 |
| Artist Sanjay Patel |
As I wrote last week, I am not a Hindu, but the archetypes
sit well with me. Like Rama, we find in
Hanuman examples of how to lead a righteous life—“righteous” meaning doing what
is correct.
Perhaps I am drawn to Hanuman because he is the embodiment
of a level of faith I do not have, he is action, whereas I am prone to worry,
which leads to inaction. Maybe I just
like flying monkeys.
In Hanuman, we see the ultimate in devotion, and ideal, and
we also find something a little closer perhaps to our own experiences. The story goes that when Hanuman was young,
he was a good little monkey and always very curious. He came upon a group of forest sages doing
their worship, and he decided to have a little fun with them—disrupting their
very serious business. Now, the sages had to punish the little monkey, after
all, he did wrong. But they faced a
quandary. How do you punish a divine
being? Not only a divine being but an incarnation of the very God they were
worshiping? They settled on a
medium-sized (as these things go) curse:
Hanuman was to forget all of his divine powers until someone reminded
him.
Throughout the Ramayana,
Hanuman does many impossible deeds, once he is reminded of his powers. The thing is, he had them all along. From the Yogic point of view, we are all in
this very predicament. We carry within us, no, we are a direct extension of the
Divine (or Truth, or Singularity, or whatever fits for you), we have only
forgotten our true nature. So we have
our yogic practices designed to (over time, lots and lots of time) silence the
noise of the mind so that we can actually realize this.
There is a song/prayer dedicated to Hanuman called The
Hanuman Chalisa (40 verses of Hanuman) written by Tulsidas in the
mid-1500’s. We sing or chant this song
to remind Hanuman of his abilities. To
be clear, Hanuman does not want praise.
In The Ramayana when he lept
800 miles across the ocean and stood before the demon king, he never said “Look
what I have done!” He said “I am the servant of Rama.” When Rama asked how he was able to do the
impossible, he replied “By the power of your name alone.” (see Hindu Fasts and Festivals by Swami
Sivananda). Hanuman is not pleased to
hear his name, he is happy when he hears rama
The purpose of the song is so that he will always remember
what he can do in service. If even a
divine being needs this much reminding, imagine the task ahead of us puny
humans to realize the same thing. But if Hanuman can do it, so can we. The Chalisa becomes a tool for us as well,
reminding us of our capabilities. To
learn it and to say it is an act practice and faith. More accurately, it learns you, according to
your faith and practice.
My favorite scene from The
Ramayana goes something like this (liberally re-telling from William Buck’s
version):
When it was nearing time for Rama to die, he assembled the
people to say farewell. He gave Hanuman
a gift, a priceless bracelet beset with gems, made of gold. Hanuman took the bracelet and immediately
began tearing it apart, pulling the gems out with his teeth.
Rama said “Monkey, why must you be so difficult at a time
like this?”
“My Lord,” replied Hanuman, “this is worthless. It does not even bear your name.”
To which Vibishana, the good demon, replied: “Then why don’t
you just destroy your body? Is it not also worthless.”
Hanuman tore open his chest.
Inscribed on every bone, muscle, cell of his body was:
rama
Rama held his hands over the wound and it was healed.
“Hanuman, you will live as long as my name is remembered on
this Earth. You are to be worshiped
before me.”
So often it seems like such a long way to travel to find
this level of faith, this connection with the Divine (Truth, etc.). But it is right here. Hanuman didn’t write the Ramnam on his cells,
it was always there, waiting for him to remember.
So, what would Hanuman do?
He would say “Jai Ram!” and make the impossible possible.
rama rama
rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama
rama rama
rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama
rama rama
rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama
rama rama
rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama
rama rama
rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama
rama rama
rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama rama
No comments:
Post a Comment