Essence of Lord Hanuman:

Essence of Lord Hanuman
I took a print out of the above posting by one of our fellow members (ref: 26th Sep; Q & A by His Holiness Shri Datta Swami) which became a sort of piece-de- resistance during our evening discussions. I have, specially for the consumption of the tiny tots attempted here to piece together the various inputs my colleagues gave me on the subject.
“Hanuman is the son of a cursed apsara, a celestial, named Punjisthala, who by curse becomes Anjana, a female monkey. (Hence Hanuman is also called Änjanèya). She is the wife of Kèsari, a mighty monkey who once killed a huge elephant that caused trouble to sages and hermits. He therefore got the name of Kèsari, namely the lion, and is also called kunjara südana, the elephant killer.
One day when Anjana was on a mountain peak, Vayu Deva, the Wind-god, came nearby, and generated a forceful blow of air, so that her clothes slipped off from her body. The Wind-god was incited by her charm and possessed her, with her consent. She thus gave birth to Hanuman. Hanuman's birthday is celebrated as Hanumad Jayanti.
Hanuman grew up and inherited his father's qualities of quick flying, forceful travel, and mighty strength. Soon after his birth he saw the Sun, thought it to be a ripe fruit and took flight to catch hold of the Sun to eat. Indra, the administrator of universal laws, observed this. He hurled his weapon, the Thunderbolt, which struck Hanuman on his cheeks. Hanuman fell down on earth and swooned. The Wind-god, Hanuman's father, resented this and went into seclusion. This caused choking deaths and asphyxiation to all the living beings. To pacify Air-god, Indra withdrew the effect of his Thunderbolt, which had cut Hanuman's two cheeks. Thus he is called Hanuman, for hanuhH in Sanskrit is the word for cheek.
Brahma blessed Hanuman with a diamond-like body, even invincible to a brahma- astra, a super missile, and made him immortal. That is why when Ravana’s son Indrajit uses a brahma-astra, (in Sundara Kanda Valmiki Ramayana says)… “Though Hanuman knows the release from brahma-astra, he was silent due to his respect for Brahma…”
He is deathless, a chiranjeevi. He can leave his mortal body whenever he desires to do so. This is called icchaa maranam, dying at will. This is what Bhishma pitamaha does in Mahabharata, when he wants to live up to some time on the bed of sharp arrows in the war field itself.
One very important fact about Hanuman is: He is the fourth and the only other person in the Mahabharata to have heard The Gita from the mouth of Sri Krishna himself, the other four being Arjuna, Sanjaya and Dhritarashtra. He heard it by settling on the flag of the chariot of Arjuna which carried the Hanuman picture. It is also said that this was a boon that he asked of Lord Vishnu. He wanted to be of some assistance to the next avatar (incarnation) of Vishnu and he was granted the permission to be on Arjuna's chariot of whom Krishna was the charioteer in the war of Mahabharata.
Hanuman is also worshipped as five faced God - Panchamukha Hanuman. The origin of Sri Panchamukha Anjaneya Swami can be traced to a story in the Ramayana. During the war between Lord Rama and Ravana, Ravana took the help of a Demon Mahiravana, who was the king of pathala (Lower worlds). Anjaneya in order to protect Lord Rama and Lakshmana formed a fortress with his tail. But Mahiravana took the form of Vibheeshana and took Lord Rama and Lakshmana to pathalaloka. Anjaneya entered pathala in search of Rama and Lakshmana. He found out that to kill Mahiravana he had to extinguish 5 lamps simultaneously. So he took the Panchamukha form with Anjaneya, Hayagriva, Narasimha, Garuda and Varaha faces and extinguished the lamps. Mahiravana was killed immediately.
The story apart, Sri Panchamukha Anjaneya Swami was the main deity of Sri Raghavendra Tirtha, the saint of Mantralaya. The place where he meditated on Panchamukha Anjaneya Swami is now known as Panchamukhi, wherein a temple for Panchamukha Anjaneya Swami has been built. There is also a shrine for Panchamukha Anjaneya Swami at Kumbakonam. A 40 tall monolithic green granite idol of Sri Panchamukha Hanuman has been installed in Tiruvallur.

Children can recite the following two lines every day.
It is said that when recited every day all difficulties disappear and Lakshmi kataaksham results.

Panchamukha Hanuumadswarupam
Panchamukheshu maddhye Veeraanjaneya Hanuumathe rudra veeryo mukhascha!
Mukho hayagreeva Nrusimhasthu vaame thathaa dakshine gaarudo varaaha!!

V V R
29th Sep 2005