Hanuman: The wise one

Hanuman Jayanti, the day Hanuman was born, will be celebrated on Saturday. In the Ramayana, Hanuman stands out as a very unique figure - warrior, devotee, ambassador, spiritualist, all rolled into one. Unfortunately some people take him as a monkey god, which is insulting. Vaanara did not mean monkey but a race of people similar to humans. Naro va narah – Vaanarah in Sanskrit. Is he a man or someone similar? That's how the word Vaanarah came up. So, probably a race of people who lived in the forest but are no more with us right now. It is obvious that they were similar to human beings, because of their mutual communication. They had kingdoms and organised societies with laws.

Hanuman was not just a warrior, though, that stands out in the Ramayana. His diplomatic skills were very well known. In fact, right at their first meeting, Rama tells Hanuman that ‘blessed is the king who has an ambassador like

Hanuman.’ He was also a great scholar and called Nava Vyakarana pandita, someone who had mastered the nine forms of grammar available at that time. Anyone who studies and masters just one form of Sanskrit grammar, that is available today, takes years of effort. To master nine forms of analysis of a language is phenomenal. Let us look at his functioning.

When Hanuman travelled to Lanka to get information of Sita, he not only found where Sita was, infused courage into her, struck fear into the heart of rakshasas, delivered Rama’s message to Ravana and destroyed half of the defenses of Lanka. It far exceeded his brief, which shows what a phenomenal person he was. When asked by Rama, what is your relationship with me? Hanuman

replies, from the standpoint of the body, you are the Lord and I am your dasa, servant. From the standpoint of me as an individual, you are the totality, Ishvara and I are a part of you. From the standpoint of reality, both of us being pure consciousness, you and I, are one. In three phrases, he sums up Vedanta.