Hanuman set out with his army to find Sita. After crossing a lot of distance on land, his journey brought him to the shores of the Bay of Bengal. A wise monkey in his army said that the distance was too great between their current location and Lanka. During this discussion, one of the monkeys said that he could jump 10 miles and another interrupted saying that he could jump 20 miles. After hearing all this, the wise old monkey said that he himself could jump 90 miles and this would be of no use as they would all just jump a short distance and drown in the water. Then he turned to Hanuman and told him to cross the ocean as it would be a simple feat for him as he had already gone to the sun when he was a child.
Hanuman agreed and chanting the name of Lord Rama, he grew large in size and took a huge leap, sailing into the air. On his way, a demoness living in the ocean came out and asked him to return or else he would be killed. Hanuman chuckled and reduced himself in size greatly. He became so small, but the demoness ate him up nonetheless. Hanuman was so small that he travelled through her head and came out through her ear. The demoness had no idea that he had escaped!
But Hanuman’s troubles were not yet over and next, a huge serpent came from the depths of the ocean and tried to eat him. Hanuman dodged and dashed but the serpent proved too cunning for him and with a flick of its tail, it tossed Hanuman into its mouth. Hanuman flew around inside the serpent’s body and finally using his mace, he dashed against the body. He tore through the serpent’s flesh and severed the serpent’s body in two. Hanuman escaped and the serpent died.
Hanuman was close to Lanka and just as he reached the shores, he saw a demoness guarding the entrance. He tried to shrink himself and pass by undetected, but the demoness’s sense of awareness was very keen and she spotted Hanuman. She warned him to go back, but Hanuman struck her head with his mace in a fraction of a second and knocked her unconscious. Hanuman then entered through the gates of Lanka.