Hanuman

by Vanamali

  Anjana and Kesari waited in vain for their child to return to them from the sky. When there was no sign of him, they started to weep and beat their breasts in sorrow.

  “Ha Shiva! Ha Parvati! We had to go through so much of trouble to get a son, and now he has been cruelly parted from us. What have we done to deserve this?”

  Seeing their sorrow, Vayu appeared before them and comforted them.

  “Your son is safe with me. I’m keeping him with me for some time in order to teach Indra and the other gods a lesson. Don’t worry. I’ll bring him back to you safely.”

  Hearing this assurance, the parents were pacified.

  However, since Vayu the wind god refused to blow anymore, the whole earth started to suffer. Unable to breathe, creatures started to suffocate and die. Very soon it looked as if the whole world would perish. Indra felt very sorry for his impetuous deed. He knew that he alone was responsible for the whole thing. He should have desisted from using his thunderbolt even though he had been egged on by Rahu. All the gods now ran around desperately trying to find out the whereabouts of Vayu. He could be found nowhere. They ran to Shiva and Vishnu and begged for their help. They were aware of everything and knew exactly where Vayu was hiding the child. They went to the netherworld along with Brahma. Vayu was very happy to see them and prostrated himself. He told them the whole story of how his son had been ill-treated by Indra and Surya.

  Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu pacified him and all the gods gave him many blessings. As soon as Brahma touched him, Maruti revived. Now all the gods vied with each other to give him boons.

  Indra took off his garland of lotus flowers and placed it around the baby’s neck and said, “Since this infant’s chin has been broken by my thunderbolt, he shall in the future be known as Hanuman [one who has a disfigured chin]. He will also be invulnerable to my thunderbolt.”

  The sun god now said, “I bestow on him a hundredth part of my brilliance. Moreover, when the time comes for him to study, I myself shall impart the knowledge of all the Vedas and shastras (scriptures) to him. There will be none superior to him in the knowledge of the shastras.”

  Varuna, the god of waters, gave him the boon that he would never need to have any fear from water.

  Agni, the god of fire, promised never to harm him.

  Yama, the god of death, now said that he would be immune to all diseases and would never come under his sway, and that he would have the ability to choose the time of his death.

  Kubera, the king of the yakshas, said that his mace would never be able to kill him in war and that he would always remain unwearied during battle.

  Shiva gave him the supreme boon that he would be a chiranjeevi and would never be able to be killed by any of his weapons.

  Viswakarma, the divine architect, now pronounced that he would be impervious to any weapon made by him.

  Brahma gave him another boon, that he could never be killed by the brahmastra, the weapon that bore his name, and also gave him physical immortality for the duration of a cosmic eon. Turning to the wind god, he said, “Your son will be invincible. He will be the terror of his foes, and give freedom from fear to his friends. He will be able to change his form at will and go wherever he pleases with the speed of his choice. Whatever he does will turn out to be glorious.”

  Vishnu now turned to the wind god and said, “This son of yours will become a great Vishnu bhakta. No one will be able to vanquish him. He will be like a brother to my avatara as Rama and his wife Sita, who is Lakshmi incarnate.”

  All the gods now said that there would be no one on Earth or in Heaven that could equal Maruti in strength and speed.

  Brahma concluded the session by bestowing on Hanuman a strength greater than even Vayu and Garuda and endowed him with a speed faster than even the mightiest wind.

  After receiving blessings from all the gods, Vayu returned in triumph to the earthly regions whence all creatures revived and started to breathe normally once again. Vayu took Hanuman to his earthly parents and related the whole story to them. They were delighted to hear of the wondrous boons their dear son had acquired. They were also happy to hear his new name, though not so happy to see the mark on his chin. However, they decided that it suited him.

  Another version of the same story as given in the Valmiki Ramayana describes how Vayu saw Anjana on the hill in Kishkinda and fell in love with her. He gently stole away her clothes and embraced her. Naturally, she objected violently to the loss of her chastity, so he assured her that there would be no loss to her chastity and blessed her with a wonderful son who would be endowed with his own strength and vigor. She felt the babe within her move, so she went to a cave and gave birth to a lovely baby monkey. He had white fur, a red face, and brownish-yellow eyes. Reluctantly, she left him in the cave and returned to her husband.

  The baby was hungry. Dawn was approaching and still no one came to feed him. The sky grew lighter and lighter, and at last he saw the glorious sun rise into the air like a big ripe mango fruit. Instinctively, he knew that monkeys were frugarians and that this was food for him. He crawled out of the cave and crouched down and leaped toward the sun. Vayu came from the north and blew cool fresh air over him so that he would not be scorched by the heat of the sun. This was the day of the solar eclipse, and as the baby monkey approached the sun, the disembodied head of the asura Rahu advanced to swallow the sun. Closer and closer he came with wide open mouth and was astounded to see this strange creature approaching the sun. Hanuman decided that Rahu was another fruit and lunged toward him. Rahu ran to Indra for protection and both of them returned, mounted on the Airavata, Indra’s elephant. Hanuman was delighted to see them and wondered at the amount of strange creatures in the sky! He dashed toward the elephant, despite Indra’s shouts to keep off. Indra was furious at the audacity of the creature and struck him with the flat side of his thunderbolt. He fell unconscious to the earth. The rest of the story is similar to the one recounted above.

  After this incident Hanuman was overflowing with vigor due to all the boons he had received from the gods, and he was up to all types of mischief. Sometimes he teased the meditating sages in the forests by snatching their personal belongings and disturbing their well-arranged articles of worship. He broke their sacrificial ladles and vessels and interrupted their oblations and tore up their bark cloths. He stole their water pots and sandals and pulled their beards when they were meditating and tossed their sacred stones into the ponds. Since no one dared to stop him, he became bolder, smashing their vessels, tearing up their scriptures, and dropping huge boulders on the hermitages. Time and time again, both Kesari and Anjana forbade him from doing such mischief, but knowing himself to be invulnerable from the curses of Brahmins, Hanuman continued his pranks. The sages knew of the boons that had been given to him, and they put up with his behavior as long as they could. At last, finding his antics unbearable, they placed a curse on him. They declared that Hanuman would forget his own prowess and would be able to recollect it only when others reminded him of it. Immediately, Hanuman forgot his divine powers and began to behave like an ordinary monkey.

  At one time, it is said that he even harassed the children of the gods. When they appealed to Indra, he advised them to seek instruction from Hanuman himself about the art of wrestling so that they would be able to fight with him when necessary. So, in this story he became the guru, and they learned from him the esoteric secret of wrestling of which he was a master.

  In the Sundara Kanda, Jambavan, the big bear, had to remind Hanuman of his abilities and encourage him to go and find Sita. It was only then that Hanuman remembered his unusual talents and accomplished the impossible, making the amazing leap to Lanka. During the course of the war, he demonstrated some of his phenomenal abilities, but each time it was Jambavan who reminded him and prompted him. This story also goes to show that Hanuman is a deity whose dormant shakti can be activated through hymns. The motif of forgetting and remembering is suggestive of the journey of the jivatma back to self-knowledge.
>
  The sun is two thousand leagues away,

  Yet you swallowed him, taking him to be a sweet fruit.

  HANUMAN CHALISA BY TULSIDAS

  Aum Sri Hanumathe Namaha!

  Aum Tatwajnanapradaaya Namaha!

  6

  Kesari Nandana

  Hanuman’s Education

  Anetho bheshajatre,

  Lavanajalanidhe,

  Laghane deekshito ya,

  Veera Sreeman Hanuman,

  Mama manasi vasath,

  Karyasiddhim tanotu.

  O powerful Hanuman!

  Who crossed the ocean so easily,

  Do thou remain in my mind,

  And allow me to accomplish everything.

  HANUMAN STOTRA

  When Hanuman was five years old, Kesari decided that it was high time his son got a formal education. The sage Agastya told them to send him to the sun god Surya.

  “The sun is the source of all light and knowledge and has already blessed Hanuman. He will surely accept him as a pupil.”

  Anjana was not too happy at sending her son so far off. However, Kesari urged her that this was the best thing for their child, and thus Hanuman was sent to the sun god for instruction on the Vedas and all allied subjects. Kesari chose Surya as his son’s teacher because the sun is the sole karma sakshi, or the eternal witness of all the deeds of human beings.

  Hanuman did not remember his great powers and innocently asked his mother how he would reach the solar orb. She reminded him that he was the son of the wind god and immediately, he soared into the sky.

  Hanuman respectfully approached the chariot of the solar deity. Aruna was the name of his charioteer and he allowed Hanuman to approach his master and prostrate himself to him.

  “You see everything there is to see in the universe and therefore, you know everything there is to know. Please accept me as your pupil.”

  Surya hesitated, for he remembered only too well what had happened the last time Hanuman came near him, and he felt quite nervous about accepting him.

  “I don’t have the time,” he said. “You see, I move across the sky in this chariot night and day, always facing forward and never slackening my pace. How can I possibly give you instruction?”

  Hanuman cheerfully replied that he did not see any problem in this. “You can teach me as you ride across the sky. I will face you and move backward, matching my pace with yours so that I can get instruction straight from your lips.”

  The sun god agreed reluctantly, for he was well aware of Hanuman’s divine nature and exceptional abilities. He also knew that he was born knowing everything and all he needed to do was stimulate his memory.

  Happy at being accepted, Hanuman placed his body into orbit around the sun. He enlarged his body, placed one leg on the eastern ranges and the other on the western ranges, and turned his face toward the sun. Pleased with his persistence, Surya started to teach him. Hanuman kept moving backward in order to remain facing Surya continuously. As he taught, Surya was impressed by the zeal and determination of his student. Hanuman rotated like a planet before the chariot of the sun god, withstanding the awesome glare, until he became well versed in the 4 books of knowledge (the Vedas), the 6 systems of philosophies (darshanas), the 64 arts, or kalas, and the 108 occult mysteries of the tantras. He flawlessly memorized each mantra and verse in the shortest possible time. It is said that Hanuman rivals the sage Brihaspati, the guru of the gods, in all the branches of learning as well as in the practice of austerities.

  Having become a master of all that he had set out to learn, it was now time for him to pay for his education and give the fee known as gurudakshina. Surya demurred and said that having such a devoted pupil was payment enough for him, but when Hanuman insisted on giving something to express his gratitude, the sun god asked him to look after the welfare of his son Sugriva, who was the stepbrother of Vaali, the king of monkeys. Thus Surya gave a most precious gift to his son Sugriva, for without Hanuman, Sugriva would not have been able to accomplish anything.

  There is another version of the same story. When Hanuman reached the sun god’s chariot, he found that he already had a great number of other pupils. These were the tiny sages known as the Valakhilyas, who were a thousand in number. When Hanuman humbly asked the sun to accept him also as one of his pupils, these hot-tempered sages informed their guru that they would not study the Vedas in the company of a monkey! Surya did not know what to do, for he feared the curse of these irascible sages. This was when Hanuman devised the ruse of running backward in front of the sun so that he could learn everything without being compelled to join the company of the narrow-minded sages! As a result of facing the solar orb for so long, his face became black.

  Another version relates how Hanuman was so intelligent that he was able to learn the whole wisdom of the Vedas in a mere fortnight. The sun god, however, was loath to part with his exceptional pupil, who was a part of Shiva himself. So he repeatedly caused Hanuman to forget what he had learned so that the lessons were dragged on for many months. However, Hanuman pleased him so much by his docility and devotion that he released him and gave him the boon that henceforth those who invoked Hanuman’s name would never forget their lessons!

  Another story goes that when he was asked by his parents to seek the sun as his guru, he merely seated himself in meditation and continuously repeated the gayatri mantra, the great mantra that invokes the supreme intelligence as reflected in the sun. He sat in meditation the whole day, following the course of the sun across the sky until it set in the west. At the end of the day he was perfectly blessed with all knowledge. Actually, the ancient rishis had the ability to absorb whatever information they wanted from the ether. Knowledge of Veda exists in space in the form of sonic vibrations. The rishis had inner antennas that were capable of picking up these vibrations. These vibrations are very subtle and always exist in space. They can be compared to the television and radio signals with which we are familiar. The rishis did not need any external aids like the ones we use to pick up signals. Hanuman practiced the same technique.

  The parents were still eager to find an earthly guru for him and did not know whom to approach. One day, when Hanuman was playing in the forest, he saw a ferocious tiger approaching him. The tiger pounced on him with a menacing growl, but Hanuman was undeterred. He jumped ten feet into the air and landed on the tiger’s back, catching him in a merciless hold. He opened the gaping jaws and tore them apart. The tiger was exhausted by then and Hanuman rode on his back effortlessly. However, before he could go far, the tiger collapsed.

  Just then there appeared before Hanuman a hunter wearing a tiger skin and adorned with a necklace of tiger claws. A bow and quiver were slung across his broad shoulders. Seeing his form, Hanuman felt a great love well up in his heart. He fixed his admiring gaze on him without blinking.

  The hunter laughed and asked, “Aren’t you frightened of me? I might be a monkey hunter. I might catch you and take you back with me!”

  Hanuman gazed fearlessly at him and replied, “I have no fear of anyone, but I would like to know who you are. I haven’t seen anyone like you around here.”

  The hunter replied, “I’m a hunter and I live far away in the Snow Mountains. If you are not frightened of me, I am willing to teach you many interesting things.”

  “My parents are on the lookout for a tutor for me,” said Hanuman. “Come with me, and I’ll take you to them.”

  Anjana and Kesari were shocked to see their darling son coming hand-in-hand with such a rough-looking fellow. They were even more shocked when Hanuman told them that he wanted to go with his newfound friend to learn the arts.

  “Are you out of your mind? Just looking at him, one can see that he is an uncultured and uneducated boor. How can such a fellow teach you anything?” asked Kesari.

  “Father, how can you make such statements about someone you don’t know? I want him as my guru.”

  “Doesn’t the pupil have any say in the choice of a guru ?” asked the hunter.<
br />
  “Maybe he has,” Kesari replied, “but he’s only a child, and I’m not interested in keeping you as his guru !”

  “Shouldn’t you test my prowess before branding me as an uncultured brute?” persisted the hunter.

  Anjana and Kesari were amazed at these words of the hunter. They looked at each other and Kesari said, “I don’t think this is an ordinary hunter. I think we should give him a chance to prove his mettle.”

  So saying, he challenged the hunter to a duel with his weapons. The hunter was undeterred but said that they would need an umpire to decide the winner. Kesari suggested Anjana. The hunter laughed and said that she was hardly a good choice, since obviously, a wife would always choose her husband as the winner even if he were defeated. Kesari admitted the truth of this and mentally called upon Vayu to help him. Immediately, Vayu appeared in a gust of wind and agreed to do the umpiring.

  Now Kesari girded up his loins and charged at the hunter with upraised fists, pounding his chest. He threw him a few lengths away. Anjana was delighted to see her husband’s feat and applauded him. However, her happiness was short-lived. The hunter coolly rose up and came up to the huge figure of Kesari. He caught hold of him and threw him easily into the air. Kesari landed with a thud that knocked him out. Anjana ran to his aid and massaged his body until he slowly regained consciousness. He managed to rise up painfully and was all set for another bout, but Anjana begged him not to have another encounter with the hunter. Kesari could not bear to admit defeat and shot a glance at the hunter, who seemed to be having a quiet laugh at his expense.