Hanumat Sarvasvam — All about Hanuman
An attempt to summarize recent pravachanam by samanvaya samarat Dr. Samavedam Shanmukha Sarma Garu in Bangalore.
Introduction:
It is an impossible adventure for me: taking up this task of summarizing a 11 hour long pravachanam in Telugu, coming from a person equal to a RShi into this English summary with a title “All about Hanuman”
In sanAtana dharma the knowledge is revealed by the means of speech. All others visual and art forms are tools to aid the flow of knowledge. Anyone seeking knowledge should approach a teacher with reverence (Sraddha) and attentively listen to what is being said about the subject being taught. By this means, the knowledge along with its consciousness enters the student seeking this knowledge. Once the knowledge is seeded in the student, student then engages in manana i.e., a systematic contemplation to grow the knowledge into wisdom of realization of the subject under discussion. This attempt is one such session of manana by me.
The subject:
The subject is “Hanuman” — The tattva (essential higher nature): it consists of abstract forms of mantras and a graspable forms consisting of names identifying visualized appearances. This visualized appearance is known as avatAra. While the mantra swarUpa is eternal, appears only to the seekers performing upAsana through multiple periods of time known as yugas, the avatAra swarUpa demonstrates different qualities, involves in different activities as leelas known to everyone through narrations. Taking these as multiple ways to contemplate and as doors to reach the deep abstract tattva, a seeker realizes the deep inward essence of the tattva as pure consciousness.
Hanuman can be seen as a deity of worship (ArAdhya mUrti) or as an inspirational character (AdarSa mUrti) with eight divine qualities: buddhi (intellect), balam (power), yaSas (fame), dhairyam (courage), nirbhayatyam (fearlessness), arOgatA (health), ajAdjam (lively warmth), vAkpatutvam (clear expressive ability). By worship of this deity with multitude of divine qualities, a seeker develops these qualities, enjoys the narrations involving the gAdhA svarUpam of the deity and finally realizes the bOdha svarUpam or realized wisdom of the eternal bliss through reconciling all the multiple forms of deities into this ArAdhya mUrti of Hanuman. (There are six modes of worship — Saiva, Sakteya, Vaishnava, gAnapatya, skAnda and saura in sanAtana dharma)
The nature of this pravachanam has interleaved gAdha (narrations from rAmAyaNa and puraNas) with bOdha (essential inward meaning shown by vedas, upanishads, mantra sastras and experiences of individuals who worshiped earlier!)
avataraNa — Manifestation:
mantra sastra shows examples of worship of Hanuman even in kRtayuga by great people like sage pushkara and dhwajadatta (a detailed narration comes later in this post itself!), much before his manifestation in 24th trEtayuga to help rAma in accomplishing his mission of rAvaNa samhara. (Currently we are in 28th cycle of kaliyuga of this sweta-varAha-kalpa)
The avatAra of Hanuman described by Sage Agasthya to SrI rAma in uttara ramayaNa as follows: (gAdha)
Once upon a time Siva and pArvati took forms of vAnara (vAnara is a type of tribe who studied vedas and have their own culture and dharma for their sect at that yuga). At that time the potency of Siva entered pArvati. When they wished to draw back from vAnara forms, pArvati extracted this wonderful potency of Siva and placed it in Agni, the lord of fire. All gods also placed their respective powers in Agni to help vishNu in the upcoming incarnation as rAma to make them win over the powerful rAvaNa.
During the course of time a great sage performed a tapas on Siva and asked for a boon that Siva is born to him as his son. Siva granted the boon but at a later lifespan. The sage took birth as kEsari and an apsarasa named punjikasthala took birth in vAnara clan as anjana and married to kEsari. At this juncture, anjana also performed tapas to get very powerful and wise progeny to Siva. Lord Siva ordered one of his eight forms, vAyu, lord of wind to place his potency that was lodged in Agni earlier by pArvati in the womb of anjana. After a period of 12 months, fulfilling the wishes of gods, sages, kEsari and anjana the wonderful potency of Siva took birth as a vAnara in the womb of anjana.
As the boy is born with natural yajnopavIta (initiated with subtle vision), with bright golden hue and all the divine effulgence, anjana went to collect fruits for him. The boy felt hungry and looked at the rising Sun and thought it to be a fruit and straight away jumped towards it. As it was time of eclipse, rAhu also came towards sun. Mistaken by a new boy trying to capture sun (doing his duty) went to king of gods, Indra and complained about this anomaly. Indra came on his IrAvata to the Sun and stuck the boy with his vajra on the jaw. The boy fell unconscious. vAyu felt bad of this event and took the boy into his lap, entered a cave and stopped moving. So, all the worlds are made unconscious.
The creator brahma appeared in front of vAyu, put his hand on the head of the boy, revived his conscious and called him “Hanuman” — one who has strong jaws and blessed him to be a chiranjeevi and take up the role of creator in next kalpa. Then all the gods gave boons in such a way that none of their powers can stop or control Hanuman. This is the gAdha i.e., narration.
What is the bOdha from this?
Hanuman is not mere incarnation of Siva or the supreme consciousness. He is powered by Shakti (supreme power), endowed with the power of Fire, Air, and all other presiding deities and blessed by all three-mUrtis. The manifestation in the vAnara is to help a divine purpose and bestow the divine blessings to the seekers through the leelas performed for aiding the upAsana of the devotees. Most importantly, the mantra chaitanya of Hanuman exists eternally even though the manifestation is a specific event that happens time to time within the yuguas! (It is same with all devas established in sanatana dharma through vEda!)
Deeper meaning of name “Hanuman”:
In sundarakAnda while introducing himself to sIta, Hanuman says: “Based on the activities done by me, people call me Hanuman”; What does that mean? What is it meant by having good jaws? One can speak well. In taittarIya upanishad, it is mentioned:
“…. adharA hanu pUrva rUpam, uttarA hanu uttara rUpam vAk sandhi ….”
That means, the significance of jaws is ability to speak. One who speaks in best possible way suitable to the current situation is one who is known as Hanuman. Hanuman means vAkya kOvidaH. To have such a beautiful speech one should have wisdom. Hanuman is one with strong body along with the wisdom to speak appropriately to achieve the desired results.
Hanuman also means one who has all the powers of divine weapons.
When we look at the activities performed by Hanuman, he managed to win the friendship of rAma for sugreeva, he managed to take message of rAma to sIta, also gave a stern warning to rAvaNa as the messenger of rAma, gave the counsel to give refuge to vibhIshaNa even though the brother of enemy king. All these activities show the capability of wisdom in him.
Also the sound of ha-nu-ma has its own sound power of mantra. If we take vowels a-u-ma-n make up the OMkAra. The vibrations of Ha start at abdomen signifying the tattva of space — Akasa.
vidyAbhyaSam — study phase:
One of the boons Hanuman had from Sun was to be his teacher. As Hanuman taken a manifestation as a vAnara, following the custom, approached this divine teacher Aditya for formal education. Through Aditya upAsana, following Sun’s different phases every muhUrta (a day is divided into 30 periods of 48 minute muhUrtas, each with a distinct name) Hanuman directly studied vedas along with six vedAngas (limbs known as siksha, vyakaraNa, chandas, nirukta, jyOtisha and kalpa) and upAngas (sub limbs purANa, nyAya, mImAsa, dharma Sastra etc.,) which makes up sa-anga upa-anga vEda vijnAnam or vidya.
Other Important Names of Hanuman:
AnjanEya is other important name of Hanuman. Anjana’s son is AnjanEya is the external meaning for this name. But, anjana means that having applied to eyes, which shows an unseen thing or a lost thing. Normally we can’t see the subtle essence of things. Some veda mantras are known as anjanas as they show the subtle meaning of reality. So, AnjanEya is the one who can find an unseen thing. Finding sIta is an example of AnajnEya’s name.
mAruti, rAma-dUta are other important names of Hanuman. Son of wind god is mAruti and internal meaning is one who has swift pace and giver of life force. Son of air is life force. dUta is not just a messenger. dUta is fire.
“agnim dUtam vRNImahE” — I am selecting agni i.e, fire as my messenger.
As fire takes the oblations offered to the deity it is offered to. In the same way, a dUta carries the message from supreme self incarnated as rAma to individual self captured by the ten-headed rAvaNa. A spiritual guru is a dUta, who brings the supreme message to seeker and seeker’s sincerity back to supreme; doing this help brings merger between individual and supreme! This action is known as rAma-dUta.
Subtle views of Hanuman based on paurANic narrations
Let’s see some well known incidents from purANas and their subtle meaning with respective to Hanuman. The most important one is rAmAyaNam and in that SundarakAnDa. We see a determined person on mission in when he starts to lanka. The determination is the positive attitude towards achieving the result by overcoming all the obstacles — kArya siddhi swarupa. After searching lanka and not finding sIta he contemplates internally and prays to multiple divinities:
namOstu rAmAya sa lakshmaNAya dEvyai ca tasmai janakAtmajAyai
namOstu rudrEndu yamAnilEbhO namOstu chandrArka marudgaNEbhyaH
As he enters the aSOka vanam he is seen as daAsAnjanEya — a devoted form to divinity. After finding sIta and exchanging the message, as dUta he thinks he can accomplish another activity of assessing the enemy’s power and show a bit of his power to the enemy. That is vIrAnjanEya swarUpam.
Hanuman shows all the qualities of three murthis of rudra, vishnu and brahma. He is known as trimUrthi. His view towards sIta is pacifying view like moon light, while searching his view is sharp like sun light, while burning down lanka his view is like terrifying fire. These three are the eyes of Siva as well.
In parASara samhitA there is a narration to show Hanuman is next brahma. Once rAma asked Hanuman to bring back the ring that was earlier given to brahma on the request of sIta. So, Hanuman goes to brahma lOka and requests to get back the ring. Brahma initially refuses to give it back and Hanuman gets slightly angry and shows his viswarUpa this is known as virAt-Hanuman. Brahma then says after worshiping the ring is kept in a pond and asks Hanuman to take it. As Hanuman goes to the pond, he sees several identical rings. He goes back to rAma and says about this. Then rAma says: “I have taken this avatAra several times, and this ring has been given to brahma several times, so you can bring any one of them!” Hanuman goes back and brings the ring and gives it to sIta. This shows infinite nature of time and repeated kalpas and avataras and also mentions that Hanuman will be the creator in next kalpa.
A well known narration from mahAbhArata that Hanuman gave protection to bhIma by showing himself as an old monkey whose tail is so heavy that bhIma can’t move it. Also in another narration his hair from his tail that can emerge a Siva linga showing that Hanuman is completely endowed with the potency of Siva.
Hanuman can be seen in various forms by the worshipers gaining distinct results from such worship.
pancha-mukha AnjanEya — mahadrUpam:
Five-faceted form of AnjanEya is described as follows in line with the five faces of Siva in multiple mantra SAstras:
vandE vAnara, nAraSimha, khaga-rAt, kROda, aSva vaktrAnkitam nanAlankaraNam tripanchanayanm dEdIpyamAnam ruchaH, hastabhyai asi khETa pustuka sudhAkumbhasadri halam khaTvAngam phaNi bhUruham sarvAri garvApaham
Direction — face — Siva’s Face — Result
East — vAnara — Tatpurusha — of Surya, destroyer of enemies and obstacles
South — nArasimha — aghOra — destroyer of death
West —gAruDa — sadyOjata — visha hara, detoxifies, health giver
North — varAha — vAmadEva — sasya, sampat i.e., wealth giver
Upward — aSva — IsAna — vidyAprada, wisdom giver
along with ten Ayudhas in ten hands — Asi, khEta, pustaka, sudhAkumbha, ankuSam, adri, halam, khaTvAngam, phaNi, bhUruham (sword, shield, book, pot of nectar, controlling dagger, mountain, plough, khatvangam, snake, tree)
This has deep inward meaning that can only be derived by performing dhyAna (follow the link for Hanumad pancharatna stotram a meditative method by Adi Sankara) and upAsana on this form.
Further, being a chiranjeevi i.e., living eternally till the end of this kalpa and assuming the role of creator in next kalpa, Hanuman resides in the gandha-mAdhan parvatam in the golden leafed banana garden that is not seen by all people, but seen by several worshipers.
bOdha or wisdom from Hanuman
The personality of Hanuman is seen in his wisdom. Not just wisdom, but his conversational and communication skills, his actions while performing any assigned activity and result orientation brings all the three faculties of an individual. Bringing action, speech and thought together to perfect alignment is known as tri-karaNa-suddhi. Along with the ingita-jnana (the ability to find the reality of a person’s inward thought by appearance and body language) and applying sufficient power and quick decision making that gives strength to dharma i.e., righteousness. Talking only what is needed, communicating briefly and without causing confusion is the quality of Hanuman. Limited and clear expression is another AdarSa lakshana of Hanuman.
- For seekers of wealth and removal of pain, Hanuman is abhaya anjanEya and pratApAnjanEya
- For worshipers he shows multiple forms of subtle upAsana vidhAnas and as prasannAnjanEya
- For wise men Hanuman is directly supreme reality known as parabrahman described in vedas
… aghOrEbhO atha ghOrEbhO ghOra ghOra tarEbhyH ….
Follow-able qualities (AdarSas, inspiration):
Devotion and worship of Hanuman leads to nurturing: Duty bounded, Personality, Character, jitendriyatvam i.e., self-control, yOgi, pUrNakAmatvam i.e., ever-contended, dharma-buddhi, standing on the side of righteousness — All these are the qualities that can inspire people to live in this world that are demonstrated in each step of Hanuman’s narrations.
Experiences of devotees— ancient and modern
Most recent well known devotee is Sri tulaSi das. He is an upAsaka of Hanuman who has done Hanuman chAlIsa, Hanuman bAhuk, bhajaranga bhAn, sankata mOchana hanumad asTakam along with his magnum opus SrI rAma charita mAnas.
Another well known devotee is samartha rAmadAsu. He has established several Hanuman temples and gave the power of tapas to chatrapati SivAjI. These two are the examples of kaliyuga.
We already touched upon pAnDavAs being the devotees of Hanuman in dvAparayuga.
In trEtA yuga we can see even lord rAma and lakshmaNa being devotees of Hanuman. This may look odd to the readers, but it is reality. All that done by Hanuman to lord rAma, sIta and lakshmaNa is surely super natural even for that time and only possible through divine grace.
Narration of pushkara, dhwajadatta and gAla
A form of deity is pleased when we reminded of his devotees. This narration in paraSara samhita gives several subtle points of upAsana of Hanuman. This is related to kRtayuga. It reveals multiple facets of life as well. This is narrated by sage sanatkumara in the assembly of brahma.
pushkara
In one of kRtayuga there is a sage known as sage pushkara who is well versed in all the SAstras and Agamas endows with all divine qualities like anasUya i.e, non-jealousy, internal and external sense control, faithful in guru and SAstras. He knows the meaning and purpose of mantras. He lived in naimiSAraNyam and continued his tapas. He has attained mantra siddhi with ever performing the mantra with great love to the mantra and not anxious about the results and not having any objective desires.
dhwajadatta
In the city known as kuNDina, there lives a householder named dhwajadatta, a scholar in SAstra, having many children and suffering poverty. He is teaching kids who joined his Ashrama. He has a very devout wife who took care of maintenance of Ashrama never let her husband know about the poverty suffered by them. Many days she would not eat or eat only a little after feeding everyone in the Ashrama. She never complained about the situation to anyone including her husband. One day dhwajadatta came to know about the situation of his poverty. He said: “I am a scholar and I should take a one of the two paths to improve the situation. 1. perform tapas or 2. set a fee for my services in teaching. Let me take the first path and gain wealth through tapas”
He went to naimiSAraNyam and having looked for a guru, found sage pushkara the best suited for him to give a upadESa of a mantra to solve his problem. He approached pushkara duly and requested for a mantra. pushkara understanding the situation and suitability of dhwajadatta, gave the Hanuman mantra. Taking the upadESa he found a suitable place and started his sAdhana. He practiced with strict rules as per SAstra, performed several punaSCraNas i.e., several hundred thousands of repetition of the mantra and still did not attain the siddhi.
Finally decided that guru pushkara deceived him with a false mantra which has no potency settled there only undecided what to do.
gAla
gAla, a hunter, tribal, hunting animals going in the forest got a disease non-curable by medicine. He roamed around in forest, arrived at naimiSAraNya and approached dhwajadatta to give him a remedy for his problem. dhwajadatta said: “I myself have not attained siddhi, you can approach anyone other than that pushkara who will deceive you”
gAla took leave from dhwajadatta and gone in search for a sage and found sage pushkara. As soon as he has seen pushkara, he felt his problem will be remedied by this sage. He requested the sage, to allow him to serve. gAla served pushkara for a long time. Sage pushkara was in a dilemma weather to give a mantra to gAla who has a hunter past. One day sage pushkara gone into deep samadhi with this query and Hanuman comes to his vision and instructs all the varNas men and women can be given his mantra and gAla, having deep faith in guru is one of the most suitable ones to get the mantra.
Sage puskhara comes out of samAdhi and asks gAla to take a ritual bath in the river. gAla asks for the water that is washed guru pushkara’s feet and takes bath in that water and immediately cured of his ailment. After duly getting the mantra he requests sage pushkara to perform his sAdhana in his presence. Having granted permission, with a blissful mind sits and does the japa. As he completes one mAla of 108 repetitions Hanuman appears to him with his consort suvarchalA and blesses him. gAla wants to continue serving sage pushkara but sage pushkara gently refuses and asks gAla to take leave instructing continued practice of mantra for the lifetime. (mantra sAdhana should not be discontinued even after the siddhi!)
dhwajadatta’s surprise:
dhwajadatta recognizes gAla being cured as he return and request him to say how he got his remedy and who gave the solution. gAla explains his experience with sage pushkara and takes leave from there. dhwajadatta goes back to pushkara and bows down to him and asks him why he could not get the siddhi when gAla got the siddhi in just one mAla of japa.
pushkara goes back to samAdhi and sees the reasons for failure and success of dhwajadatta and gAla respectively.
- While dhwajadatta performed sAdhana strictly, he lacked the sraddha (reverence, faith) in guru. In his past life as well he performed lot of sAdhana but blamed other saadhakas of different other paths and made fun of them. The sin accrued by such action brought him to his current situation of poverty and faithlessness.
- Even in his current sAdhana he lacked sraddha and bhakti on his guru.
- on the other hand, gAla has ultimate faith on guru, mantra and god being worshiped.
- the best place of sAdhana is in the presence of guru. There is no auspicious place other than the satsanga of guru.
Having got this feedback, dhwajadatta repenting deeply, prostrate to sage pushkara’s lotus feet, requests his permission to practice in his presence and attains the siddhi in pretty short time. When Hanuman asks what is his desire dhwajadatta says “I started this to remove my poverty and gain wealth, but now, having divine vision of thy lotus feet, I have no desires left!” — Hanuman smiles and says it is an insult for the mantra if it doesn’t fulfill the wishes of devotees and blesses dhwajadatta with long wealthy life and finally reaching the supreme abode!
Takeaways
Whoever studies and understands this narration of dhwajadatta will gain blessings of Hanuman with his Sakti suvarchalA and guru and gets cleansed of sins!
As the devotee gets absorbed in the devotion of the deity, the deity reveals itself to the devotee with all its mahima. This process will gradually occupies all the external and internal worlds and becomes the supremely unified reality beyond all duality. To help devotees, the deity emerges in various forms with multiple heads, hands and various weapons and so on.
kshetras i.e., dwelling places of Hanuman
While Hanuman is seen wherever rAmayaNa is recited, but there are 12 places known as his dwelling places.
dwadasa puri—kunDinam, srIbhadram, kuSatarpaNam, pampA tIram, chandrakONam, kambhOjam, gandha-mAdhana,brahmAvartapuram, naimiSaraNyam, sundarapuram, hanumatpuram. Also the birth place anjanAdri and jAbAli tIrtham.
In worship, a key component is to visit the kshetras that gives physical and psychological cleansing to the devotees and performing the sAdhana in the kshetras gives quicker results!
Also, of all materials used to worship Hanuman, sindhura and nAgavalli (betel leaf) occupy prominence.
Conclusion
In ancient wisdom of sanAtana dharma, there are revealed mantras that are pregnant with potency of giving gross and subtle results and take the individual attain four fold purpose of life known as dharma-artha-kAma-moksha. upAsana is an approved method to attain siddhi of any purushartha. In difficult times, worship surely helps the worldly attainments and also helps attainment of supreme reality of mOksha.
Hanuman is the supreme tattva that reconciles all six modes of devotion that gives a proven path to devotees following sanatana dharma’s upAsanA mArga (the path of worship) and this summary provides all that I understood from a seven day long pravachanam in the month of SrAvaNa by pUjya SrI sAmavEdam shaNmukha Sarma who is equal to a rishi, sage of modern world.
All the positive aspects of this “All about Hanuman” summary belong to the grace of guru parampara (the succession of gurus); while the defects and errors belong to the limitation imposed by my own inability to comprehend and express the reality as it is.
