Actually, we need all of these qualities in our day-to-day life. All those great qualities, which are famous across the world, have found a home in Hanuman. Hanuman possesses buddhi, bala, yasha, dhairya, nirbhayatva, aroga, ajaadya, and vaakpatutva as His primary gunas. And the best part is, we also get these gunas if we remember Hanuman.
When He first time met SriRama and Lakshmana, Hanuman came in the form of a Brahmin and then asked Rama as to who He was, from where did He come, and all. On hearing the words of Hanuman, Lord Rama was very happy and He said, “Lakshmana! Did you notice the grammar of this Brahmin? It’s so pure and correct. Not even a single mistake in pronunciation, deerghasvara, not a single apasvara.” Means Hanuman’s vaani was so pure and correct. And then Rama followed Hanuman to the Rushyamooka Parvata.
Hanuman went to Lanka. There, on His way to Lanka, He met Mainaka. Mainaka is the brother-in-law of Lord Shiva, and brother of Umadevi. Earlier, the mountains too had wings. But they used to fly and sit over any random village and would destroy it. So, on the prayers of the devatas and the people, Indra came with his vajraayudha and cut the wings of the mountains.
Mainaka had taken refuge in Mukhyaprana Vayudeva. He asked Mainaka to reside inside the ocean. So, he had come here. Now, the son of Vayudeva, or the direct avatar of Mukhyaprana Vayudeva, Hanuman, was coming. So, Mainaka came out to thank him. At that time, Mainaka asked Hanuman to rest on him for some time and then go.
Now, Hanuman had the option to rest and go. But He had to do His Raamakaarya. Therefore, He refused to rest and go. This shows Hanuman’s loyalty towards SriRama, which we need to learn in our lives. This even shows the Dhruti. Dhruti means, ‘If I decide to accomplish a task, then I will complete it correctly, and then other things.’ Hanuman has power that has no limits at all. How can He get tired, and why does He want rest?
But to respect Mainaka, Hanuman hugged him and went further. This shows Ajaadya and humility. Ajaadya means ‘non-laziness ’. He could have just rejected Mainaka on his face and could have flown away, but then He didn’t do that. He was humble and kind towards Mainaka. This is what we must learn in our lives.
He met Surasa. Surasa was a naagamaata who had the boon that whatever she wished would fall into her mouth. Now, she asked Hanuman to enter her mouth. Here, Hanuman had to do the work assigned by Lord Rama to Him. Plus, He had to even keep in mind that the boon given by the devatas also doesn’t go false.
This is real-time stress management that Hanuman teaches us. What He did was enter her mouth and immediately come out. By this, He didn’t even make the statement of the devatas go false, and He didn’t even miss in Raamakaarya. This is known as Buddhi. At what time, what to do, when to do, and all, is what we must learn from Hanuman. Plus, He was very quick at thinking about what to do in any situation.
Next, He met Simhika, who caught His reflection and made Him fall into her mouth. Hanuman tore apart Simhika’s stomach and went further. After defeating Lankini, Hanuman entered Lanka. There He saw many ladies. Some were naked, some were drunken, some were in some weird clothes and like this. Hanuman saw them so that He could find Sitadevi among them.
Then He questioned Himself, “Did I incur any Brahmacharya lopa by seeing these ladies?” But then, He answered Himself, “No, I didn’t incur any Brahmacharya lopa because my goal was to find Sitadevi, and Sitadevi must be present among these ladies. But I didn’t find Her. Plus, I didn’t even see these ladies with desire or lust.” This Brahmacharya is what we must have within us.
Now, Hanuman met Sitadevi in the Ashoka Vana. In the Ashoka Vana, She was surrounded by rakshasis, who used to cause trouble for Sitadevi. When these rakshasis went away, Hanuman came there and talked to Sitadevi. How did He talk? He talked in such a way that all the tension that She had about Rama coming to Lanka was destroyed.
On the contrary, if we had been in place of Hanuman, then we would have just increased Her tension. So, we must learn when to speak what. At the right time, if we don’t speak, then we won’t make our point as to what we are trying to say. This is known as Pratibha and Vaakpatutva. This attribute is present in Hanuman. Even Sitadevi says, ‘O Hanuman! You are the only one who is eligible to talk to me.’ Plus, that’s why Hanuman has the name ‘Sitashokanivaranah’.
Next, Indrajit catches Hanuman and brings Him near Ravana. Hanuman had nobody with Him from Rama’s side. He was alone and was surrounded by Rakshasas and their king, Ravana. Ravana asked Hanuman, ‘Who are you? Why did you destroy the Ashokavana?” very rudely. Hanuman answered very beautifully. He didn’t say, “I am Hanuman, and I am the one who crossed the ocean, I killed Simhika, I killed your son Akshakumara, I killed your army and all…”
He bowed to SriRama in His mind and said, “Daasoham Kosalendrasya Raamena aklishtakarmana”, which means, “I am the servant of the king of Kosala, SriRamachandra, who never gets tired, even after performing massive tasks like creation, sustenance, and destruction. I am Rama’s Hanuman. If you don’t return the dearest to the best among the Raghus (Rama), i.e., Sitadevi, then you will surely attain destruction along with your sons, friends, and kinsmen.”
He said, “Even Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva cannot even stand in front of an arrow released by Lord Rama; then what are you in front of Lord Rama? You are infinitely inferior in front of Brahma and Shiva; then what are you even in front of Rama?” Saying all this requires a great amount of courage. That’s why I earlier said that nobody was there with Hanuman from Rama’s side to help. Hanuman was alone, surrounded by the rakshasas and Ravana.
But even in front of them, Hanuman was praising His master SriRama; that means what amount of courage He must possess to say that. Indra and other devatas used to fear Ravana. In that case, Hanuman said what no one else had said. If we were there, then we would have returned like a scared cat. Hanuman had that courage because he firmly believed that, whatever happened, Rama would protect him.
This is what the Shaastras say: ‘Rakshati ityeva vishvaasaha’ (He will definitely protect me no matter what happens) is a quality of devotion. Over here, Hanuman shows that quality highly. This shows how much devotion or Bhakti He had for SriRama. Hanuman is very clever and smart. When Ravana asked, “What is the strength of Rama’s army?” Hanuman replied, “I am the weakest monkey out of Rama’s vanara sena.” Ravana was shocked to know this because if one monkey can come and destroy Lanka like this, what is the power of the other vaanaras, and what is the power of the Supreme Bhagavan SriRamachandra?
He didn’t even fear when Ravana asked his servants to burn Hanuman’s tail. Hanuman increased the tail’s length even more. The oil factory in Lanka was emptied. The people of Lanka were suffering from a clothing and oil crisis because they used to give their clothes and oil to tie to Hanuman's tail. Then finally Hanuman decided to have mercy, and then the fire was set on Hanuman’s tail.
Hanuman burnt Lanka and came back to Rama near the Rushyamooka Parvata. Hanuman approached Rama and then, with deep devotion, bowed down to Rama and offered the Choodamani given by Sitadevi to SriRama. Rama then praised Hanuman a lot. SriRama said, “O Hanuman, there are three categories of servants. Some servants never perform the tasks assigned by their masters. These are Adhama sevakas and are of no use.”
SriRama further said, “The second category of people are those who perform only the tasks assigned to them by their master, and nothing else. These are known as Madhyama Sevakas. The third category of servants are those who not only perform the tasks given by their master, but also perform the tasks which make the work of the master easy and are beneficial for their master. These are known as Uttama Sevakas. You belong to the category of Uttama Sevakas and are my dearest.”
SriRama said, “I am so pleased with you that I am not able to decide what I should give you for this great work you did. Even if I give my abode Vaikuntha to you, it is not sufficient for you. So, I am giving you myself as a gift.” Saying so, SriRama hugged Hanuman. Who is luckier than Hanuman, who got the Lord of Lakshmidevi as a boon?
Now, during the war between Rama and Ravana, Hanuman kept on destroying the demon army of Ravana. He was basically doing a yagya, named Yuddha Yagya, wherein the Yagya vedika was SriRama Himself, and He was putting the aahuti of the raakshasas He killed into that yagya vedika named SriRama. Ravana punched Hanuman’s chest once, but Hanuman was unaffected and was unharmed.
Then, Hanuman punched Ravana once, and Ravana vomited blood from 10 of his heads and fell on the ground. The devatas, for a second, thought that Ravana was dead. But then, Ravana woke up and praised Hanuman. Hanuman said, “This was not even my full strength and was just a small sample of my strength.” Ravana ran away from there. Here, we should notice the precision of Hanuman.
Hanuman could have easily killed Ravana, but then He knew that it was the sankalpa of Rama to kill Ravana. But then, Hanuman set the force of His punch such that Ravana learned a lesson and, at the same time, was alive too. Because killing Ravana would be opposite to Hanuman’s loyalty towards His master SriRama, who is the Supreme Bhagavan. This is the strength or bala present in Hanuman and His Svami Nishtha, which we must learn today.
When all the vaanaras were trapped in the Naagapaasha of Indrajit, Hanuman flew over 50,000 yojanas. 1 Yojana can be considered approx. 4 to 10 miles. Hanuman flew that large distance with the speed of mind…He didn’t even take one second. Think of how fast Hanuman might be. He went to the Gandhamaadana Parvata and brought the Sanjeevani Parvata, which was 100 yojana high, to Lanka.
After the Vaanaras survived, Hanuman didn’t go again to put the Sanjeevani back. Instead, He threw the Sanjeevani from Lanka itself, and the force of the throw was so precise that it went straight towards Gandhamaadana Parvata, soaring in the air and got fixed where it was, as it is, without even one single particle going here and there, and was fixed in such a way as if nobody had touched it before. Such was the efficiency in the work of Hanuman.
After killing Ravana, Rama, along with Sitadevi, came to Ayodhya, and Rama was coronated as the king of Ayodhya. He promised to grant Moksha to every vaanara. But for Hanuman, SriRama said, “Hanuman! You have devoted your whole life to me. You have done so much for me, and for my pleasure. I am confused as to what I should gift you? Even Moksha won’t suffice in front of the work you have done for me. Okay, I have concluded. I would give you the position of Brahma.”
And this Brahma Padavi is not any ordinary padavi. Brahma has the responsibility to create the whole universe, humans, devatas, and all. After this, His work is not over. He has to create the maanasa putras who will continue the work of creation. It is a very great position, infinitely greater than even the CEO position. The CEO is just the CEO for a company. But Hanuman was getting the position of the CEO of the whole universe, but under Lord Narayana/Lord Rama.
But Hanuman said, “O Lord! I don’t want Brahma Padavi. What does a person need anymore, when they have You with them? You are the master of Sri, who is the presiding deity of wealth, Bhudevi. This whole cosmos belongs to You. You are king of the whole cosmos. What more do I need when You are with me? Just grant me true devotion to You. Let my mind never deviate from You. Let my eyes always see You. Let my ears always listen to Your pastimes. Let my nose smell the SriGandha offered to You.”
Hanuman said, “Let my stomach bear the food You ate and left. Let my hands join together in front of You. Let my head bow down to Your lotus feet. Let my tongue utter Your name, which destroys all the sins. Let my mind think of Your auspicious attributes all the time. Let my legs do pradakshina to You. Let You only be my master in every birth and every second. In this way, let me get unwavering devotion in You, O Lord Rama!”
Rama was very much impressed with Hanuman and hugged Him tightly and said, “I give you myself as a gift because no gift is more valuable than me myself. I will always be with you, even after entering Vaikuntha. You will see me every second and will never be separated from me.” This is what is known as Sahabhoga. Rama provided the boon of Sahabhoga to Hanuman. This is the Bhakti we must do in SriRama.
So, Hanuman is not just a character of the Ramayana, but He teaches us so many things that we need. He is Buddhimaan, Balavaan, Yashovaan, Dhairyavaan, Nirbhaya, doesn’t get any disease, is not lazy, knows where to speak what, and at what time. And by remembering Hanuman in this way, we too get all these qualities within us.
So the things we learn from Hanuman are:
1. Commitment towards the assigned work. We must not divert from our task, and should learn how to manage in tougher times.
2. Devotion to Bhagavan should be such that Bhagavan is pleased with us. Devotion is the knowledge of the greatness of Bhagavan + causeless love for Bhagavan, both flowing hand in hand with each other like an unbroken stream of oil.
3. One must have the courage to stand against Adharma and defend Dharma, keeping 100% faith in Bhagavan that no matter what happens, Bhagavan is there to protect me. We must be fearless in such situations.
4. We should know when to do what, and where to say what, at the right place, at the right time, and at the right instance.
5. We should not be lazy in doing tasks, and should consider every good task we do as a service to Srihari and should do that task with the sole purpose of pleasing Bhagavan.
I am not an expert in all these qualities but am learning and still trying to inculcate these qualities within me as per my competence.
Hope this helps!
Jay SriRam!
ShriHanuman Antargata ShriRaama Abhinna ShriKrishnarpanamastu!