Sushena Bows to Rama and Sends Hanuman Toward the Healing Mountain
Lanka Kanda, Doha 55
Doha 55 · Movement 2 of 2
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Sushena arrives within Rama's camp and first bows his head at the Lord's lotus feet. The physician has been carried from Lanka with his dwelling, yet he recognizes the sacred presence before he begins the work of medicine.
He examines the need and names the mountain where the healing herb grows. Somewhere beyond the darkened field, the remedy waits upon a distant height, known precisely to the healer but not yet held in his hands.
Go and bring it, son of the Wind. The instruction passes to Hanuman, whose service has already crossed ocean, fortress, fire, and battlefield. Now distance must be overcome before the wounded prince's life ebbs away. One sentence opens the next vast journey. Sushena supplies the knowledge, and Hanuman receives the impossible errand as simply the next thing love requires.
A healer names one herb upon one mountain, and Hanuman turns toward the night in which he must find it.
Read the passage from the Manas
राम पदारबिंद सिर नायउ आइ सुषेन। कहा नाम गिरि औषधी जाहु पवनसुत लेन।।55।।
Many times the heads and arms were cut, yet the warrior Ravana would not die. The Lord was simply playing, but the sages, Siddhas, and gods grew anxious watching what seemed like suffering.