Watch this episode as an animated video: youtube.com/watch?v=fztFzcNwTto
Key ideas and notes: bsgknowledge.com/books/hanuman-ramayana

Hanuman is called unstoppable, yet in Valmiki's Ramayana he nearly gave up. So what made Hanuman unstoppable? Episode 4 of the BSG Original Ramayana series follows him from a silent seat on the shore, over the sea, into Lanka at night and back, and shows the four qualities one verse of the poem names. None of them is the strength of his body.

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CHAPTERS
0:00 Everyone calls him unstoppable
2:00 Two strangers in the forest
3:55 The search party loses hope
4:57 The beach, and the one who sat apart
6:13 Over the sea
7:42 The verse with four qualities
8:49 Into Lanka at night
9:24 The wrong guess
10:24 House after house, and nothing
11:31 The Ashoka grove
13:00 The grove breaks, and he lets himself be caught
14:04 Ravana's court and the burning tail
15:12 Lanka burns
16:27 The old bear in the dark
17:36 The mountain of herbs
18:46 The last job, and the necklace
19:29 The four, in the order you saw them
20:05 One more thing, from Book Seven
20:37 Back to the beach

WHAT YOU'LL SEE
Hanuman reads two strangers for a frightened king and is praised first for how he speaks. A prince and a party of vanaras, the forest people of Kishkindha, call out how far each can leap, and one stays silent. Jambavan, the old bear-king, reminds him of his birth, his name and his promise. Then the flight over the sea: Mainaka, Surasa and Simhika. In Lanka he makes a wrong guess, searches every house, finds Sita in the Ashoka grove, shows her Rama's ring, and breaks the grove on purpose. He is caught on purpose too. In the fire of Lanka dahan he fears he has burned Sita, and goes back to see for himself. Later, in the war, the old bear asks for him first, and the herb mountain is lifted twice.

The Hanuman Chalisa asks for bal, buddhi and bidya, which is strength, intelligence and learning. The sky-beings in Valmiki name four qualities in Sanskrit: dhriti, drishti, mati and dakshya. Here we call them steadiness, clear sight, good sense and skill.

READING AND SOURCES
Quotations are from Valmiki's Ramayana in the translations credited below. Book VII (Uttara Kanda) is regarded by many scholars as a later addition and many traditional readers hold it to be Valmiki's own; we flag it as a separate layer and take no side. The link between the four qualities and the scenes is this video's reading, not a line in the poem.
The four qualities are named in one verse (Valmiki, Sundara Kanda 1.198). Linking each to a scene is this video's reading.

Educational retelling for general audiences. Not a devotional text, and not religious or medical advice.

SOURCES
- Valmiki Ramayana, Books I to VI: valmikiramayan.net (its canto numbering). Kishkindha Kanda 3, 65 and 66: translation by Desiraju Hanumanta Rao; canto 2 as given on the same site. Sundara Kanda and Yuddha Kanda: translation by K. M. K. Murthy.
- Book VII (Uttara Kanda): translation by M. N. Dutt, and ramayana.info (Gita Press numbering: 7.35.12, 7.36.35, 7.36.46; Rama's remark is Dutt, Uttara Section XL).
- Griffith's translation, Book V, canto 1.
- Hanuman Chalisa: Tulsidas, a later poet.

BSG ORIGINAL RAMAYANA
Episode 3: youtu.be/7wG9X2F1bf0
Episode 5, next: coming soon (why Sita said no when he offered to carry her home)
Full series: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJKLB3WfvseM

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