Swami Shivapadananda on the glory of Hanuman

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji

609

 
 

[Swamiji continues on the birth of Hanuman]

The gods then said to Pavandev [Hanuman's father], 'We will bring your child back to life. Your child is not dead. Each one of us will give him a blessing.'

It is said that then thirty three million gods got together to bless Hanumanji. (There are not thirty three million gods. It is thirty three million manifestations of God. Just as electricity is one power which manifests itself as light, as coolness in the fridge, as heat on the stove, it is just One.) Some of the gods said to Hanumanji, 'I shall not devour you. I cannot bind you in any way'; Indra [the chief of the gods] said, 'My thunderbolt will never affect you again; Lord Vishnu said, 'You will be my greatest bhakta [devotee] on Earth'; Lord Brahma said, 'My brahmastra will never affect you'; Yama said, 'Death will never overtake you.' And so all the gods and goddesses gave him boons [blessings, gifts]. Then came the sages Vishwamitra and Vasishta who gave him a beautiful lotus garland.

Every one of them gave Hanuman a boon; therefore every one of the deities and their powers are inside that god called Hanumanji. (Hanumanji, like Sri Ramakrishna, became the embodiment of all the gods and goddesses.)

In the Hanuman Chalisa it is said you do not have to worship another deity if you worship Hanumanji; because by keeping Hanumanji in your heart all the other deities become happy – though this does not mean you must ignore the other deities.

After all the boons were given, Hanumanji became so happy that he started kicking the mountains and pulling the yogis' beards and disturbing them from their sadhana. At this they became very angry and cursed him. They said to him, 'You're disturbing us, you don't want us to have bhakti (love to God's lotus feet) so we curse you that you will forget all your strength.' He forgot it immediately and surrendered.

All the gods came together again and said to the sages, 'What have you done? He has come here to accomplish something for God Himself, why did you curse him?' Then the sages relented and said, 'All right, if anyone reminds Hanumanji of his strength it will become manifest in him. He will again become all-powerful.'

Thus Hanumanji is the embodiment of all the deities. And in Rama avatar he went to Lanka. But before going to Lanka he had no strength and that is why Jambhavan, king of the bears, reminded him: 'O Hanuman you have forgotten that you were going to swallow the Sun, you have forgotten that you were fighting Indra himself, you have forgotten that all the gods and goddesses prostrated to you and gave you boons.' And suddenly Hanumanji became bigger, golden coloured, and he looked around. And as he looked around, the Sun, his guru, looked at him and he sparkled.

Thus with one bound he cleared the ocean and took the message from Sri Rama to Mother Sita, who was being held prisoner in Lanka. Then, by building a bridge from India with the help of Nala and Neela, he took Sri Rama and all the Vanaras [Aboriginal people] there, and brought back Mother Sita and Vibhishana.

This is how great Hanumanji is: When the battle was over, Mother Sita saw that Sri Rama was giving gifts to everybody except Hanumanji. She wanted to show her appreciation, so she said to Sri Rama, 'What can we give Hanumanji?' He said, 'You give him something.' Now Vibhishana had given Mother Sita a heart shaped necklace of diamonds. She took it and gave it to Hanumanji. He took it like a monkey, looked at it, and then he plucked off the diamonds and cracked them one by one. Then he threw them down. Of course all the Rishis became alarmed. 'What is this?' they said, 'You are insulting the Mother of the universe, Devi Sita.' 'No, Maharaj,' said Hanumanji, 'I am not insulting anyone. I am looking for Sri Rama.' 'Is Sri Rama in everything?' they asked. 'Yes, Sri Rama is in everything,' came the reply. That was the first time that most of the Rishis (besides the select few) came to know this truth. Hanumanji declared in front of everyone that Sri Rama was no ordinary being, he was Paramatma himself.

1) Care should be taken by the reader to
understand and take Swamiji's words in these postings, in context. Every
teaching or instruction that he gave was specific to the people who were with
Swamiji at the time. 2) Mouse-over the words highlighted in red in the
posting for further explanation or links.

There are currently available, over 100 different CDs
or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email
timhoare@webmail.co.za to order. Click HERE for the second website on Swamiji's life and
teachings.

Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi, Swami Vivekananda, Swami Nischalananda Puri, Swami Shivapadananda

Click Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna to read online…

Reference websites (please mouse-over
the name to connect): Ramakrishna Math and Mission, Ramakrishna Centre of SA, Ramakrishna Centre of Southern Africa,
Ramakrishna Dham, Swami Shivapadananda 2