Sarga 30

When the exceedingly powerful Mahendra was indeed conquered by Ravana's son, the gods then went to Lanka, making Prajapati their leader.

There, Prajapati, standing in the sky, approached Ravana who was surrounded by his sons and brothers, and spoke to him first with gentle words.

Prajapati said, "Dear son Ravana, I am pleased with your son's performance in battle; oh, his valor and magnanimity are equal to yours, or perhaps even superior!"

Indeed, all three worlds have been conquered by your own prowess, and your vow has been made fruitful; I am truly pleased by your own son.

This exceedingly strong and valorous son of yours, O Ravana, will indeed be renowned in the world as Indrajit.

This demon will indeed be powerful and unconquerable, O King, and it is by relying on him that you have kept the gods under your control.

Therefore, O mighty-armed one, let the great Indra, the slayer of Paka, be released, and let the gods also offer something for his liberation.

Then, the greatly effulgent Indrajit, the conqueror in battle, spoke, saying, "O god, I choose immortality if this one (Indra) is released."

This refers to various categories of beings and objects, including quadrupeds, sky-dwellers, other greatly powerful entities, and also trees, bushes, shrubs, creepers, grasses, stones, and mountains.

All living beings fear each other when there is cause for fear, and thus in this world, everyone may experience fear from everything.

Then the greatly effulgent Prajapati Brahma spoke to Meghanada, stating that complete immortality indeed does not exist for any living being on earth, be it four-footed animals, birds, or even beings of great power.

Having heard the imperishable words spoken by his grandfather, Lord Brahma, Indrajit (Meghanada then responded).

Then the mighty Meghanada spoke to Brahma, who was present there, saying, "Let it be heard, or may there be success in releasing Indra."

My desire is to always worship the fire with oblations and mantras, and then to enter battle, desiring victory over my enemies.

My best resolve is that a horse-yoked chariot of the sun should rise for me, and immortality should be granted to one standing on it.

O god, should I ever go to fight in battle while my fire-oblation rite remains unfinished, then in that case my destruction would surely follow.

O god, while every man indeed obtains immortality through penance, I have established this immortality through my valor.

And thus, the god Brahma said to him, 'So be it,' whereupon Indra was released by Indrajit, and the gods returned to heaven.

O Rama, in the meantime, Indra, distressed and having lost his celestial radiance, became absorbed in thought, his mind overwhelmed by worry.

Indeed, having seen him in such a state, the god Prajapati (Brahma) asked, 'O Shatakratu, what great evil deed did you commit formerly?'

O Lord Indra, I created many beings who were all of the same color, spoke the same language, and had the same form in every respect.

Indeed, there was no distinction among them in appearance or even in characteristics, so I pondered deeply about those creatures with a concentrated mind.

Therefore, I created one woman for the sake of distinction among them, extracting whatever was excellent from each limb of the creatures.

Then, I created a woman named Ahalya, endowed with qualities of beauty, for "Hala" here means ugliness or deformity, and "Halya" is that which arises from it.

Because no ugliness exists in her, she is renowned as Ahalya, and O Shakra, I thus established her name as Ahalya.

O Indra, O best of gods, when that woman was created, a worry arose in me, thinking, "Whose will she be?"

O Shakra, O Lord, O Purandara, you then mentally considered that woman to be your wife due to your superior position.

But she was entrusted by me as a deposit to the great-souled Gautama for many years, and indeed, she was returned by him.

Then, having understood the great steadfastness of that great sage and his success in penance, she was offered to him as a wife.

Indeed, you, being very angry, O righteous one, went to that sage's hermitage and then saw that woman shining like a flame of fire.

O Shakra, she was violated by you, who were afflicted by lust and anger, and you were then indeed seen in the hermitage by the great sage.

Then, by that enraged sage of great ascetic power, you were cursed, O king of gods, by which you have undergone a reversal of your state.

Because my wife was fearlessly violated by you, O Vasava, therefore, O king, you will fall into the hands of your enemies in battle.

But this consequence, O evil-minded one, which you have initiated here, will undoubtedly also manifest in the human worlds.

In that matter, half of the consequence will fall upon the doer, and half upon you, and undoubtedly, you will not have a fixed abode.

The sage then told you that whoever becomes the king of gods will not remain permanent, as this curse has been uttered by him.

Having rebuked his wife, the great ascetic then said, "O ill-behaved one, disappear from the vicinity of my hermitage!"

Because you, endowed with beauty and youth, are unstable, therefore you will not be the only beautiful woman in the world.

All creatures will undoubtedly obtain your beauty, having relied upon which unique beauty this delusion has arisen.

From that time onwards, most creatures became endowed with beauty, and then she (Ahalya) propitiated the great sage Gautama.

O Brahmana-sage, I was deceived by the celestial being in your guise due to ignorance, not willingly, so you ought to grant me your grace.

Thus addressed by Ahalya, Gautama replied that a greatly effulgent and great warrior of the Ikshvaku dynasty would be born.

He will be known as Rama in the world, will come to the forest for the sake of Brahmanas, being the mighty-armed Vishnu in human form; when you see him, O auspicious one, you will then become purified.

He is indeed capable of purifying whatever evil deed you have committed, and after offering him hospitality, you will return to my side.

Then, O beautiful lady, you will indeed dwell with me; having spoken thus, the Brahmana-sage returned to his own hermitage.

Indeed, that wife of the knower of Brahman performed very great penance, and all this has come to pass from the utterance of the sage's curse.

O mighty-armed Vasava, remember that evil deed which you committed; by that alone have you been captured by the enemy, and not by any other means.

You must quickly perform a Vaishnava sacrifice with great concentration, and purified by that sacrifice, you will then ascend to heaven.

O king of gods, your son did not perish in the great battle; he was taken and kept safe by Aryaka in the great ocean.

Having heard this, Mahendra performed the Vaishnava sacrifice, and the king of gods then ascended to heaven again and ruled.

This is the power of Indrajit that I have recounted, by which even the lord of gods, Indra, was conquered; what then to speak of other living beings?

Then, having heard the words of Agastya, Rama and Lakshmana, along with the monkeys and demons, exclaimed, "Wonderful!"

But Vibhishana, standing by Rama's side, spoke, saying, "I am reminded today of that ancient wonder which I had seen."

But Rama said to Agastya, "This is true, and I have also heard it."

O Rama, thus was born Ravana, a tormentor of the world, by whom, along with his son, Shakra, the lord of gods, was conquered in battle. इत्यार्षे श्रीमद्रामायणे वाल्मीकीये आदिकाव्ये श्रीमदुत्तरकाण्डे त्रिंशः सर्गः ।। 30 ।। Thus ends the thirtieth sarga of Uttara Kanda of the holy Ramayana the first epic composed by sage Valmiki.