the following is a greatly abbreviated story of hanuman the monkey:
when hanuman was a young, little monkeygod, he thought the sun was a mango and went after it, meaning to swallow it. the king of the devas, indra, was so enraged that the eclipse had been prevented by hanumans gluttony that he threw a thunderbolt at hanuman, smiting him. as hanuman lay unconscious his father vayu, who was the god of air/wind, began to grieve, going into seclusion and taking all the air with him.
in order to appease vayu the devas revived hanuman and each bestowed upon him an epic gift; shape-shifting, invincibility, amazing strength, and much more - essentially making him a super hero. however he was also a young mischievous little monkey so they decided it best to place a curse on him so that he wouldn't be aware of his own powers and therefore couldn't use them against others.
fast-forward years down the road. hanuman is devoted to lord rama, whose wife sita has been kidnapped and taken to a far away island. it's so far away; impossible to get to. all seems lost, when hanuman's friend, the wise bear, jambavantha tells him, 'hanuman you have to go, you're the only one who can save her. you have to jump to the island.'
hanuman says, 'there's no way. i can't jump that far! no one can jump that far.'
jambavantha tells hanuman that he is indeed the only one who can do it, he tells him that he is amazingly strong, incredibly brave, that he's invincible, protected, magical! as hanuman listens to the words of his friend his belief in himself grows, breaking the curse.
hanuman takes a flying leap of faith, jumping all the way from india to the island of sri lanka, and rescues sita.
this pose, hanumanasana, represents that great leap. it represents power that we all have if we just believe in ourselves, and the power that comes when others show their faith in us.
"the burden of all difficult tasks of the world become light with your kind grace." ~ hanuman chalisa
when hanuman was a young, little monkeygod, he thought the sun was a mango and went after it, meaning to swallow it. the king of the devas, indra, was so enraged that the eclipse had been prevented by hanumans gluttony that he threw a thunderbolt at hanuman, smiting him. as hanuman lay unconscious his father vayu, who was the god of air/wind, began to grieve, going into seclusion and taking all the air with him.
in order to appease vayu the devas revived hanuman and each bestowed upon him an epic gift; shape-shifting, invincibility, amazing strength, and much more - essentially making him a super hero. however he was also a young mischievous little monkey so they decided it best to place a curse on him so that he wouldn't be aware of his own powers and therefore couldn't use them against others.
fast-forward years down the road. hanuman is devoted to lord rama, whose wife sita has been kidnapped and taken to a far away island. it's so far away; impossible to get to. all seems lost, when hanuman's friend, the wise bear, jambavantha tells him, 'hanuman you have to go, you're the only one who can save her. you have to jump to the island.'
hanuman says, 'there's no way. i can't jump that far! no one can jump that far.'
jambavantha tells hanuman that he is indeed the only one who can do it, he tells him that he is amazingly strong, incredibly brave, that he's invincible, protected, magical! as hanuman listens to the words of his friend his belief in himself grows, breaking the curse.
hanuman takes a flying leap of faith, jumping all the way from india to the island of sri lanka, and rescues sita.
this pose, hanumanasana, represents that great leap. it represents power that we all have if we just believe in ourselves, and the power that comes when others show their faith in us.
"the burden of all difficult tasks of the world become light with your kind grace." ~ hanuman chalisa
No comments:
Post a Comment