Chapter 32 - Sita sees Hanuman

Beholding that monkey of pleasing speech, clad in white raiment, resembling a flash of lightning, crouching concealed among the branches, bright as a cluster of Ashoka flowers and like gold refined in the crucible, Sita was greatly agitated.

Observing that foremost of monkeys of humble mien, Maithili said to herself in extreme surprise: “Ah! What a terrible looking monkey, unacceptable and hideous to behold.” Thinking thus, her fears increased and she broke into countless plaintive lamentations. Then the lovely Sita cried out in her terror: “O Rama, O Rama, O Lakshmana!” and the voice of that virtuous princess grew fainter and fainter till, casting her eyes on that excellent monkey once more, who had assumed a reverent attitude, Maithili said to herself: “It must be a dream.”

Observing the face of that Indra among Monkeys with its deep scars as has been described and, looking on that excellent ape, the most honourable son of the Wind, the first of the wise, Sita lost consciousness and became like one dead. Thereafter, slowly regaining her senses, she said to herself: “This vision of a monkey is condemned by the scriptures and is an inauspicious dream! Can all be well with Rama, who is accompanied by Lakshmana and my father King Janaka? Yet it can be no dream for, in the grief and misfortune that overwhelms me, I am no longer able to sleep and, far from him whose countenance resembles the full moon, no joy remains for me. Through constantly thinking and calling on Rama, I imagine I hear and see only those things which are related to Rama. For my love is a torment, my whole being flows towards him, ever absorbed in his rememberance I see and hear him alone. Is it an illusion? This is what perturbs me and makes me uneasy. I deem this to be but a phantom of the mind yet thinking thus, I still behold it, while an imaginary object can never have a form and he who is thus addressing me has a distinct form. Salutations to Vacaspati who is accompanied by the God who bears the Thunderbolt! Salutations to Svyambhu and the God who partakes of offerings! May they grant that the creature who has spoken in my presence, be real and not illusory 1”