sri Lanka.

So within Sri Lanka, is there a particular geographical location that

was the location of this battle?

See, based on the descriptions of the Valmiki Ramayana, you cannot accurately

pinpoint where exactly on the island it took place.

But it's possibly near that strip of land that we see on geographical maps.

No, the strip of land connected it to the larger island of Lanka.

But we don't know exactly where. As far as the descriptions of the Valmiki

Ramayana goes. Have you been to Sri Lanka yourself?

Yes, yes. You have? Yes. I think we spoke about this in our first episode,

right? Yes.

What did you feel there?

No, like all the...

descriptions of the main locations, Ayodhya, Panchavati, Kishkindha and

Lanka, right? There is a feeling.

So you asked me what I felt, right? In all these locations, there is a special

feeling that these locations have been witness to what Shri Ram,

Lakshman, Sita and Hanuman did. So it's a special feeling.

Gotcha. Okay, I will let you carry on with the story.

Now the war is at close combat.

See, the Rakshasas have lost another strategic advantage.

First of all, they were on an island. They could have attacked the army as it

was landing.

Secondly, they had arms that they could fire from a distance, bows and arrows,

spears.

They could have attacked the army while it was still outside the boundary wall.

But now it was a man -to -man combat.

And this played to the Vanaras' advantage.

And on this first day, the Vanaras kept winning again and again. Although both

sides suffered heavy casualties, the Rakshasas were losing more numbers, they

were losing their leaders. But then the tide turned because of someone who

fought in a very different way. And this was Ravan's son Indrajit.

Valmiki says he made himself invisible, adrishya.

In other words, he fought in a way that it was extremely difficult to figure out

where he was firing from.

Stealth. Stealth. He would fire from behind the enemy lines, not right at the

front lines.

Also, he would fire things that would explode in the air and then release

arrows. So you don't know where he is firing from.

And he killed hundreds of Vanaras. He caused great destruction in the Vanar

army.

And then he targeted Ram and Lakshman. Soon they were bleeding heavily.

His arrows were laced with poison. So they couldn't even react.

And then Ram and Lakshman collapsed on the ground.

Unconscious.

And Indrajit incorrectly thought that his job was done.

And he went back into the city.

He went and reported to Ravan that he had killed Ram and Lakshman.

Ravan got up, hugged his son.

and thought that the war was over on the very first day.

Outside, the Vanaras made a protective circle around Ram and Lakshman.

They were only unconscious, not dead.

Ram regained consciousness after some time, but he was grievously injured.

Sugriv asked Sushena, who was the medical expert among the Vanaras,

should take back Ram and Lakshman to Kishkindha to recover. But Sushena said

that they had to quickly administer two herbs.

Sanjeevani and Vishalya Karani to Ram and Lakshman.

Now, where to get these herbs?

Wow. Until now, the traditional story I've heard is that it was just Lakshman

Bhagwan who collapsed.

That is coming later.

Okay, wow. Yes, that happens again. This is the first time I'm hearing this

story. So right now, Ram and Lakshman both need Sanjeevani and Vishalya

They're discussing where to get it from. And at that time, a Garuda appears.

Garud were also forest dwellers who dressed up like eagles.

So we have seen forest dwellers who dressed up like monkeys or bears or

vultures. This one dressed up like an eagle. He came and he took out the

from Ram and Lakshman's bodies, nursed their wounds and they recovered.

And Ram asked him, who are you?

And all he said was, I am your friend, O Kakutth.

These Rakshasas don't fight fair.

Be careful.

So, you see, people not associated with the war also, like this Garud, were

rooting for Ram.

And the Garud himself said, I heard that you were in trouble, so I came to help

you.

We saw this earlier as well. King Guha in Sringaverpur, he was ready to lay

his life for Ram, even though he had not asked for it. Or Jatayu, who gave up

his life trying to protect Sita.

So, all of these communities and peoples, had immense, the Ikshwakus had

goodwill among them and they were all rooting for Ram's success.

Poetically, so I believe Garud is also Vishnu Bhagwan's one, right? That is the

animal associated with Lord Vishnu, whose avatar is Shri Ram.

So when Ram and Lakshman recovered, there was a roar among the Vanaras and

heard that roar in his court.

See, he was prematurely celebrating.

that he had won the war. But when he heard the roar, he realized that

was wrong. And when he found out, he ordered his army to attack once again.

Vanaras were winning.

Both sides suffered heavy casualties, but the Vanaras were winning.

And then Ravan came out for the first time into the battlefield.

By the way, when he came out, interestingly, Vibhishan pointed him out

And it's interesting that Vibhishan said there, in that distance, the towering

person under the white kshatra, canopy, who's radiant like the sun, that is

Ravan.

We spoke about Ravan's ten heads, whether it was a throne or actually he

heads. Now think about it. If he really had ten heads, one in the middle, five

on one side, four on the other, how would Vibhishan have pointed him out?

There, that person with the ten heads, that is Ravan. That's not what Vibhishan

said. Ravan laid into the Vanaras. He was causing great destruction.

But Ram went and engaged with him.

And Ram struck an arrow in Ravan's chest, which hit him like a thunderbolt,

he dropped his bow.

Ram's next arrow took off Ravan's crown.

And then Ravan went back into the city.

He retreated.

See, Ravan was a great warrior, but he knew his own limitations. He was not

invincible.

Even earlier, he did not attack Ram head on in Panchavati. He took him away,

deceiving him and then abducted Sita. And even now, he realized that he needed

to retreat to fight another day.

When we're thinking about this battle, what is the kind of weaponry that one

should visualize?

Because it's usually bows and arrows and swords.

We spoke about Indrajit briefly.

Sounds very similar to the Mahabharata weaponry of like arrows that kind of are

like missiles, poisonous arrows, etc.

So what do you visualize when it comes to weaponry?

It is all that you said.

But in addition, this is a very strange war.

That one side has none of this.

All the weaponry is on one side only.

The Vanaras...

fought with their bare hands and they would punch, kick,

throw stones, even bite or they would pick up the weapons of the Rakshasas

themselves and hit them.

In fact, I want to show you some clips from the battle scene itself for you to

visualize this.

Ravan was furious when he learned what had happened.

He then sent off Vajradhanashtra.

to lead the next charge.

Vajradhanashtra led his forces out of the southern gate.

Here the Vanarami was under the charge of the young Angad.

Once again, it was a dreadful fight.

Soon the battleground was littered with severed heads, limbs and torsos.

Crows and vultures gathered for the feast.

Angad started working his way towards Vajradhanashtra, who was causing many

casualties among the Vanaras.

The Rakshas saw him coming and struck him with a volley of arrows.

Angad's body was drenched in blood, but he kept going closer.

And then...

Angad threw a large rock at Vajradhanashtra's chariot and wrecked

This forced the Rakshas to fight Angad in a hand -to -hand duel.

Just like Hanuman, Angad had forced his adversary off his chariot.

Engaging their enemies at close quarters paid to the Vanaras' advantage.

Angad and Vajradhanashtra punched and hit each other viciously.

Both were soon exhausted and started vomiting blood.

Angad picked up a tree trunk and the rakshas grabbed a sword.

They struck each other until both were so tired that they fell to their knees.

And then Angad tapped his last bit of energy.

He pounced on Vajradhanashtra, grabbed his sword in a flash and cut off his

head.

The Rakshas troops lost courage upon seeing their fallen general and ran back

Lanka.

Ravan then ordered Akampan to lead the next Rakshas assault.

Akampan also targeted the Vanar troops near the western gate.

Valmiki said,

The warring forces kicked up a cloud of dust that covered the entire

battlefield.

One could not see much.

But after some time, the dust settled because the ground had become soaked

with blood.

And then a terrible picture emerged.

The battlefield was covered with dead bodies.

I have to break away from the story just a little bit.

Couple of things. Sure. First thing I want to say is, wow.

Love the battle parts.

And this is the kind of stuff, again, that's not spoken about in lore.

I didn't even know this Angad story.

And, you know, this was a relentless war. Day and night. It was not like the

Mahabharata from daybreak till sunset.

Yeah, I've always wondered this about the Ramayan battle. In fact, when we

started this series, this is the episode I was looking forward to the most

because it's the one that's the most crowded in mystery because we've not

shown it in commercial media.

That's the first thing I want to say.

The second thing I want to say is when I'm viewing your work, there's a part of

me that views it as a content creator, as an editor and the kind of music

used, the kind of...

words you've chosen to use like what I sense and I'm not just saying this

because you're sitting in front of me this is a very objective opinion I

genuinely feel that Maharishi Valmiki's energy is flowing through you to make

this happen the only compliment for you here is honestly I feel you've been

humble enough through the storytelling process to allow that higher energy to

flow through you like So many people are trying to do this exact job that you've

done. But I think you had the right mindset to do the story in a very true

the art form way. Thank you very much. I'm truly humbled to hear this.

My entire effort has been to make sure I'm conveying what Maharshi Valmiki

to say and not my interpretation or, you know, there should be as little of me.

And people find out what is it that is actually said in the Valmiki Ramayana.

It's been a very humbling experience for me also to sit in front of you because

at my age, 31, with this kind of glamour around me, one of the challenges has

been to, you know, tread carefully along this path and not become arrogant and

all that. But when I meet people like you who are doing this kind of work in

such a humble way, plus you had a flourishing business career, all that,

still this guy.

God chose you to say this story for our generation.

There's a lot of learning, even subliminally, beyond just the story.

so much for saying that. Thanks for coming to the studio. And we inaugurated

studio with you and my mother. So I'm glad. Yes, the first episode we did.

Please go on now. Pardon this short tangent.

Not at all.

So we saw that the Vanaras were winning.

even though they had no arms. In fact, they were doing this repeatedly. They

would force the Rakshasas off their chariot by breaking it, force them into

hand -to -hand duel and then finish them off.

Ravan realized he had to do something different. Even he had stepped out but

retreated. And as he considered his options, he realized that there was one

person he wanted to call on and that was Kumbhakarna, his brother.

If only he could wake him up.

See, Kumbhakarna suffered from a medical condition, an endocrinological

disorder, because of which he would sleep for many days at a time.

And when he woke up, he was very hungry. And right now he was sleeping.

So Ravan's challenge was to wake him up.

He sent some people to do this job.

And Valmiki's description of how they woke him up is very interesting.

So they went into a subterranean palace.

And as they went in, Kumbhakarna was sleeping.

And his breath, as he exhaled, almost blew them away.

So he is described here as a giant.

They called out his name. They beat drums to try and wake him up. Blasted

conches. But none of it worked.

Then they started pulling his hair.

They hit him with maces.

Even that did not wake him up.

Finally, the description is they got thousands of elephants to run up and

his body to finally wake him up. Clearly, this is an exaggeration.

He stretched himself, yawned, got up and he was famished.

They had brought

mounds of meat for him to eat.

Pig, buffalo, deer.

Did he mention?

Yes. Pig, buffalo and deer meat.

Yes.

And not just that, he also had a lot of wine to go with that as well as big jars

of blood.

That was his food. And refreshed, he went to meet Ravan.

Ravan told him what was going on in the battlefield.

And Kumbhakarna laughed.

And he said, we had warned you earlier, but you didn't listen to us.

Now you are suffering the results of your own actions.

So there was some goodness in Kumbhakarna.

Yes, interestingly. And Kumbhakarna also gave him a lecture on why it's

important to have a good balance between righteousness, wealth creation and

enjoying pleasures.

But Ravan told him, don't give me a lecture like a teacher. I need your help

right now.

Kumbhakarna said, don't worry, I'll take care of this for you.

Earlier as well, remember in the court, when in the showdown with Vibhishan,

Kumbhakarna had also been there.

And even then, he did not agree with what Ravan had done. But he said, even

I will support you.

Now Kumbhakarna stepped out into battle.

Once again, Valmiki talks of him as a giant.

And how big?

eyes were the size of chariot wheels and his height was equal to 600 bows

placed next to each other. Once again, it is clearly an exaggeration. 600 bows,

you know, five feet for one. If you calculate, it's about 3000 feet or more.

That's a kilometer.

Some people wonder why we shouldn't take everything that is written in the

Valmiki Ramayana exactly as it is.

Well, Clearly, these are exaggerations. A person who is a kilometer tall is not

possible. Even if someone were very tall, how would he fit into Ravan's

How would Ravan talk to him and so on?

Anyway, Kumbhakarna stepped into the battlefield and he started killing the

Vanaras by the hundreds.

His weapons of choice were not bows and arrows. He used clubs, maces, things he

could hit with, even his fist.

And because he was so large, Valmiki says, with just one hit of his club, he

would kill a hundred Vanaras.

Or he would scoop them up with his hand, 10 and 20 at a time and eat them.

In short, Kumbhakarna was causing great damage among the Vanaras, great

casualties.

And Shri Ram stepped up to fight with him.

He fired off the Y of Yastra and cut off his right hand.

Kumbhakarna flew into a wild rage.

He took a tree and started charging towards Ram. With his left hand, he

a tree.

But Ram fired another arrow and cut off his left hand too.

And then Ram fired arrows at his legs to immobilize him.

And then with one final arrow, Ram cut off his head.

The giant's lifeless body crashed to the ground. And that was the end of

Kumbhakarna.

When Ravan heard about this, he was heartbroken.

He said, with my brother gone, I don't want to live.

This kingdom has no meaning for me. What will I do with Sita?

He was crying bitterly.

Indrajit could not see his father like this and he stepped out into battle.

Indrajit, remember, is now the only person among the Rakshas leaders who has

scored a win in this battle. On the first day, he had injured Ram and

thought his job was done and had come back into the city.

Indrajit came out once again.

Before I let you continue, another tiny question.

Because we spoke about Vibhishan, Kumbhakaran and Ravan, three brothers.

Is anything said about their parents?

Ravan's father was Vishrawamuni and his mother was Kaikasi.

His mother was a Raksasi.

His father was not a Raksas.

In fact, interestingly, Ravan's father was a Brahmin, a Muni, but he himself

a Kshatriya, a ruler. We saw this earlier as well, right?

Vishwamitra was the son of a ruler.

He used to be a king, but he became a Brahmarshi.

Do you think that the other two brothers have also descended from the same pair

of parents?

Yes.

I think so. Okay, gotcha.

Before I let you move forward, bit of a war -oriented question.

Because in my eyes, yes, I knew all the Indrajit stories, but I always viewed

Kumbhakarna as the second most powerful warrior from the side of the Rakshasas.

Would you say that it's actually Indrajit?

No, these are the three top warriors.

Ravan himself, Indrajit and Kumbhakarna. Okay.

And what's sad about Indrajit is that he's stealth oriented and has very

advanced weaponry. Yes. Kumbhakarna had immense physical power and Indrajit had

all the smart weapons.

Got it. Technically the most sound. Yes.

Just a little tiny historical context. If you study all medieval battles of

human history, like from the last 1000 years, and I'm pretty sure even before

that, the side that wins is always the one that's technically more advanced.

And that's the actual edge that one has in warfare.

And I've had lots of soldiers on the show.

They've also confirmed this theory. That it's always the side with the cannons,

the side with the guns, the side with the drones that ends up winning.

So this is a huge advantage that the Rakshasas had.

And they let it down.

They let it go, the advantage. Because they could fire from a distance and they

didn't engage the Vanaras early enough.

And now this was a hand -to -hand combat or person -to -person combat.

And here the Vanaras were winning.

Now I'll let you go on.

So Kumbhakarna was dead and Ravan was heartbroken. Indrajit couldn't see him

like this. He came out to fight.

And once again, he started killing Vanaras by the hundreds.

They didn't even know where he was firing from.

Some of the weapons that he fired would explode in the air.

And then they would release sharp darts onto the Vanaras.

Valmiki says some of the Vanaras tried to look up to see where the attack was

coming from. And they were struck in their eyes.

Indrajit then turned his attention to Ram and Lakshman.

He used the Brahmastra and then showered so many arrows on them that

they fell down unconscious.

And already a lot of the other Vanar leaders

were down, Sugriv, Angad.

Once again, Indrajit thought that his job was done and he went back into the

city.

Vibhishan and Hanuman were the only senior leaders who were relatively

all this. Everyone else was terribly injured and they were going around

to the injured soldiers.

When Vibhishan came across Jambavan, Jambavan had lost a lot of blood.

With great difficulty, he told Vivishan to quickly call Hanuman.

And when Hanuman came, Vivishan told him to get the Sanjeevani herb.

So this is a fairly popular scene when Hanuman gets the herb to save

the army.

Let's watch this in a short video.

Hanuman came up to him.

Jambavan said, the fate of our army is in your hands now.

You must quickly get four medicinal herbs.

Sanjeevani, Vishalyakarni, Suvarnakarni and Sandhani.

Go to the Himalayas.

Himavantam Gantumarhasi.

Between Mount Kailash and Mount Rishabh, you will see another peak shining

brightly.

Many herbs grow on this mountain.

There you will find the ones we need.

O greatest of varnaras, Now go.

Only you can do this.

So this is the famous story of Hanuman flying to the Himalayas and bringing

a mountain.

Did that really happen?

Let us first see how Valmiki has described it.

And then we will consider whether the descriptions can be taken literally or

not.

Valmiki says,

Hanuman grew his body to an enormous size.

Even the mountain he was standing on got pressed into the earth.

And then he took a giant leap into the sky and went off towards the Himalayas.

He slipped past mountains, lakes, rivers and cities.

And soon he reached the mountain where the herbs were growing.

But he could not find the ones he was looking for.

The plants realized that someone was looking for them and made themselves

invisible.

And so

Hanuman picked up the entire mountain peak with the trees and even the animals

and brought it all back to Lanka.

Lakshman and the injured Vanaras were administered the medicine.

Soon they all recovered.

Hanuman then quickly went and put the mountain back in its place in the

Himalayas.

Did Hanuman do this using any yogic powers?

Valmiki has not mentioned anything about Hanuman using yogic powers or siddhis.

And also consider this, the distance from Lanka to the Himalayas is about

kilometers.

Hanuman is said to have covered this distance four times for two up and down

trips in just a few hours.

His flying speed would have to be many hundreds of kilometers per hour.

Even if Hanuman had some means of making the journey himself, the mountain would

not remain intact at such speeds.

Trees get uprooted in hurricanes at much lower wind speeds.

By the time Hanuman could have brought the mountain to Lanka, not a single tree

would have survived.

Most likely, these plants were native to the Himalayan region, but the medicines

were also available nearby.

Remember, On the first night of the war, the Garud had also brought some such

herbs.

And when Sugriv had assembled his army, we had heard that the Vanar troops from

the Himalayas had brought some medicinal herbs with them.

The idea of getting a mountain of herbs could be a way of saying that Hanuman

got a very large quantity of these medicines.

Well, the medicines had done the job.

Ram, Lakshman and the other injured soldiers were feeling much better.

And then Sugriv ordered a counter -attack.

See, like I said before, this was a relentless war, non -stop.

This was late at night. They had just recovered.

But Sugriv told the Vanaras to charge into the city and set the buildings on

fire.

Earlier as well, we had seen how in the Sundarkand, Hanuman had set fire to some

buildings in Lanka.

At that time, the objective was different.

He wanted to strike fear in the hearts of the enemy.

And so he had put the fire at the residences of the senior most

rakshasas leaders.

But this time, Sugriva's objective was to reduce Ravan's ability to fight the

war. And so they targeted the storehouses which kept all the tools of

Armour, body armour.

Bows and arrows, bow strings and so on.

The Rakshasas were caught by surprise because they were thinking that the

soldiers are lying injured and the leaders are dead.

The Vanar troops stormed into the city, set the buildings on fire.

There was chaos in the street.

Men and women running around, even elephants and horses.

And then just as quickly as they had come, the Vanar troops came back,

to their positions outside the city. When Ravan heard about this, he was

And he once again turned to Indrajit and said, do something.

Kill those two brothers, Ram and Lakshman.

Indrajit came out once again.

This time when he came out, he put something on fire which created a lot of

smoke. So the entire battlefield was covered by a thick fog.

And through this fog, he started firing off his arrows.

And he was changing his location all the time. So nobody could see where he

would fire from.

And he was killing hundreds of Vanaras like this.

And then suddenly he retreated back into the city.

And he came out of another gate, this time the western gate of the city.

And he had with him on the chariot someone that looked like Sita, a lady

looked like Sita.

And after he came out,

He grabbed that lady by the hair and started hitting her.

She cried, Ram!

Ram!

Hanuman saw this from a distance and he screamed at him, Stop that!

But Indrajit said, You may think that killing a woman is not correct, but for

me, whatever harms the enemy must be done.

And he took his sword and struck the woman who collapsed to the floor of the

chariot.

Indrajit shouted out, look, I have killed Sita.

And then he went into the city.

Hanuman rushed to report this to Ram.

Vibhishan was also there.

And he said, this is a trick.

I know Ravan very well.

I know Indrajit too.

They are trying to keep us preoccupied, throw us off our ground.

What could it be?

And suddenly Vibhishan realized what it was.

He said Indrajit must have gone to the shrine of Nikumbila to do a fire ritual.

And if he finishes the ritual, he will become invincible.

We must stop him.

So Lakshman, Vibhishan, Hanuman and some troops rushed to the shrine of

Nikumbila and they get there just in time.

For Indrajit comes out.

without completing what he had started.

And now for the first time, Indrajit is out in the open.

And Lakshman engages him in a direct battle.

Both were extremely skilled warriors.

They had all the astras and shastras.

They neutralized a lot of the astras that the other fired in mid -air.

But still, many of the arrows found their mark and both were grievously

Valmiki says blood was flowing down their bodies like waterfalls.

At one point, Indrajit lost his charioteer.

What is interesting, Valmiki says that he took control of the reins himself and

alternated between guiding the horses and firing off bows. So he would guide

horses, leave the reins, fire an arrow and go back to guiding the horses.

So he was a very skilled warrior, but ultimately he was forced off his chariot

as well.

And then Lakshman loaded the Aindrastra, Aindrastra means Indrajastra, onto his

bow.

He pulled the bowstring all the way to his ears, aimed the arrow at Indrajit's

neck and released it.

And in a flash, it was all over.

Indrajit was no more.

Interestingly,

Indrajit means he who had defeated Indra, Lord Indra.

He was killed by Indrajastra, Indrastra. When Ravan heard that his son was no

more, he fainted.

And when he regained consciousness, he was beside himself with grief. He cried

bitterly.

And Ravan was not the only one who was grieving. By now, Valmiki says that

family, In Lanka had lost someone.

Brothers, sons, husbands.

And Valmiki devotes an entire chapter, Sarga, to the lament of the Rakshasis.

They are crying and lamenting the lost ones.

It's interesting who they blame for all this and who they do not blame.

Surprisingly, they have nothing to say about Ram.

But the two people that they are blaming are Shurpanakha and Ravan.

The Rakshatis themselves are saying what was Shurpan Khat thinking when she

lusted for Ram.

Clearly she was wrong.

And as for Ravan, they said he is evil minded and arrogant.

If only he had listened to Vibhishan.

Now there was no one left to turn to.

Ravan knew he had to come out to fight.

He was down. He had clearly lost many of the battles in this.

But he was not done yet.

He would throw himself and whatever he had into one final battle. He asked the

Rakshasas to round up everyone house to house, who could fight.

And then Ravan came out for one final battle.

Ravan first caused great destruction among the Vana troops and then Ram

Ravan.

Once again, like Indrajit and Lakshman, both were very capable, both

neutralized or brought down the astras in mid -air, but also both were struck,

were injured.

At one point in time, Ravan also struck Lakshman with a spear.

And it is here that Hanuman once again got the Sanjeevani herb only for

Lakshman. Right? So the Sanjeevani herb is required three times.

On the first day when Ravan and Lakshman were injured, they talked about

Sanjeevani, but then the Garud came. Then the second time we saw in the

When most of the leaders and many troops were injured, that's when Hanuman got

the Sanjeevani and now.

During this time, Ravan had gone back because he had lost his horses. So he

back to get a fresh chariot.

And when Ravan came back into the battlefield,

Ram and Ravan engaged once again.

Both fought for a long time, for hours.

And once again, suddenly Ravan's charioteer turned.

The chariot back into the city.

Ravan lashed out at him. He said, you fool, why did you do that?

The charioteer said, my lord, the horses are tired and so are you.

I think we should take some rest.

While Ram was waiting for Ravan to come back, he thought of Agastya Muni.

The great Muni had taught him the Aditya Hridaya Stotra.

A prayer that helps harness one's energy in battle.

And Ram stood facing the sun, recited the prayer, and did achaman, the

ceremonial sipping of water, three times.

Is the prayer mentioned in the... Yes.

It's like a mantra packed into... Into the narration.

Okay. Got it. All right. Let's watch the video.

Ravan returned to the battle scene for the third time.

Once more.

A ferocious battle ensued between these two great warriors.

This was chariot warfare at its best.

At times, Ram and Ravan charged towards each other.

At other times, they tactically retreated only to attack from a

And they attacked each other relentlessly.

It seemed like the sky was entirely covered by arrows flying across.

No one had seen a battle like this ever before.

The raksha soldiers just stared at Ravana.

The vanaras at Rama.

They stood frozen.

like characters in a painting.

The battle raged on and on.

Ram wondered why the weapons that had worked so well against Khar, Dushan and

Kaband were unable to finish off Ravan.

Swalmiki says poetically that when Ram cut off Ravan's head with a sharp arrow,

a new head appeared in its place.

And this happened a hundred times.

Ram realized that he had to try something different.

And then he picked up a special weapon that Agastya Muni had given him.

This arrow, made by Lord Brahma himself, was more like a missile launched from a

bow.

Valmiki has described it as follows.

It was huge in size and weight, but also hollow in the middle.

A fire burned inside and it emitted smoke as it went hissing through the

It landed on its target like a thunderbolt.

It could blast right through doors and walls, man and beast.

Ram loaded the great weapon on his bow as per the proper Vedic procedures.

He pulled the bowstring all the way back and fired it off at Ravan.

The arrow hit Ravan on the chest.

and went right through him.

Even as Ravan's bow and arrow slipped from his hand, his life breath also

slipped out of him.

The king of Rakshasas was dead even before he hit the ground.

That is how it happened.

Brahmastra? The Brahmastra comes many times in the Ramayana. Even earlier in

Sundarkand, Indrajit had used the Brahmastra to ensnare Hanuman.

Then Indrajit had used the Brahmastra later on as well.

Ram and Lakshman. So the Brahmastra is not only one astra. There are different

types of Brahmastra mentioned here.

Wow.

What is said about his death? Because there was a line where you went that

left him before he hit the ground. Yeah. That's the last mention of him and his

body and his soul.

Yes. So he was dead in an instant.

There is a popular story in some retellings about Ravan lying on his

and Lakshman going to meet him before he dies. That is not mentioned in the

Valmiki Ramayan. Does Ramji have a dialogue about Ravan at all to anyone?

Yes. So right after this, once Ravan is dead, Mandodari and the other wives

come out. I'll tell you what happens because he mentioned something to

which is important about Ravan.

So the ladies come out and they are weeping next to Ravan's body.

See, one side has won the battle, the war.

How do we typically imagine the winning side will treat the losing side?

Especially the women, you know, throughout history.

And now look at Ram's exemplary behavior.

He tells Vibhishan, please console the women and do the last rites for Ravan.

So, the right treatment for the fallen soldier as well as consoling the women.

Exemplary behavior.

Even Vibhishan was not ready for this.

He was conflicted. On one hand, he had lost his brother and he was sad. At the

same time, he was not ready to forgive Ravan for what he had done.

But Ram tells Vibhishan that animosity should not last after death.

And he tells Vibhishan to your question now, what does he tell about Ravan? He

said, Ravan was a great warrior.

He deserves respect from you and me.

He died fighting in the battlefield like a true Kshatriya.

So please go ahead and do his last rites.

And then Vibhishan cremated Ravan's body, did Jalanjali.

And then, Ram told Lakshman to coronate Vibhishan as the next king of Lanka.

And then he told Vibhishan to go and call Sita.

See, Sita was inside the city in the Ashok one, remember.

And Ram could not enter any city during the period of his exile, one was.

So he asked Vibhishan to call her.

But he also said, make sure she has taken her bath and put on her jewellery.

That was a strange request and Sita thought so too.

She said, I want to meet Ram. The bath can wait.

But Vibhishan advised that they should follow what Ram had said. And so Sita

ready and Vibhishan brought Sita to the battlefield in a palanquin and then told

Ram, Sita is here.

Ram was thoughtful.

He looked down for a moment and then told Vibhishan, please ask Sita to get

the Palkhi and walk up to me.

Again, Vibhishan couldn't understand why Ram was asking for this, but he went

and told Sita to come towards Ram.

At that time, the Vanaras and Rakshasas had begun to gather.

It was some sort of a spectacle and Vibhishan's soldiers were pushing them

Ram told the soldiers not to put them back. Let them stay.

And so when Sita got off the Palkhi, she was embarrassed.

Lajjaya. Everyone was looking at her.

She walked towards Ram.

And then when she looked up, their eyes met.

After months of longing, finally they had seen each other.

And Maharshi Valmiki says, their faces lit up with joy.

But then Ram's expression changed and he said to her,

Oh lady, may you be well.

You should know that I did not fight the war for your sake.

By kidnapping you, Ravan had insulted me and I had to take revenge.

I fought this war for the glory of the Ikshwaku dynasty.

But now there is a doubt about your character.

And I can't even bear to look at you.

Surely Ravan would have been attracted to someone as beautiful as you.

And what sort of a man would take back a woman who has spent some time in

someone else's house?

You are free to go and live with whoever you wish to.

You can live with Lakshman, Bharat, Shatrughna or even Sugriv.

or Vibhishan.

It means nothing to me.

Sita could not believe what she was hearing.

In fact, we have spoken over four sessions, many hours.

This is completely out of character, right, based on what we have heard about

Sri Ram.

If we are reading the Ramayana, when we come to this part, you may flip the

pages back and forth to see whether you are reading things correctly.

This is so odd.

We have seen how Ram was pained by Sita's loss.

Again and again, we heard him say, I cannot live for a moment without Sita.

My life is meaningless without Sita. We heard this

at Panchavati when she was kidnapped. Afterwards in Pampa, Ram talked

about his longing for Sita.

And Ram had also said, if I can be with Sita, I will not wish for anything else

in the world.

Not even Ayodhya.

Sita cried.

She could not understand why Ram was saying this.

And she said, what you say is totally unfair, inappropriate.

How come you are thinking like an ordinary person?

I did not come here by choice.

Ravan forcibly brought me.

Now what is my fault in all this?

And if that's what you felt, you should have told me so earlier.

I would have killed myself when Hanuman came to meet me.

And then all this effort would have been saved.

You put your life at risk unnecessarily. So many of your friends' lives at risk.

So many people got killed. It was unnecessary.

And if after all these years, If you still do not understand me, then I might

well be dead. She looked to Lakshman and said, Lakshman, I cannot live with this

baseless controversy about my character.

Please light a fire and I will walk into it.

Note, many months back, Sita had said some harsh and unfair words to Lakshman

Panchavati before she got abducted.

And now Ram had said, harsh and unfair words to Sita and Sita was looking for

help towards Lakshman. Lakshman could also not understand why Ram was doing

this.

He knew how Ram felt about Sita and how could he say such things.

He looked at Ram angrily and then Maharshi Valmiki says,

Ram made a

gesture to Lakshman and then Lakshman understood.

what was in his mind.

Aakara Suchitam, a gesture.

And Lakshman lit a fire.

So Ram had indicated to him, I know what I am doing.

Just go along. It was all an act.

Those harsh words.

Lakshman lit the fire.

Sita walked up to it.

And she said, If I am not at fault in any way, if my character is spotless,

may the fire protect me.

And she started going towards the fire.

There was a roar among the crowds.

At this point, Maharshi Valmiki says, Sita jumped into the fire.

The Devas, Rishis, Gandharvas, Indra, Brahma all came there.

Agnidev brought Sita out of the fire.

And then they all spoke to Ram and said, Sita is not at fault in any way.

Ravan forcibly brought her, never again say such hurtful things to her.

We have to understand that through the voices of the Devas and Rishis, Valmiki

is telling us what the crowd spoke of, just as Sita was about to jump into the

fire.

And when they said, Sita is not at fault in any way, Ram said, I understand Sita

very well. I know her very well.

And I can never leave her.

It is just not possible.

We are inseparable like the sun is inseparable from the sun's rays.

You cannot have one without the other.

Sita was not at fault.

But Ram knew that people would question and gossip about her.

And he wanted to make sure that they recognized her as the queen and that

had no question about her.

Ram's hurtful words to Sita that we heard were all an act.

And this was a carefully crafted situation. If you saw right from the

why did Sita have to put on her jewelry?

Because Ram wanted to make sure that when she made her first appearance,

saw her as their soon to be queen.

and not as a destitute woman.

Why did he tell the guards not to push back the crowds so that they could hear

the hurtful words that he said?

And then Sita had to walk up to him and he said those hurtful words when the

people spoke up and said, Sita has done nothing wrong.

Sita is not to be blamed.

And this is exactly the outcome that Shri Ram wanted.

And with that, Shri Ram and Sita were united once again.

this previous chapter is very important for modern day context and I was toying

with the idea of even bringing this up or not but I feel every faith in the

world has its critics which often come from other faiths and of course every

faith in the world also has its set of secular people who just you know are

good energy towards other faiths when it comes to Sanatana Dharma the critics of

Sanatana Dharma sometimes from other faiths And very, very often from our own

faith. End up criticizing the Ramayana because of this part without talking

about what you spoke about post Sita Maaz.

Outburst. Yeah, outburst. And if you read things in isolation, of course, you

will get a completely different meaning.

Yeah, this is what my friend Manish calls loosely informed, highly

When people criticize the Ramayana in this manner.

But instead, hear the whole story.

And also, this is kind of the danger with taking the Valmiki Ramayan and

creating your own spin on it.

And here I'm criticizing all the individuals who added their own spin on

the last 14 ,000 years.

Was there a need? See, there is a place for retellings.

And some of the retellings are...

Even the authors are saying that this is just a literary work.

And I think as long as the retellings are consistent with the spirit of

Ravan, we can enjoy them all. Like I said about the coiled tail.

Why not? A beautiful depiction.

We can enjoy that.

But where if you start reading character traits that are simply not there, like

Ravan being very nice to women, we just saw today that is absolutely far from

the truth. That is not a retelling. That is a twisting.

Yeah, I think it's almost become a bit of a Sanatani flex to show off

certain kind of elements of spin -off stories that, hey, did you know that in

some stories Ravana is Sita's dad? Like I've heard things like this. It's been

said on the show as well.

So that's so far from the Valmiki Ramayana. Yes, and that is why the

of the Valmiki Ramayana because that is the reference text. See, there are so

many versions and people are confused what exactly happened.

For that question, the reference text is the Valmiki Ramayana.

You know, more than a million people are going to watch these episodes

collectively, what we've recorded.

This is such an important retelling of the original text for the internet age.

Can I interject with one more question before we move forward?

First of all, is the story complete? Is there some stuff left?

A little bit. Now they will go back to Ayodhya.

But go ahead with your question. The question I have is this element of

being God or human.

This is another question that came up a lot in the comment section.

And I think this is in reference to the previous episode where we spoke about

Hanumanji's reality.

Where you often visualize him as a God, which he is. Which is why we recite the

Hanuman Chalisa as well.

But then...

Mentions of the Vanaras tell us that they took off their monkey -like masks

monkey -like tails.

So these are obviously human beings which are putting on some kind of

And Hanumanji was a very evolved version of a Vanar. Yes. Was a higher being,

for sure.

Now, common understanding in Sanatanis is that Ramji is an avatar of Vishnu.

Can we bring in Vishnu Bhagwan into...

This part of the story and this part of this conversation as well.

What's happening here?

So your question was, is he human or divine? Yes.

And the answer is both.

First of all, right in the beginning, in the first discussion that we had in

this series, first chapter of the Balakand itself, we had looked at the

of traits that Maharshi Valmiki was looking for. Remember, and so

on. And there he had used the word Nara.

Nara means human. So he was looking for a person, a human who had these

qualities and then he wrote the story of Ram.

Afterwards also he has used the word Nara to talk about Sri Ram. So Sri Ram

the Valmiki Ram mind is human.

We also saw that he goes through all the human emotions.

Happiness, love, anger, hopelessness, sorrow, all of it.

Also, many of the magical aspects that we find in other retellings are not

in the Valmiki Ramayana. So, Sri Ram was human.

At the same time, Maharshi Valmiki has also said that the four sons of Vishnu

had taken birth as the four sons of Dashrath.

And at other points also, he refers to Sri Ram as Vishnu being in human form.

So both.

Gotcha. Okay.

So proceeding with the story, we are almost at the end. Ravan is no more.

Ram and Sita are together.

The war is over and so are the 14 years of exile.

So it's now time to go home.

Vibhishan gets the Pushpak Viman ready.

All of them.

climb into the Viman and the Viman takes off for Ayodhya.

Along the way, when they are passing over Kishkindha, Sita suggests that they

could pick up Tara and the other ladies.

So they bring down the Viman, pick up the additional passengers and then off

their way again.

When they come close to Ayodhya, Ram, Lakshman and Sita bow down in reverence

to the city.

But then instead of Arriving straight at Ayodhya, Ram gets the Viman

to turn back and land at Bharadwaj Muni's ashram.

Remember, during their vanvas also, they had come south to Sringavirpur, crossed

over the Ganga and then got gone to Bharadwaj Muni's ashram.

After exchanging some pleasantries, Shri Ram asks Bharadwaj Muni, how are things

in Ayodhya?

Bharadwaj Muni knows.

Why he is asking that?

And he says, my disciples go there often and I can tell you that Bharat is

ruling very well.

And he is waiting for you to come back.

You had asked me earlier, what happens after the 14 years? So Kaikeyi had asked

that Ram should be sent off into Anvas and Bharat should be made the king,

Yuvraj, earlier and then the king. What happens after 14 years?

At that time, Remember in Chitrakoot, Bharat had said that if you don't come

back on the very day the 14 years are over, I will kill myself. I'm only

in your name.

But Ram wanted to find out what Bharat was thinking now after all these years

about it before arriving. And he also wanted to know how Bharat was ruling. So

he had found that Bharat was ruling very well.

So he told Hanuman to go up to Bharat before they arrived to tell him what all

had happened.

And then he said, observe Bharat very carefully, his body language and his

expressions.

And if you feel something is amiss, then let me know before I meet Bharat.

The empire held no attraction for Ram. So he was not eagerly looking forward to

becoming the king.

His primary concern always was Prajapalan, welfare of the people.

And he had found through Bharadwaj Muni that Bharat was ruling well.

And so he wanted to find out that if Bharat wanted to continue, see after 14

years in power, maybe he thought differently. If Bharat wanted to

was very happy to let him do so.

So Hanuman went to meet Bharat, told him what had happened.

Bharat was stunned to hear all this. He did not know about Sita's abduction and

the war with the Rakshasas or any of it.

And he was delighted to know that Ram was coming back to Ayodhya.

He hugged Hanuman and said, Finally,

my wish has been fulfilled.

The next day, the Viman arrived in Nandigram.

By the way, Bharat was ruling as a caretaker, as he had said, from

which was just outside Ayodhya.

So he had said he would not enjoy any of the luxuries of royal life while Ram

was in exile.

And so he was at Nandigram and that's where the Viman came.

It was an emotional homecoming for Ram, Lakshmana and Sita.

Bharat told Ram, now that you are back, take over the empire.

I have ruled in your name.

In your absence, the treasury, food stock and the army are 10 times what

were. So he had grown the economy 10 times in 14 years. He had ruled very

Even then Bharat said, but no one can rule this vast empire like you.

I am as capable of walking in your shoes as a donkey is capable of walking like

a horse.

Gatinkara.

The very words he had said 14 years back.

All these years in power had not changed Bharat one bit.

And these were the Ikshwakus.

We had seen earlier 34 generations. They had been ruling for 34 generations and

still not a trace of any lust for power. Remember the great debate at Chitrakoot

where Ram and Bharat had argued that the other is the rightful successor.

Ram agreed to take over the responsibility of the empire.

The coronation was held the next day. Before the coronation, Ram was brought

from Nandigram to Ayodhya in a grand procession.

There were musicians and dancers.

Ayodhya erupted in joy.

The streets and buildings were decorated with flags and flowers.

And then, Maharshi Vasishta placed the crown of the Ikshvakus on Sri Ram's

Ram gave away gifts to the scholars and the needy. He honored Vibhishan,

Hanuman, Sugriv and others.

And Sita gave a very special gift, a necklace to a very special person,

After the coronation, Sugriv went back to Kishkindha.

Vibhishan went back to Lanka.

And thus began the glorious reign of King Ram.

Maharshi Valmiki says, everyone was happy and all was well in the land.

People lived long and healthy lives.

They lived in harmony with each other and with nature.

And Ram was extremely popular.

People could not get enough of talking about him. Ram did this, Ram did that.

And thus Ram ruled for many,

many years.

This is the story.

This is how it all happened.

May you all be well.

And with those words, the sixth book of the Valmiki Ramayana comes to an end.

And this is also the end of the Valmiki Ramayana.

Jai Sri Ram. Jai Sri Ram.

Hmm.

Fun.

Feeling like a big box has been ticked. From my own artistic journey, I don't

know how you're feeling.

Definitely. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to tell.

This story of Shri Ram, the charitra of Shri Ram, sharing it with all of you.

Thanks for your life work. That's what I'll say. But before we close off, I

to make one final remark.

You had said just now that this is the oldest epic, the Adhika we have written

all of these thousands of years back and we are still talking about it.

In fact, in the Ramayana itself, Maharshi Valmiki has this.

Until the mountains and rivers exist on this earth, Ramayan, the story of Ram,

will always be told.

Now, think about it.

How could Maharshi Valmiki, all of these thousands of years back, be so

confident that what he was composing, will be told for all times to come.

How could he be so confident?

And the answer is relevance.

The Valmiki Ramayana is relevant for everyone and for all times.

In the first session, you had asked the question, I think it was your first

question, why did Maharshi Valmiki write it?

And we had looked at the first few verses.

Who in the world lives today? Who has all the qualities of an outstanding

person? Who is a great role model?

And then in the next few verses, he had listed out these qualities. Who has the

strength of character?

Who is thoughtful, caring, generous, grateful, truthful, a doer, scholar?

He has attained control over his anger.

But, won't remain silent in the face of wrongdoing.

And then Maharshi Valmiki wrote the story of Ram.

Because Ram had all of those qualities.

Now note, these qualities are universal human values.

Who can argue that being grateful, thoughtful, caring is not good?

And so Sri Ram exemplifies these universal human values.

See, Ram's ideal is not limited by any philosophy or doctrine.

There are no religious do's and don'ts in this book.

And that is why the Ramayana is relevant for everyone and for all times,

relevant for you and me today.

See, you are doing some exciting and bold initiatives in your podcast about

the global expansion and so on.

Also in your personal life, you shared some interesting developments.

For you and for me, can we think of the Ramayana in

our life? That is the question.

Can we think beyond ourselves and our self -interest?

Can we choose to do the right thing even when the costs are high?

Can we support others in their time of need?

And surely there will be times when we feel hopeless.

And overwhelmed.

Can we think of what. Sri Ram, Lakshman, Sita and Hanuman did.

And know.

That we have to keep going.

Never give up.

And when. We have done everything that we can do. Can we accept whatever life

throws at us.

Without anger. Without irritation.

Just the way Sri Ram accepted.

On the day of his exile.

That is the relevance.

Of the Ramayana.

This conversation is important because hopefully we can not only connect our

audience with Maharshi Valmiki's words, but also show them how it can be

useful in their day -to -day lives.

It's petrol for the subconscious mind.

That's how I look at the Ramayana.

Fuels your journey through life. And it's always done that for every Indian

who's familiar with the story.

This whole series was created.

Honestly, primarily for a global audience to expose them to the story of

Ramayana. And there's a lot of people of Indian origin all over the world who

wish to hear the story in English and who wish to know the true version of the

story. So this is why it's a big artistic tick mark for me. It's been a

mine since my career began. And you were the right person, you know, that

Hanumanji sent and that Maharishi Valmiki sent. Thank you.

You said it is for the global audience. Of course, it should be. Like we said,

it is universal.

As I'm moving into my 30s, I'm 31 now. I'll turn 32 this year.

One of the big life lessons I'm understanding is that there's variables

and there's constants in life.

And we often only address the positive constants, which are your family

You know, maybe love as an emotion.

Maybe growth is a constant.

But there's another very big constant that you're not told about when you're

growing up. And often you learn it through the course of life.

And that constant is the factor of unpredictability.

It's not a variable.

I've understood that life is deeply unpredictable.

That's just the nature of being a human being.

And this is exactly why you need that sort of morals, ethics.

which you get from the Ramayana.

I think that's what you're going towards as well. That this is a bit of a GPS

for life in some ways.

Definitely when we keep an ideal in front of us, we become more like that.

Remember we had spoken about this in our very first discussion before we started

the four part series. Why should we read this again and again?

Because over time, the right actions become our default actions.

As we move towards this ending note, what I've realized about you is that

you've had a very successful business career before you began this journey of

studying the Ramayana.

And you've told me off camera about all the adventures you had through your

business career. There were some very intense, difficult periods as well.

But you just kind of swiftly move past those periods.

So that you can be here in this room and share the story of the Ramayana with

the world. The original true Maharishi Valmiki Ramayana.

Yes, I certainly feel blessed and privileged that I'm able to do the work

I'm doing for the last six years.

What I will end this podcast with is a truth that I've realized while sitting

front of you. You're easily the most humble person that we've had in the

And I've not told you this until now.

But I genuinely feel that. Like I've spoken to all sorts of people, never met

anyone as humble as you, which is why, you know, I think Shriram chose you

himself. So thank you. Thank you for being in this room. Thank you.

That was the series finale, ladies and gentlemen. Of course, if you've not

checked out the first three episodes, do go check them out. We'll link them down

below as well.

It's been a spiritual purpose.

within the realms of my professional life to create this exact series at some

point. And 10 years into YouTubing, we've finally been able to do an

retelling of Valmiki's Ramayan for the 2025 podcast listening audience.

Doing the series was almost therapeutic for me in so many ways.

Got a glimpse of what Bharat used to be 14 ,000 years ago because this is the

real history of India that were not taught in schools.

um this particular series has been created with very very pure intention by

both yashodeep sir and myself which is why i hope that it reaches every single

indian and we get to know the ramayana in much more detail than we knew before

the series existed we intend on creating a series related to the mahabharata in

the future as well but please enjoy this one for now re -watch it if you must

and if you want an even more detailed version of this kind of a retelling, do

visit Yasodip Sir's YouTube channel. It's called 21 Notes, where he's given

very, very, very detailed episodes related to Valmiki's Ramayana, the only

and honest retelling of our epic.

Thank you for listening and lots of love. Jai Shri Ram.