Talks Excerpts 605-611 inclusive. Swamiji speaks about the uniqueness of Sri Hanumanji and says that Mahavirji wasn’t a ‘monkey’, as we know them.

[Dear Devotee, we’ve combined Talks Excerpts 605-611 inclusive here, since it was one talk, given by Swamiji and clearly delivered on a Sri Hanuman Jayanti. For continuity purposes, it’ll save you hunting between segments and posts. It makes for fascinating and plot-complex reading!]

From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.

Excerpt 605:
The Lord, as Hanumanji, brought happiness to Sri Rama, Mother Sita, and to the whole of Bharat Desh or Bharatavarsha. We should worship and adore this deity. If India worships the ideal of Hanumanji, India will be blessed, India will be uplifted – for Hanumanji is the embodiment of all the sadhanas that are found in the scriptures.

These sadhanas are divided into four popular headings: raja yoga, karma yoga, bhakti yoga and jnana yoga. Hanumanji is the embodiment of all these yogas and more. It is difficult for us mortals to fully understand and appreciate this bhakta, Sri Hanuman.

Today we celebrate Hanumanji’s birthday [Jayanti] but in reality, the [Bhagavad] Gita says the Lord never takes birth; and because he does not take birth, he never dies. Man, who takes birth, dies. Let us analyse this. 99.9% of the people in this world are helplessly given birth. They take birth unknowingly, ignorantly. Their past actions force them into this world. And because they ignorantly take birth, they are mortals. Then when they die, they die unconsciously, thus going into spheres or stages unknown to them.

But the great Incarnations [avatars] of God take no birth. They consciously come to the world and they consciously leave the world. From that point of view there is no birth for the Lord and no death. As Hindus this is one fact that we must remember – especially because we believe in reincarnation.

Sri Krishna says in the Gita, ‘With my yogamaya I embody myself. I apparently take birth and after accomplishing my work I do not die but I leave the body consciously.’ He is saying: ‘Consciously I took the body, consciously I leave the body; therefore I have no birth and I have no death. The body, I know, will die; the body takes birth like some kind of envelope, some kind of a casing in which the Atman lives; I get into this casing called the body consciously, and I consciously leave this body. Therefore I – the Real I – has no birth, no death.’

Excerpt 606:
When Lord Vishnu gave a boon to Kausalya and Dasharatha, in a previous birth as Manu and Shatarupa, he promised that he would take birth in this world as their son. But before Lord Vishnu left his heavenly abode he instructed all the devis and devas, all the divine powers (which are none other than his own manifestations; just as a policeman is a manifestation of the law of a country), ‘Go to the world, go to mrityu bhavan where death takes place, and take birth in bodies, not only of animals but in those of men too. For I shall take birth there and you, according to your strength and power, will assist me to re-establish dharma and destroy adharma.’

I feel strongly that God took the form of the devatas in the form of animals and men for various people, for those who worshipped God in the forms of different deities, and for those who wished to see and have boons from those deities. He thus satisfied this type of devotee – the devotees that did not worship God as Satchidananda, the Absolute.

There are many different sources to show how Sri Hanumanji took birth. In different yugas the Lord takes birth in different ways.

When Dasharatha was performing the sacrifice to the fire god (Agni Devata), in order to have a son, Agni Devata manifested itself and handed a container of payasam, sweet rice, to Dasharatha, who took it and gave it to Kausalya, Sumitra and Kaikeyi.

Hanumanji is not a monkey [as we know them] because though ‘Narabandar’ means man-monkey [in Hindi] it is not referring to Sri Rama and Hanumanji; it refers to Hanumanji alone. Hanumanji was born man and monkey in one. The Ramayana says that the Vanara tribe lived in certain parts of India. Another point is that monkeys do not [consistently] walk upright, so this shows us that Hanumanji was not a monkey.

[Pictured: Our revered monastic ‘grandpa’, Swami Nishreyasananda Puri of the Ramakrishna Mission – disciple of Swami Shivananda Mahapurush – who was a direct monastic disciple of Sri Ramakrishna.
He described Sri Hanumanji to us as an ‘aboriginal’ man. Not implying anything primitive though. The Vanara were highly evolved people.]

Excerpt 607:
At another time, Punjikastala (who later became Hanumanji’s mother, Anjani) was the attendant of Lord Brahma. One day she became very lustful. Lord Brahma was very disappointed with his servant and he cursed her saying, ‘Go down to Earth because you have lustful feelings. Go to the place where you can satisfy your lustful feelings. Go to Earth where you will be born in the tribe of the Vanaras.’ And then she pleaded, ‘Lord I made a mistake. What can I do?’ Then he said through compassion, ‘Do not worry. There is great work to be accomplished through you. After you have given birth to a child you will come back to heaven. Your curse will be destroyed.’ So because of her foolishness she came down to Earth.

Now this may seem very awkward that she was cursed; but even here on Earth if you do the wrong thing on the roads the police will arrest you and put you in jail, in confinement. Similarly the confinement of the [human] body with all its different senses was given to Punjikastala.

So she was born as Anjani and was married to Kesari, a member of the Vanara tribe, but she had no children. Now an important part of Indian culture and religion is that married couples want to have a child; they have this desire. If they fail to have a child they go directly to God Himself for help. So they started worshipping Lord Shiva. They started doing tapasya [austerities] and after many years Lord Shiva manifested in the kingdom of Dasharatha. And when a special yajna [sacrifice/ceremony] was being performed, Agni Devata, manifested and gave the payasam (sweet rice). Dasaratha took the sweet rice and gave each of his wives a little.

Now at this time there was a kite (bird) which flew past and snatched some payasam.

The whole of the Ramayana is full of curses or destiny. In doing the wrong thing you will be corrected. If you had not done the wrong thing you would not have taken birth, you would be in God, with God Himself.

Excerpt 608:
At that very moment, Lord Shiva blessed Anjani Devi with a son, who will be self-effulgent. As Anjani Devi put her hands out to pray, the kite that had snatched the sweet rice was flying above her. It so happened that the rice fell from its beak into Anjani’s palms. Anjani Devi took this as a blessing and ate the Prasad.

After some time, Anjani gave birth to a handsome looking son. To every mother, her child is the most beautiful child. Hanumanji, the most handsome child, was born. But wonder of wonders this child was wearing golden ear-rings.

It is said that when Vali, Sugriva’s brother, heard that Anjani would give birth, he tried to abort the child. To do this in the olden days they used to give the five metals: gold, zinc, iron, copper and silver in liquid form, as a medicine. But as Sri Rama’s grace would have it, these metals made beautiful ear-rings instead, and so Hanumanji was born with ear-rings. I do not see why miracles are not possible. He was also born with a beautiful sacred thread.

Now Hanumanji, because he was Lord Shiva’s gift, the eleventh avatar, was able to speak at birth. The first thing he said was, ‘Ma, ma, I am hungry knowing that I have taken birth.’ (Conscious birth, not unconscious birth.) Every child wants to suckle the breast but this one wanted to know, ‘What can I eat? What will my future be?’ So Anjani said, ‘We only live on roots and fruits; we live on everything that is sattvic. Any nice, red fruit you find on top of the trees, you can eat that.’ 

Once, there was a scuffle between Hanumanji and Indra Bhagavan; and Indra Bhagavan became very angry. His thunder-bolt hit Hanumanji on the jaw and broke his chin (‘Hanu‘ means jaw).

Pavandev then withdrew all the prana from the three worlds and all the gods, goddesses, mankind and creatures began to suffocate. As they were about to die, Indra Bhagavan, Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva pleaded with Pavandev. They said, ‘See what is happening? Everyone is dying without air.’ He replied, ‘You nearly killed my son. I want to show you who is the most powerful being.’

Pavandev is the God of the wind. It was Pavandev who gave the kite the power to fly. It was Pavandev again who directed that payasam into the hand of Anjani Devi and by virtue of this he became Hanumanji’s father. Therefore we say, Pavan putra Hanuman ki Jai!

Excerpt 609:
The gods then said to Pavandev, ‘We will bring your child back to life. Your child is not dead. Each one of us will give him a blessing.’

As Hindus, we must understand that there are infinite 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.  So, there is ONLY ONE GOD, whose manifestations or powers are infinite.

Some of the gods said to Hanumanji, ‘I shall not devour you.’ Indra said, ‘My thunderbolt will never affect you again.’ Lord Vishnu said, ‘You will be my greatest bhakta 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. Then came the sages Vishwamitra and Vasishtha 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 are 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 some great work 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 become all-powerful again.’

In Rama Avatar he went to Lanka. But before going to Lanka he had no strength and that is why Jambavan, 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 [Surya], 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 captive in Lanka. Then, by building a bridge from India with the help of Nala and Neela, he took Sri Rama and all the Vanaras 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.’ Mother Sita gave Hanumanji her precious pearl necklace. He looked at each pearl carefully and began to bite each bead and throw 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,’ replied Hanumanji.

That was the first time that most of the Rishis (besides a few) came to know this truth. Hanumanji declared in front of everyone that Sri Rama was no ordinary being, he was Paramatma himself.

Talks Excerpt 610:
Hanuman broke the pearl necklace given him by Mother Sita. Then when the question was asked: ‘If Sri Rama is in everything do you mean to say he is in you too?’ Hanumanji replied, ‘Yes. My Sri Rama, the Paramatma, is in everything,’ and he tore open his chest. ‘Sri Ram jai Ram, jai jai Ram. Sri Ram jai Ram, jai jai Ram.’ And whilst the blood was flowing, Sitaram was seen to be resting in his glowing heart.

While Mother Sita and Sri Rama were inside, do not forget that they were outside too. God is within and without.

You may ask: ‘If Sri Rama is Omnipresent then how is it that Hanumanji did not find him in that mala [necklace or prayer beads/rosary’]? There is an example in the scriptures that clarifies this: Yajnavalkya said to his two wives [Maitri and Katyayini], ‘I have this land and I want to give you each half.’ Maitri, one of the wives, asked, ‘Will this wealth give me God-realisation?’ Yajnavalkya replied, ‘No, it can’t give you God-realisation. Money won’t give you God-realisation.’ So she said, ‘Then I don’t want it. I want that which will give me God-realisation.’

Sri Ramakrishna said the same thing. He said, ‘What am I to do with a bread-winning education? I want that kind of knowledge, knowing which, I know everything.’ Similarly, the heart-shaped necklace given to Hanumanji only had worldly value; you cannot buy God with it; it cannot help you to think about God; it may even make you think about Ravana. So therefore Hanumanji, the bhakta, put no value on pearls and jewels. And that is why he broke it and threw it away. He showed that Sitaram was inside him and by inference, everyone knew that God is Omnipresent and that God is inside them too.

Excerpt 611:
So Sri Hanuman works and works and works. Whether you say he is wrong or say he is right, he cares not. Only one idea is planted in his heart: ‘I shall accomplish my Lord’s work. I do not care for the praise or blame of the world. I, Hanuman, only take Sri Rama’s name.’

Sri Krishna also gave Arjuna equality – he became Arjuna’s charioteer. Yes, God Himself becomes your servant. He becomes a driver in the life on Earth; and he becomes the victor on the flag of dharma in the form of Hanumanji. That Sri Hanuman took birth, and that Sri Hanuman we worship. As long as his jhanda flies in the ashrams of Sri Ramakrishna, bhakti will be the slave there, jnana will be the slave there, karma will be the slave there, and mind control will be the crown there. Yes. Jai Sri Hanuman!, Jai Sri Hanuman!

Elsewhere in the Ramayana we find that Sri Rama asked Hanumanji a question in the assembly: ‘O Hanuman, what do you think of me in relation to yourself?’ Hanumanji’s tears were rolling down his cheeks. Full of love and mingled with jnana he said, ‘O Lord, when I think that I am the body (like when you devotees think you are the body) then, Lord, you are the Almighty and I am your servant.
O Lord, when I think I am the jivatman, that which is conscious, a separated individual, then I am part of you, I am a part manifestation, I am your power.
O Lord, when I think that I am the Atman, I am Thyself; when I realise that I am the Atman, you and I are one.’ So Sri Hanuman, from this point of view, identified himself with all the gods and goddesses and the whole universe.

This Hanumanji is the glory of India, nay, the glory of all bhaktas. Others made God appear, but he tore his chest open, risked his life, and showed that God is within himself. Others have made gods appear and disappear; but when the gods and goddesses appeared in front of Sri Ramakrishna he, like a great ocean, welcomed them and absorbed them within his own body.

These two bhaktas, these two great Beings, [Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Hanuman] have a unique position in this world.

May we all be blessed.

NEW! For our gurubhai Atmaprakash Kramer’s beautiful pictorial ‘memoir’ of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, Avoca Ashram, please click HERE.

The free-to-read or download, 396-page Flipbook version of Swamiji’s biography is available by clicking HERE. If you’d prefer the PDF version, please click HERE.

These recordings or the excerpts from them, were made from the early 1970s onward, by Mother Radha, a close devotee of Swamiji’s and edited for uploading here by our gurubhai and her son, Brother Tim. Please be mindful that what Swamiji was saying may have been specific to an individual or a group of people with him, at the time.