Hanuman

Hanuman FAQs

1. What is Hanuman the God of?

Hanumanji is a Hindu God, a central character in the Indian (Hindu) epic Ramayana. In some temples, his image is setup alone standing with a mace in the right hand or sitting in a devotional
posture before the images of Lord Ram and Devi Sita. He is considered to be the God of power and strength; he is a celibate.

2. How did Hanuman die?

Hanumanji is one of the Chiranjeevis or an immortal. He lived throughout the Tretayuga (when Rama killed Ravana), the Dwaparyug (when the war of Mahabharata took place), and is believed to be
present in the Kaliyuga (the current period). Lord Ram granted him a boon, thus making him immortal, so that he could carry on his mission as Sankatmochana (one who helps during problems).
Thus, Hanumanji did not die.

3. Why is Hanuman a monkey or is he a monkey? Explain Vanara.

Hanumanji is a Hindu God, an ardent devotee of Lord Ram. He is a central character in the Indian epic Ramayana. A vanara (one who lives in forest i.e. 'vana'), Hanuman participated in Lord Rama's war against the Demon King Ravana. Vanar does not refer to animals. It means vana nara meaning forest people. Vanars therefore refers to a kind of tribal people living in forest.
As described in Valmiki Ramayana, Vanaras (वानर) are special species of humans that looked like monkeys.

Valmiki’s Ramayana never mentioned Vanaras as Monkeys.
Vanar(वानर) is the Sanskrit word having 2 parts.
Van (वन ) means Forest.
Nara (नर) means Humans.
So, the literal meaning is Humans who lived in forest.
Hanumanji, vanaras (वानर) were definitely not monkeys since monkey is called Vanakapi (वनकापी) or
Kapi (कापी) in Sanskrit.
These species were dominant in southern parts of India and ruled South India including Thailand,
Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia etc.

4. What does Hanuman stand for?

Lord Hanumanji symbolically stands for pure devotion, complete surrender and absence of ego and denotes the lower self. His character tells us what we can do in our lives by becoming pure
devotees of God, aligning ourselves with the forces of good, helping the weak, with self-control, unconditional faith and total surrender.

5. Is Hanuman a Shiva?

Several traditional texts also present him as an embodiment or incarnation of Lord Shiva. Hanumanji, the well-known monkey God, can be seen in temples throughout the country. Another name for Lord Hanumanji is Raudreya, an incarnation of Lord Shiva. The background is: Lord Shiva, impressed with the incarnation of Vishnu as Mohini’s dance form, grants her a boon and Mohini asks
Shiva a part of her spiritual energies, and Lord Shiva grants Mohini his seed from Tapasya. Vishnu in turns asks the Sapta Rishis to guard the seed well, as, from this seed, will a mighty being emerge who will defend ‘Dharma’. The Rishis at the right time handover this seed to Vayu, and Vayu in turn to Anjani, as, Vayu knew Anjani was a devout Shiva worshipper, and in turn, in earlier life was an apsara who served Shiva/Parvati. The rest is known to all, as Hanumanji is born from the womb of Anjani.

Shiva - Seed of his Tapas.
Vishnu - Source of the seed via Mohini’s dance
Rishi’s - Act as intermediate guardians of the Shiva’s seed
Anjani - Conceives the seed with help of Vayu via her ear.

Finally, Hanumanji fought against Ravan in the battle for ‘Dharma’. It does not matter here if Ravana was a firm worshipper of Shiva. The fact that Dharma was in Hanuman’s favour was enough for his cause.

So, Hanumanji was Raudreya, Lord Shiva’s incarnation. He had the ability to kill Ravana any time, but his Dharma was to allow the King/Husband (Lord Ram) to perform his role, so he carried Lord Ram on his shoulders, as Lord Ram fought Ravana. Such charisma and yogic power are not possible without Rudra’s image (incarnation).

6. Who is more powerful, Hanuman or Bali?

Hanumanji’s strength can be gauged from a small story that I am going to tell you now. Bali, who at the time was King of Kishkindha, was granted a boon by Brahmaji after sitting in penance. Bali asked Brahmaji for a boon such that, in any duel, Bali's opponent would lose half of their strength to Bali. Brahmaji granted the boon happily. Already, Bali was extremely powerful with his power, almost equal to 70,000 elephants. Thus, Bali became invincible. It is said that no one could defeat Bali in a head-on battle. Once, Bali bragged that no one could beat him in the world. That day, Ram Bhakta Hanumanji, was doing austerity. In the meantime, Bali, who was on a high due to his pride for being so powerful, came to the forest and shouted out if anyone could beat him. Hanumanji was doing penance by chanting Lord Ram's name. Bali disturbed Hanumanji’s austerity. He said to Bali, “Vanar Raj you are super-powerful, nobody can beat you, but why are you shouting like this?” Bali immediately challenged Hanumanji and cracked a joke on Lord Rama, which enraged Hanumanji and he accepted Bali's challenge. It was decided that there would be a wrestling match between the two after sunrise on the next day. The next day, Hanumanji was ready for wrestling and Brahmaji appeared before him. He tried to convince Hanumanji not to accept Bali's challenge. But Hanumanji said that he had challenged him and insulted his Lord Ram and he cannot back down from the challenge. Now if he would reject Bali’s challenge, what would the world understand? So, he will have to teach him a lesson. Brahmaji then told Hanumanji to take along with him for the fight, just 10% of his physical power and 0% of divine power. Hanumanji agreed and placed his 90% of physical power and 100% of divine power at the foot of Lord Ram with the strength of his yog shakti.

Then, he went on to fight Bali. As soon as he entered the arena for wrestling, half of his strength got transferred to Bali and Bali’s body started to swell up and started to burst with all the power that had been transferred. After a few moments, Bali felt as if the veins of his body were bursting and the blood was about to get out. Bali did not understand what was happening. Suddenly, Brahmaji
appeared there, and he told Bali that to keep himself alive he should escape from Hanuman immediately, otherwise his body would burst. He realised something was wrong and escaped quickly.
He was relieved after going quite far. The body began to lighten up. Then he saw Brahmaji standing before him. Then Brahmaji said, “You consider yourself to be the most powerful in the world, but your body is not able to handle a small part of the power of Hanuman. Hanuman had come to fight you with his 10% of his power. Think, what would have happened if he would have come across with the whole.” Bali understood that he had made a great mistake. Later, Bali bowed down to Hanumanji, and, even with the unfathomable force, Hanumanji remained calm and sang Lord Ram’s bhajan. Bali realised that he was not even equal to one of Hanumanji’s hair and had challenged him. He asked Hanumanji for forgiveness.

7. Why Was Lord Ram compelled to attack Hanumanji or story is Ram Nama mor stronger Lord Ram Himself? Is Lord Ram’s own self stronger than his own name Ram Nama?

Ans: Once there was a meeting of great sages in the royal court at the kingdom of Ayodhya. All great sages like Narada, Vasishta and Vishvamitra were present there. The topic of the debate was, if Lord Ram’s own self was stronger than his name Ram Nama. Hanumanji was also present in the court during this debate but he did not express his opinions. Sage Narada had claimed that Ram Nama was indeed stronger than Lord Ram himself, and that he would prove it. When the meeting was ending and the sages were dispersing, Narada went up to Hanumanji. He told Hanumanji to respect all the sages but not Vishwamitra, since he was a king. Hanumanji greeted all the saints except Vishwamitra, who didn’t really seem to mind. But then Narada told Vishwamitra that Hanumanji was deliberately avoiding him, and this angered the great sage. In a fit of rage, Vishwamitra went to Lord Ram and demanded that Hanumanji be killed for his unforgivable behaviour. Vishvamitra was the guru of Lord Ram and so Lord Ram could not refuse his orders.

Lord Ram set out to kill Hanumanji. Hanumanji came to know of Lord Ram’s intentions and was confused as to why Lord Ram would want to take his life. But Narada told him not to worry and to
keep on chanting the Ram Naam. When Lord Ram came and confronted Hanumanji, Hanumanji was still chanting “Shri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram”. Rama shot his arrows one after the other but they did not hurt Hanumanji at all. Seeing all his weapons fail, Lord Ram used the Brahmastra, but that failed too. Lord Ram was startled and started thinking of other ways to attack Hanumanji. Meanwhile, Narad Muni who was watching the whole spectacle, admitted to Visvamitra that he had provoked Hanumanji. When Lord Ram and Hanumanji came to know about Narad’s trickery they stopped their fight. Thus, it was proved that the greatness of Ram Nama was bigger than Lord Rama’s strength itself.

8. Hanumanji’s Birth Story?

This is the birth story of Hanumanji, the son of Kesari and Anjana. He was well-known for his incomparable devotion for Lord Ram. With his selfless service and devotion, Hanumanji had won the love of Lord Ram and his family and he could not think of anything else but their comfort and well-being.

Once upon a time, in the mountains of Meru, there was the great sage named Gautam. A monkey-couple, Kesari and Anjana lived nearby the ashram. Anjana was once a heavenly maiden, who was cursed and transformed into a monkey woman. She would be freed from this curse only if she gave birth to an incarnation of Lord Shiva. The reason Anjana was cursed was once when she was wandering on earth, she saw a monkey meditating deeply in a forest. At the instant she saw the monkey acting like a holy sage, she was unable to control her laughter. She made fun of the monkey, but the monkey ignored her foolish behaviour. She did not only continue her laughter but even threw some stones at the monkey and continued to do so till the holy monkey lost his patience. He opened his eyes that sparkled with anger and he was indeed a powerful holy sage who had transformed into a monkey to do his spiritual meditation. He, with his ferocious voice cursed her that, she has performed an evil task of disturbing a sage’s meditation and would have to take the form of a monkey and that she will be relieved from the curse only if she gives birth to a mighty son, an incarnation of Lord Shiva’. Anjana’s dedicated prayers and meditation to Lord Shiva without any food or water soon gave her fruitful results. Lord Shiva was impressed with her prayers and wished to bless her with a son who will be immortal. On the other hand, in a faraway kingdom, King Dasaratha of Ayodhya, was performing a religious Ashvamedha Yagna to have children, was blessed with a divine sweet by Lord Agni that was to be shared among his three wives. And Vayu, the Wind God, under the instruction of Lord Shiva carried a portion of the sweet, gave it to Anjana and blessed her. Anjana soon ate the divine sweet and instantly she could feel the blessing of Lord Shiva. Vayu told her that she will soon be a mother of a son who will possess intelligence, courage, tremendous strength, speed and the power to fly. Her happiness had no ends and she was over-whelmed with joy. Soon Anjana gave birth to a monkey-faced child and they named him as Anjaneya (meaning ‘son of Anjana’). No sooner than Anjana was released from her curse, she wished to return to heaven. Hanuman’s father took care of Anjaneya and he grew up to become a strong but mischievous young boy.

Once, Anjaneya was injured by Lord Indra on his chin (Hanu) when he took the sun to be a tasty fruit and flew-up into the sky towards the sun to eat it.  Anjaneya has been called by many names such as Hanuman, Maruti (Vayu’s other name), Pawanputra and so on. He played an important role in Ramayana and was a great devotee of Lord Rama and Devi Sita.

9. How did Hanuman forget his powers?

As Hanuman grew older, he became more and more mischievous. He used his special powers and troubled people immensely. One day, he troubled a rishi (sage) so much that, that made the
rishi furious at him. He cursed Hanuman that he would forget all his special powers. However, the sage knew that Hanuman was born to perform special duties, so he also added that Hanuman
would regain all his lost powers when the right moment will come.