Hanuman

by Vanamali

  Rama then hugged Hanuman and blessed him over and over again.

  He then presented each and every one with some precious gift. No one was left out, not even the hunchback Mandara, who was the sole cause of his having been banished from Ayodhya, since it was he who had poisoned the mind of Kaikeyi. The whole day long, the citizens and the monkeys ate and drank to their heart’s content. That night, for the first time in fourteen years Lakshmana slept in the arms of his wife Urmila.

  Rama wanted to confer the title of prince regent on Lakshmana, but he steadfastly refused to play this role and insisted that the post belonged to Bharata alone.

  The monkeys were in a state of bliss. They had quite forgotten their forest homes and continued to stay on with the Lord of their hearts. At last Rama called them to him and told them all to return to their homes and take up their allotted duties and maintain their devotion to him. Rama gave a jeweled robe to Sugriva and one to Vibhishana. Sorrowfully, Sugriva and his brood of monkeys returned to Kishkinda and Vibhishana and his people to Lanka. Hanuman, however, opted to stay with Rama, for he could not bear to be parted from him.

  Ramarajya, or the rule of Rama, is famed over the whole world up to the present day as being a glorious one. Great spiritual leaders continue to hope that one day, as Mahatma Gandhi once stated, the whole of India will exist in a state of Ramarajya. There was at that time no danger from beasts or snakes or fear of diseases. There were no robbers, for everyone had enough of what was needed. There were no untimely deaths and there were no widows. Every creature was happy and devoted to righteousness. People lived to a ripe old age without suffering from any decrepitude. The rod was never seen except in the hand of a sannyasin (one who has renounced the world), the word “beat” had no meaning except to mark the time for a dancer, and the only victory was over one’s own self. The land flourished and the people were supremely happy, for they worshipped Rama as god incarnate.

  Nature gave lavishly of her bounty. The forests abounded with fruit trees and flowers. The elephant and tiger lived amicably together. Bees laden with honey droned and made pleasant sounds. The Earth was clothed with crops and every river flowed with pellucid water.

  All affliction ceases, all pain is erased,

  When one recalls the mighty hero, Hanuman.

  SRI HANUMAN CHALISA BY TULSIDAS

  Aum Sri Hanumathe Namaha!

  Aum Shubhangaaya Namaha!

  29

  Shubangana

  Dharma Triumphs

  Sarvam muditamevasid sarvo dharmaparobhavat,

  Ramamevanupashyanto Nabhbhyahimsam parasparam.

  Everyone was happy and devoted to righteousness,

  Looking up to Rama alone, even wild animals did not kill one another.

  VALMIKI RAMAYANAM, YUDDHA KANDA

  Soon after their return to Ayodhya, Hanuman asked Rama to accompany him to the Himalayas to meet his mother, who was living an ascetic life absorbed in meditation and prayer. Rama agreed, and they went to Anjana’s hermitage. She was delighted to see them and welcomed Rama with all love and seated him on a special mat. Now she asked her son to tell her the whole episode of the war with Ravana and the part he had played in it. Hanuman narrated the whole sequence of events. Strangely enough the story didn’t seem to impress her. As he kept describing his own part in it, her brow knitted and her face darkened. At last she gave vent to her feelings and burst out.

  “You are not worthy of being my son. You have disgraced your mother’s milk. It looks as if my giving birth to you and feeding you with my milk has been of no use. Could you not have prevented the whole war by destroying the city of Lanka and killing Ravana by yourself? You could then have rescued the princess and brought her back to Rama and thus saved him the trouble of going there after undergoing so many hardships! I see that the milk you drank from my breasts has proved unfruitful. I am quite ashamed of you!”

  Hanuman was amused by his mother’s tirade and told her lovingly that he had only obeyed the orders given to him both by Rama and Sita.

  “I would have been overstepping my limits as a servant had I rescued the princess of Videha. She was also of the opinion that her husband should come himself and rescue her after killing the ten-headed monster and thus saving his honor as a king!”

  Anjana was a little mollified by this and said, “Ah! Then I’m happy that my milk did not go waste.”

  All those who were assembled there, especially Lakshmana, was wondering what the potency of her milk was, upon which she kept harping. Understanding his unspoken question, she said, “I will prove to you that my milk is indeed very special.” So saying, she squeezed her breast so that a thin stream of milk arched through the air and fell on the summit of the hill opposite. There was a deafening crash as of thunder and to the amazement of the onlookers, the summit split in two!

  She laughed and said, “Now do you believe me? Maruti was brought up on this potent milk. Can you doubt his strength?”

  The entire entourage returned after having spent some time with Anjana. Many years passed while Rama reigned in Ayodhya with Sita by his side, ably helped by his brothers and ministers and ever served by the faithful Hanuman. There are many stories connected with Maruti during this period that highlight other aspects of his unique personality. He was always seated at the feet of the royal couple, listening intently to every word they spoke. Pleased with his devotion, the divine pair, in this famous passage, revealed to him the secret of their incarnation.

  Rama said, “Listen carefully, O monkey, to what I have to tell you, for you have proved yourself to be a fitting recipient to hear this abstruse truth. Know me to be the Supreme Purusha, the eternal, unchanging, infinite spirit. I am that one Supreme Consciousness, totally indivisible. Everything is in fact nothing but that Consciousness.”

  Sita then continued. “Know me to be Prakriti, cosmic matter, the supreme embodiment of all manifestation. I am the cradle of Time and Space and all things exist in me. Rama is the transcendent Absolute and I am his manifest power. I am that principle that performs all these apparent acts of creation, preservation, and destruction. Actually, all the events that have taken place until now are only the sport (lila) of the divine. They should not be confused with Rama’s transcendent state, which is changeless, eternal, and imperishable.”

  Rama continued, “Together we constitute the universe. We validate each other’s existence and delight in each other’s company. I am the Paramatman, soul of the universe, and Sita is the jivatman, the embodied soul. Ravana is the ego that separates these two entities. What unites them is bhakti, or devotion. You are the embodiment of bhakti, and hence this esoteric secret has been revealed to you.”

  Hanuman listened intently to this discourse. Next morning when he appeared in court Rama asked him, “Who are you?”

  Maruti realized that the question was meant to test him and replied:

  “From the point of view of the body I am your servant, From the point of view of the mind and intellect I am a portion of you, but from the point of view of the atman I am yourself!”

  Rama and Sita were highly pleased with his beautiful explanation.

  Sometimes Bharata and Shatrugna would take Hanuman to their own palaces and make him relate again and again all Rama’s wonderful doings, for they were never tired of listening to his amazing tales. But Hanuman would never stay long with anyone else. He would always contrive to return and sit at Rama’s feet. He anticipated his every need and would do it before anyone else could.

  This behavior of his began to irritate Sita and his brothers, who found that there was nothing left for them to do. At last Rama’s brothers went to Sita and complained about the fact that due to Hanuman’s amazing attentiveness, there was nothing left for anyone else to do, and they all wanted to serve Rama in some way. Sita had to agree that this was indeed true, so they drew up a daily schedule of all the services to be performed for Rama. Each of them was given some task and nothing was left for Hanuman. This schedule was presented to Ram
a for his approval and seal. He was a bit suspicious since he noticed that Hanuman’s name was not included. However, he didn’t say anything. Next day when the court assembled, Hanuman started to press Rama’s feet as usual. Immediately Lakshmana pointed out to him that this task had been assigned to someone else. He then flourished the time schedule in front of his face. Hanuman was sadly disappointed to see that his name was nowhere in the picture. Lakshmana cheerfully told him that if any service had been omitted he could do it. Maruti inspected the document carefully and realized that every single thing from the time Rama got up until the time he went to bed had been allotted. At last he thought of a brilliant idea.

  “I don’t see yawning service,” he said.

  “What on Earth is yawning service?” asked Lakshmana.

  “You know, when anyone yawns, they normally snap their fingers in front of their open mouth in order to ward off evil spirits from entering, so I can take up that service and spare my Lord from the exertion of snapping his fingers!”

  “Indeed, why not?” asked Lakshmana.

  “Well, then I want it in writing, too, with my Lord’s seal on it.”

  Lakshmana promptly had this done, but little did he realize the consequences of such a demand!

  A yawn might come at any moment; therefore Maruti had to be with Rama all the time! He had to sit near him with his eyes fixed on his face so that he would never miss an opportunity to snap his fingers in the advent of a yawn! On that day he even ate with his left hand so as to leave the right free for a yawn! At night he went with Sita and Rama and tried to enter their bedroom, but Sita was firm on this point and told him that he could go and rest. Hanuman was a bit sad since night is the time when most people yawn and he wanted to be sure to fulfill his part of the bargain. But what could he do? He went and sat on the balcony just above their bedroom and closed his eyes and started to repeat Rama’s name so that he wouldn’t sleep. In the meantime he kept snapping his right hand fingers constantly so as to forestall any yawn that Rama might have. Inside the bedroom Rama found that he was hit by a mighty yawning fit, which didn’t seem to stop. Yawn after great yawn split his face into two. Soon he couldn’t even close his mouth since the yawns kept coming one after the other. He collapsed on the bed in sheer exhaustion. Sita was terrified and called the physician, ministers, and Vasishta, the royal guru. Nobody was able to do anything. Suddenly, Vasishta noticed that one person was missing. He immediately set about searching for Hanuman. He was sure he couldn’t be far off, and sure enough, he found him on the balcony intently repeating his mantra and snapping his fingers continuously. He shook him awake and brought him to Rama’s presence. Maruti was devastated to see the condition of his master and inadvertently stopped snapping his fingers. The effect was immediate. Rama stopped yawning. Now the whole story came out, and Sita and the brothers were most contrite, for they realized that they had done an injustice to this great devotee. All of them fell at Rama’s feet and promised that henceforth the zealous monkey would be allowed to perform whatever service he wanted.

  Hanuman was as attached to Sita as he was to Rama and would watch all her actions with great attention. Every morning he would observe Sita put a red mark on her forehead and smear the parting of her hair with vermilion powder, enacting a ritual that is the exclusive prerogative of married women in India. He was very curious to know the reason behind this daily ritual.

  “I do this for the well-being of my husband, as indeed all married women do,” she said with a gentle smile. Hanuman, ever the humble well-wisher of his chosen lord, wondered, “If a virtuous woman like Sita has to apply vermilion in this manner for the good of Lord Rama, I, a mere monkey, need to do more.” Thinking thus, he bounded off to the market in haste and bought a big sackful of vermillion powder. He mixed some oil and made a paste out of it and smeared his whole body with it. He entered the court and took his usual place at Rama’s feet. Everyone was most amused to see his strange looks. Rama also glanced at him in some amusement and asked him why he had done this. Hanuman looked at him with tears in his eyes and said, “My Lord! May you live for as many years as there are hairs on this servant’s body!”

  Sita immediately guessed the reason for his strange behavior and whispered in her husband’s ear. Needless to say, both Rama and Sita were moved by the purity of his heart. Rama got up from his throne and hugged him and said, “Today is Tuesday, and anyone who offers oil and vermillion to my beloved servant on this day will be blessed by me and have his wishes granted.” Since then, idols of Hanuman are colored a rich vermilion red.

  As Sita had no children of her own, she used to shower all her maternal affection on Hanuman. Normally, he used to eat only Rama’s leftovers. One day she decided to prepare something special for him. She made him sit and started feeding him with all the choice dishes she had prepared with her own hands. Hanuman was ravenous, and the more she fed him the hungrier he became. Sita was a bit dismayed, since all the food she had cooked was gone. It was then that she realized that her “son” was actually the great Lord Maheswara who was capable of consuming the whole creation at the time of cosmic dissolution! She quietly went behind him and wrote the five-syllabled mantra of Lord Shiva at the back of his head (Aum Namashivaaya), thus acknowledging his true identity! Immediately Hanuman burped, thus showing he was satiated, and went and rinsed his mouth.

  One day Hanuman was strolling through the marketplace when a foolish merchant called out to him. “Hey Maruti! Tell me what Lanka looked like when you burned it.”

  Hanuman replied that he couldn’t describe it but was willing to demonstrate. He asked the merchant to wrap his tail in cloth, dip it in oil, and set fire to it. As soon as he had done this, Hanuman immediately set fire to the merchant’s shop, which burned to the ground. He then went to a pool and put out his lighted tail.

  The next day the merchant went to court and complained to Rama. “Your monkey destroyed my business!”

  Rama asked Hanuman to explain his behavior, and he gave him a true account of the affair. When Rama asked the merchant if this was correct, he admitted it but added, “But I never expected him to burn my shop!”

  “O! So you would have been happy to watch another person’s shop burn?”

  The man hung his head in shame and Rama dismissed the case.

  Sometimes Hanuman would take the form of an ordinary monkey and raid the fruit gardens of Ayodhya. No one dared to do anything to him since they never knew if he was an ordinary monkey or Rama’s favorite, Hanuman. He used to regularly raid one particular garden with luscious fruits, which some men had been tending carefully so that they could pluck the fruit when it was ripe. They were quite exasperated by the antics of this monkey and decided to catch him and take him to court. If it happened to be Hanuman, they knew that Rama would recompense them and if not, they would be free to berate it as they thought fit. So one day they set a trap and caught him and took him to court. Rama recognized him but pretended not to. He told the boys to take it back and give it whatever punishment they thought fit. Hanuman used his strength and broke out of the trap, but before entering Rama’s presence, he caused huge welts to appear all over his body and hobbled into court with a doleful expression. Rama was filled with remorse when he saw him and hugged him. Hanuman then laughed and said, “Well, you played a joke on me by pretending you didn’t recognize me, so I also played a trick on you!”

  One day in court, Rama decided to tease Hanuman. He wanted to know who his most devoted servant was. Naturally everyone raised their hands but Hanuman raised three by including his upraised tail, which is actually another hand for a monkey. The other couriers were always a bit jealous of Hanuman, so they devised a scheme of bringing up a proposal of marriage for Hanuman, whom they knew to be a lifelong celibate. What started as a joke turned out to be a serious test of obedience.

  “O Maruti! Now that the war is over, isn’t it time you gave up your celibate life and married and settled down?” Rama asked teasingly.

  Hanuman
knew that Rama was joking, so he decided to play along with him and said, “My Lord! What good-looking woman would even look at me, much less marry me?”

  Rama promptly said, “If I find someone who is ready to marry you, would you agree?”

  Hanuman was in a dilemma. He was faced with an ethical crisis—his vow of celibacy against his obedience to his Lord. “If the woman is perfectly agreeable, well, I suppose I will have to agree, since it’s your wish.”

  Someone said, “Since the boy is ill-formed, the girl can be a hunchback and so I propose the hunchback Mandara, queen Kaikeyi’s maid, as a fitting bride!”

  Hanuman was stunned and said, “My Lord! That woman sent you to the forest for fourteen years! Think of what she might do to me!”

  Rama laughed and said, “Don’t worry. She’s a reformed person now. We will summon her to court tomorrow and see if she agrees!”