HUMOUROUS HANUMAN

ॐ श्री हनुमते नम

Om Shree Hanumate Namah

I pray to Lord Hanuman to bestow upon me power, strength, and stamina

Hanuman the son of Lord Vayu was blessed with many virtues and strengths by all the devatas. He is known for his valor, courage strength, perseverance and loyalty. He has several magical mystical powers that he uses to vanquish his enemies and remove obstacles from his path to success. Yet Hanuman never loses his humility – at all times and above all else, he remains Lord Rama’s most faithful devotee. Apart from his many qualities and capabilities there is also a delightfully humorous side to this lovable God. After all the General of the vanar (monkey) army must naturally be a little mischievous too.

When he was just a baby the great sage Narada came to visit him. He said to Hanuman, “You have received so many boons from the Gods that I don’t know what I can give you?”

Hanuman said to Narada Muni, “You are known to have the most mellifluous voice in the whole universe, grant me the boon that I should sing even better than you.”

Sage Narada immediately granted young Hanuman with the gift of his asking. Then shortly before leaving Narada said to Hanuman, “Hanuman before I leave let me hear you sing with the melodious voice I have gifted you.”

Hanuman promptly sat down and began to sing. His voice was so soothing and mellow that Narada unwittingly put down his veena on a rock beside him and shut his eyes to enjoy the song even more. Hanuman’s voice was so exquisite that even the rock began to melt. Naughty Hanuman with a gleam in his eye watched the veena sink into the melting rock. Enjoying Hanuman’s singing with his eyes shut Narada was blissfully unaware that his veena had sunk into the melted rock.

When little Hanuman stopped singing the rock regained its form but now it had the veena embedded in it. Narada opened his eyes and realised to his horror that his musical instrument was now set in the rock. Narada pulled and pushed the instrument but could not get it out of the rock.

The naughty Hanuman pretending he had not even noticed the veena or Sage Narada’s distress ran off. Narada ran behind him but no matter how fast the sage ran Hanuman was always faster. They kept running through the whole house. Narada kept calling out, “Son let me have my veena back. I have to travel through the universe. Please give it back to me.”

But Hanuman was enjoying this game and he grinned happily as he ran off with the by now exhausted Narada puffing and panting behind him.

It was then that Anjana, Hanuman’s mother walked in and saw a profusely sweating and tired sage running after her boisterous little son. She knew that Hanuman had been up to some mischief.

Perplexed she asked Sage Narada what had happened. When Narada narrated the whole incident to Anjana she called out sternly to Hanuman “Hanuman that’s enough of your naughtiness. Come here right now and make sure that the revered sage’s veena is returned to him.”

Little Hanuman knowing that “fun time” had just been called to an abrupt halt came to his mother. Then going out he walked over to where the veena lay stuck in the rock and once again began to sing beatifically. This time Sage Narada was not about to take any chances. No matter how sweet the song, Narada kept his eyes wide open. The minute the rock melted at hearing Hanuman sing, Narada rushed forward and grabbed his veena. He was about to leave when he heard little Hanuman say to his mother, “Mother, I made Sage Narada chase me all through the house because I wanted his holy feet and his presence to bless every room in our home.”

Narada’s heart melted when he heard this. Smiling and singing a special bhajan to the Lord the sage went on his way.

When he grew older Hanuman became Lord Ram’s greatest devotee. When Ram’s wife Sita was abducted by the wicked demon king Ravana, Hanuman was determined to find Sita for his beloved Rama. Ravana had taken Sita to Lanka. Hanuman reached Lanka after facing a number of obstacles and fighting several demons and demonesses. Once in Lanka, he stealthily made his way to Ashok Vatika, the exquisite garden in Ravana’s Lanka. There amid an abundance of beautiful colourful flowers and fruit trees Hanuman found Sita sitting desolate and despondent. He approached her gently and gave her Lord Ram’s ring to convince her that Lord Ram had indeed sent him as his messenger.

After all the strenuous activity of crossing the ocean and reaching Ashok Vatika, Hanuman began to feel very hungry. The exquisite garden was overflowing with fruit trees that were weighed down with ripe succulent fruit. Hanuman was just about to pick a delicious, golden mango when Goddess Sita cautioned, “Be careful not to pick fruit off the tree. Ravana is very possessive of his fruit and will go into a tearing rage if he discovers that fruit has been plucked off his trees. You may however eat the fruit that has dropped to the ground.”

Obediently, Hanuman looked around and began to pick the various fruit that had fallen off the trees. After eating all these his appetite was not sated. He looked longingly at the ripe fruit hanging on the branches and his stomach rumbled with hunger. Then his mischievous side emerged and he said to Sita, “I won’t anger Ravana by plucking fruit from the trees, but as I jump from tree to tree the branches might shake and some fruit might fall off. Surely Ravana cannot object to that?”

Then with a cheerful smile on his face and full of glee Hanuman leapt from tree to tree. The branches shook violently and heaps of fruit fell to the ground. Once he had had all his fun jumping from tree to tree and branch to branch Hanuman hopped down, sat on his haunches and merrily munched away at all the various fruit that now littered the garden floor. Sita smiled to herself as she watched the mischievous Hanuman eat several ripe, golden mangoes, dozens of sweet chikoos, some crisp guavas and pears and of course plenty of his most favourite fruit - bunches of bananas. He munched away at the fruit tossing the peels and seeds all over the garden.

Obviously, all the ruckus Hanuman had made by his jumping from tree to tree and shaking the branches had alerted Ravana’s guards and they came rushing into the garden their spears ready to pierce the perpetrator of all this chaos. As they rushed into the garden, they saw a large monkey sitting on the soft grass and happily chomping away at the fruits. What was even worse was that King Ravana’s pristine garden was a now a total mess littered with fruit peels, seeds and plenty of broken branches and fallen leaves. The guards were horrified. The monkey, on the other hand was unperturbed and in no hurry to leave.

Immediately the guards rushed forward to capture him. Hanuman with one quick leap was beyond their reach. He would climb up on a tree still delightedly enjoying his fruit. The guards would clamber up only to find Hanuman waving to them from the ground below. In their eagerness to catch him they would slide down the tree quickly grazing their knees and cutting their palms while Hanuman leapt off once again beyond their reach, the wide grin never leaving his fruit filled mouth.

Hanuman enjoyed this game of “catch me if you can” for a while and then thought to himself, “I have eaten enough and had a lot of fun but now I am bored of this game.”

He jumped off a mango tree and allowed himself to be caught by one of the guards. All the others rushed to help capture Hanuman. Puffing and panting and totally out of breath the guards somehow managed to tie up Hanuman. “We will now take this naughty monkey to our King Ravana and inform him of the mischief he has been up to. The King will surely give him the punishment he deserves,” said the chief of the guards.

Accordingly, a bound Hanuman was taken to Ravana’s court. Ravana was most annoyed that Hanuman had messed his cherished Ashok Vatika and he roared with anger, “Put this rascal’s tail on fire. That is the punishment he deserves.”

The guards hurriedly brought cloth dipped in oil and tried to wind it around Hanuman’s tail. Hanuman had a gleam in his eyes as he used his magical powers to keep lengthening his already long tail. The guards kept running back and forth collecting more cloth and more oil but try as they might they could not cover Hanuman’s tail. Then even though it was not fully covered the exhausted guards tried to set fire to the tail. Again, they were bewildered and flummoxed because Hanuman’s tail just would not catch fire!”

It was then that Hanuman naughtily suggested to them, “Perhaps if your King Ravana comes and blows on the flame my tail will catch fire.”

The unsuspecting guards who were at their wits end requested Ravana to come forward and blow on the flame. Ravana by now had had enough of Hanuman’s antics. He rose from his golden throne and strode determinedly toward Hanuman. Looking sternly at his guards Ravana roared angrily, “Step aside you fools. You are all incapable of doing the simplest of tasks.”

Then as one guard timidly lit a flame to the tip of Hanuman’s tail Ravana stepped close put his face forward and blew with all his might. Instantly a huge flame erupted. Whoosh the red-hot flame rose sharply even before Ravana could move away and in seconds Ravana’s ten glorious beards were up in flames and burning to shreds. Shocked Ravana jumped backwards, waving his twenty hands around trying to extinguish the scorching fire. His guards and the many rakshasas ran helter-skelter fetching water and poured buckets of water on their King to put out the fire. The mighty King Ravana was seething with anger, flapping his many hands, his ten beards still smoldering, the smoke filling the air all around and to top it all he was now soaking wet. It was indeed a most comical sight. It was so funny that even the guards and raskhasas could not hold back their laughter. This enraged Ravana even more. Drenched and fuming Ravana was absolutely livid. He charged at Hanuman. This was when Hanuman decided to teach Ravana a lesson. He flew across Lanka, his burning tail setting fire to everything in his sight.

Once Hanuman had informed Lord Rama of Sita’s whereabouts, Hanuman and the vanar (monkey) army together with Rama went on to defeat Ravana and bring Devi Sita back safely. The victorious Rama returned to Ayodhya and following his grand coronation hosted a lavish feast to which the entire monkey brigade was invited. Everyone was enjoying the delicious meal when all of a sudden one monkey jumped. Immediately another monkey jumped too. In moments all the other monkeys were jumping. The other guests were most startled as very soon monkey after monkey was flying up into the air. To Rama’s surprise, Hanuman too, jumped high in the air.

As Hanuman came down, a bewildered Rama asked him. “I am delighted you are so happy, Hanuman. But tell me, what made you jump so high?”

Hanuman looked sheepish as he replied, “Lord there really was no reason for me to jump except that when the monkey sitting next to me jumped, I wanted to show him that I could jump higher!”

Rama then asked the monkey next to Hanuman, “Why did you jump?”

The monkey promptly replied, “I jumped to show this fellow next to me that if he could jump, I could jump even higher!"

As Rama puzzled about this matter Sita determined to know the cause of all this chaos in the midst of this celebratory feast went down the rows of monkey till she reached the smallest little monkey seated in the very first row. Going up to him Sita enquired gently, “My child, why did you jump? Did something frighten you?”

The little monkey looked up at beautiful Sita Ma and in a soft voice replied quite innocently, “No I was not frightened at all. When I tried to peel the banana on my plate it slipped out of my hand and jumped away. I wanted to show the banana that if it could jump, I could jump even higher. So, I jumped.”

Seeing this little fellow jump the monkey next to him thought that this youngster was challenging him and so he jumped a little higher! He was followed by the next monkey who too could not resist a challenge and so it went on. In no time at all monkey after monkey began to jump up into the air, each one trying to outdo the other. Hanuman could not resist all the fun so finally, to crown it all, Hanuman jumped and naturally he jumped the highest!

Hanuman’s humour never left him even when he needed to teach someone a lesson, he did it with humour. Lord Bhima was Hanuman’s brother. They were both sons of Lord Vayu. Bhima had the strength of ten thousand elephants. He was reputed to be the most powerful of the five Pandava brothers. This made him very proud. Hanuman knowing the importance of humility wanted his brother to be rid of his arrogance.

Hanuman thought of an ingenious plan. He disguised himself as a weak old monkey. He then lay across the road that Bhima was about to walk through. Bhima was merrily walking along when he saw an old monkey sleeping in the middle of the road blocking his path entirely. Bhima had little patience and was annoyed that a monkey had the temerity to lie across the road he had chosen to walk through. He shouted rudely, “Get out of my way monkey.” Hanuman pretending not to hear Bhima continued to lie on the road without moving an inch.

Bhima yelled even louder “Move yourself monkey. How dare you impede my walk. I warn you do as I say or you will regret it.”

Opening one eye slowly Hanuman replied, “Why are you bothering an old monkey like me. If you are in such a hurry just move my tail out of your way and then pass. I am old and tired.”

Bhima was not about to do any such thing. He continued to order the monkey “Move out of the way.”

But as the old monkey seemed to have gone back to sleep and was not budging, an angry Bhima bent down and gripped violently at the monkey’s tail with one hand. He was not about to let this insolent monkey get away with the audacity of blocking his road. It was his intention to pull hard at the monkey’s tail, pick him up by that tail and toss him far, far away. After all he was the mighty Bhima. He pulled hard. Instead of lifting up the monkey Bhima was astonished to find that with the force he had exerted he had lost his grip of the heavy tail and fallen backwards with a resounding thud. The monkey’s tail had not even moved an inch. Scratching his head and wondering why he had lost his grip he went back again. This time he used both his hands and all the might of his strong arms but could not lift the tail and he again went tumbling backwards. The sleeping monkey continued to sleep undisturbed. Bhima could not lift his tail. It was only then that Bhima realized that this was no ordinary monkey. Folding his hands Bhima said, “Forgive me for my arrogance. I know now that you are no ordinary monkey. Please, I request you to show me who you really are.”

A smiling Hanuman revealed his original form and said, “I wanted to teach you, my brother, that true strength comes with humility and respect for even those weaker than yourself.”

LIFE LESSONS

1. Humour always makes life a little easier. Like Hanuman learn to laugh and smile and spread laughter all around you.

2. Like Hanuman let us always respect our elders.

3. Like Hanuman let us be true devotees of God.

4. Like Hanuman let us learn to face adversity with humour.

5. Like Hanuman let us always be loyal to those we love.

6. Like Hanuman let us remain humble.