Sundara Kandam

I have been reciting Sundara kandam for the past few years. Sundara kandam is a part of Valmiki Ramayana which is a kavya or a poem which is divided into kandas or chapters. This I have seen my grand father chanting as a way of prayer.
This is normally recited as a way of asking for support for fulfilment of some goal or desire. This I do in eight day basis. After reciting for so long I have come to certain conclusions.
First and Foremost it is a sort of a meditation. It is like reading a Self Motivating book. I will give you the reasons why I think like that.
This kanda is basically called as sundara meaning beauty is because as a poem it has the most beautiful description of nature and beauty in the great buildings found in lanka by Hanuman. It is also where there is a great turning point for the story of ramayana when Hanuman is able to find Seeta .
First I read this in tamil translation and I now read in sanskrit original. Even though I don't understand word by word I can make out so well the gist of each stanza.
It is amazing how relevant it is to our lives.
When hanuman is not that confident himself of crossing the seas he is helped by his aides and friends who encourage him saying he has the capacity to do it and by sheer belief of those around him he is able to achieve the great feat of crossing the great samudra.
Next when he is searching for seeta when he does not find her he is so dejected that he feels that he is not going to find her and if he returns without finding her he will be the root cause of sorrow for the whole of Rama's clan as well as the monkey clan . so he decides that he will just while away his time in lanka wandering or just sit in the samudra teera or beach. That is he is almost at the point of giving up. Then he prays to Rama and decides he will give one more try and to see some more place and happens to look at asoka vana where he eventually sees seeta.
Our heart goes out to the sufferings of the fragile seeta surrounded by demonic women and how the demon king Ravana comes and talks to her. she replies to him thro a grass stick symbolic that she treats the demon king as just a grass with tears flowing and she is so strong and bold and tells him great Rama will come and rescue her and kill ravana. At that point we feel our sorrows are so little compared to the helpless lady and indirectly we feel our problems also will be solved .
The way in which hanuman wonders how to introduce himself to seeta is very interesting to note. He wonders that if he goes and stands next to her in his monkey form and talks to her in the human tounge she might be scared and shout and wake up all the demons raksahasis and the whole prupose will be lost. So beautifully he starts reciting Rama katha that is the story of Rama in a small voice so that Seeta could hear it. What a great idea to gain her confidence.
She in turn though wants to belive him fully tests him by asking him to give the description of Rama and also to show her how with such a smalll form as a small monkey he crossed the seas. That is when hanuman describes Rama and Lakshmana and also shows her the big form he took to cross the seas.
When Hanuman tells seeta that he will take her on his back to Rama so that all her sorrow will be over, Sita wisely tells him that only Rama can come and defeat Ravana straight and then take her back and tells him the many flaws in his plan. Though he wonders how being a lady she is so wise (this we should accept as those days the society was different) This is where we learn that we should not be impatient to achieve the goal and take short cuts and wait for the ripe time and proper way for the work to be done.
After meeting with Seeta, Hanuman wants to see Ravana so that he can report back to Rama the strengh of the enemy, starts destroying the beautiful asoka vana and infroms one and all he is Rama dhootha messanger from R ama who has come to see Ravana. fFnally after killing many a warriors and one of the sons of Ravana he is captured by Indrajith the famous son of Ravana. Here also he converts his punishement that is the fire lit in his tail to destroy the buildings in lanka . We sympathise with him for we understand his rage agaist Ravana for kidnappng Seeta and keeping her against her wishes.
Again our great hero gets worried, that due to his rage which destroyed his proper thinking , that he inadvertantly harmed Seeta and she might have been killed by the fire he started. So he goes back and makes sure she is alive. It is heartening to note that the small details are so nicely taken care of.
He returns to the danda karanya where his friends await him. All of them are so happy and rejoice the news of finding Seeta by destroyng a 'madhuvana' that is a great fruit and honey orchard maintained by an assistant to Sugreeva who tries to stop them and is hit by Angadha. I always wonder what the reaction of Sugreeva will be as the vana is his most precious and favourite one , but once he hears about the destrucion through the assistant he understands that Seeta has been found as he tells Laksmana that unless Seeta was found Angadha would not dare destroying the lovely madhuvana. What lovely understanding of the human nature. (I always feel that the so called monkeys in Ramayana or monkey like people ( nara is human beings ) who might have looked like monkeys and with a different culture) and the dealing of the situation
After completing the sundara kanda we are to recite the slokas of the pattabiseka that is coronation ceremony Rama ascending the throne with Seeta surrounded by his brothers relatives and friends.
The happy ending gives us a feelig that all our problems also will be solved and we have a happy solution to the problems. (may be till the next problem arises)
The point is that the recitation is for spiritual experience and also for self motivation. Now I understand why my grand father read. In certain situations where you can not act as it is not your problem and it is the probelm of your loved ones where they have to act . Instead of just worrying feeling helpless and to make us feel that we have also contriburted in solving in a postive way the recital of sundara kanda is a great help to me.
I have started doing it in a regular basis not for specific problems just to boost my morale.