TO REMEMBER: ALWAYS PREPARING AND SPEAKING WITH ABSOLUTE REVERANCE…

Hare Krishna. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to Sri
Guru and Sri Gauranga. Thank you all so much for the opportunity to serve by trying to speak on this
most wonderful topic today on Lord Ramachandra’s dearest servant, Bhakta Hanuman. I pray for all
your blessings to do justice to this class.

om namo bhagavate vasudevaya x 3

BG 10.3

yo mām ajam anādiṁ ca

Translation

He who knows Me as the unborn, as the beginningless, as the Supreme Lord of all the worlds – he
only, undeluded among men, is freed from all sins.
Purport
As stated in the Seventh Chapter (7.3), manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye: those who
are trying to elevate themselves to the platform of spiritual realization are not ordinary men; they
are superior to millions and millions of ordinary men who have no knowledge of spiritual realization.
But out of those actually trying to understand their spiritual situation, one who can come to the
understanding that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the proprietor of everything, the
unborn, is the most successful spiritually realized person. In that stage only, when one has fully
understood Kṛṣṇa’s supreme position, can one be free completely from all sinful reactions.

Here the Lord is described by the word aja, meaning “unborn,” but He is distinct from the living
entities who are described in the Second Chapter as aja. The Lord is different from the living entities
who are taking birth and dying due to material attachment. The conditioned souls are changing their
bodies, but His body is not changeable. Even when He comes to this material world, He comes as the
same unborn; therefore in the Fourth Chapter it is said that the Lord, by His internal potency, is not
under the inferior, material energy, but is always in the superior energy.

In this verse the words vetti loka-maheśvaram indicate that one should know that Lord Kṛṣṇa is the
supreme proprietor of the planetary systems of the universe. He was existing before the creation,
and He is different from His creation. All the demigods were created within this material world, but
as far as Kṛṣṇa is concerned, it is said that He is not created; therefore Kṛṣṇa is different even from
the great demigods like Brahmā and Śiva. And because He is the creator of Brahmā, Śiva and all the
other demigods, He is the Supreme Person of all planets.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa is therefore different from everything that is created, and anyone who knows Him as such
immediately becomes liberated from all sinful reactions. One must be liberated from all sinful
activities to be in the knowledge of the Supreme Lord. Only by devotional service can He be known
and not by any other means, as stated in Bhagavad-gītā.

One should not try to understand Kṛṣṇa as a human being. As stated previously, only a foolish person
thinks Him to be a human being. This is again expressed here in a different way. A man who is not
foolish, who is intelligent enough to understand the constitutional position of the Godhead, is always
free from all sinful reactions.

om ajnana…

sri caitanya…

namo om…srimate bhaktivedanta swamin…

namaste…

So in the purport, SP repeats Krishna’s words that out of millions of men, hardly one knows Him in
truth. This is an extraordinary good fortune for a human being, but what really amazes people to
hear is that bears and monkeys were able to become pure devotees like this. Of course, KC is
powerful enough to penetrate the hearts of anything- animate or inanimate- as the pastimes of how
LC made the animals dance and chant in the Jharikanda forest and how LK makes stones melt when
He plays His flute. This is all transcendental phenomenon that we cannot compare with material
situations. If we try to do so, we will make the mistake of Dr Frog. SP often told the story of Dr Frog
who lived in a well and never travelled anywhere in his life. When his friend came to visit him and
told him about the ocean, Dr Frog could not imagine a body of water larger than the well, so he
asked, is it twice as big, three times as big, ten times as big? So our imagination is the same when we
try to understand the Lord’s activities according to our experiences. We have to overcome that
tendency, to listen to transcendental topics with our hearts and our faith, rather than mundane logic
and reason which is not always fool proof.

So Hanuman is an incarnation of Lord Shiva, who appeared to assist the Lord in His incarnation as
Lord Ramachandra. The Lord always appears with His confidential associates, and the demigods also
appear with Him to serve Him. In SB, before Lord Krishna appeared (10.1.22), the demigods went to
pray for His help and LB received the reply from the Lord:

puraiva puṁsāvadhṛto dharā-jvaro

Lord Brahmā informed the demigods: Before we submitted our petition to the Lord, He was already
aware of the distress on earth. Consequently, for as long as the Lord moves on earth to diminish its
burden by His own potency in the form of time, all of you demigods should appear through plenary
portions as sons and grandsons in the family of the Yadus.

So, as with Lord Krishna, the demigods appeared in the pastimes of Lord Rama, and of course we
know that they also appeared with Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu as well. In Rama lila, the interesting
point is the forms that they took: why monkeys and bears? So the monkeys were actually vanaras,
human-like monkeys, and lived in very developed cities with great intelligence and powers. They
were not ordinary forest dwelling animals at all. And why they took these forms has its origin in
Ravana’s past. When he asked for immortality from Brahma and was told that immortality was
impossible, he then asked for immunity from death by gods, demons and other such supernatural
entities, but he didn’t bother asking from humans and animals, considering them insignificant. Also,
he had once insulted Nandisvara, the carrier of Lord Shiva for his unusual form, and Nandi cursed
him to die because of such unusual creatures also. Another point to note is that Rama was
wandering in the forest in exile and could not raise a human army to fight Ravana.
So Lord Shiva incarnated as Hanuman, the son of the wind god and his mother was Anjana.
Hanuman could fly from his childhood. One of the famous pastimes from this time explains how he
forgot his powers and remembered them when a vanara was needed to cross the ocean and see if
Sita really was in Lanka. Hanuman’s mother was an apsara previously, cursed to remain on earth
until she had a child. After Hanuman was born, she left for the heavenly planets, but before leaving,
he asked her, what shall I eat? So she replied, any fruit, and left. Hanuman thought the sun looked
like a fruit and flew up to eat it and because of his size, could have done so. Indra knocked him
unconscious in fear, and Hanuman’s father, the wind god, held the universal breath in anger.
Everyone was choking and so prayed for forgiveness. The gods all came forth to revive Hanuman and
bless him with amazing powers that would assist him one day in His services to Rama. But because
he was little and mischievous and misused those powers in innocence, so his powers were bound
until he met his eternal Lord and could use them for DS.

So this pastime illustrates that we could have any abilities in the universe that we need for DS, if we
know how to use it properly for the service and not to destroy ourselves. Great powers, opulences
or protection can turn one into a Hanuman or a Ravana, and one of the key traits that Hanuman had
to save him from misuse when his powers returned to him was his humility. He was completely
devoted to Lord Rama in dasya rasa and never ever saw himself as anything extraordinary despite
his amazing abilities. Hanuman is so celebrated as the greatest servant of Lord Rama that he is
associated with dasyam in the 9 processes of bhakti. SP says in SB (7.5.23-24 purport):

“Dāsyam. There is the following statement in regard to assisting the Lord as a servant. After many,
many thousands of births, when one comes to understand that he is an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa, one
can deliver others from this universe. If one simply continues to think that he is an eternal servant of
Kṛṣṇa, even without performing any other process of devotional service, he can attain full success,
for simply by this feeling one can perform all nine processes of devotional service.”

So being in this mood is so special that the feeling alone is enough to achieve success in spiritual life:
just the feeling. It is so essential that it is a part of everything we do in KC. Even when one takes
initiation, his or her name automatically carries the word das for males and dasi for females, which
means “servant of”. It makes us aware that we are always the servant of everyone, so we feel that
always, and we act accordingly. Thus Hanuman was completely dedicated to Rama from the moment
of meeting Him: even though the Lord was wandering in the forest as a human prince, and worse
still, exiled and apparently distressed at losing Sita, Hanuman recognised Him immediately to be the
Supreme Lord. Yet, Hanuman was an animal and Ravana, a powerful and highly intelligent demon
born in a brahman family couldn’t recognise the divinity in Rama at all. What’s the difference? The
real devotee, by dint of humility and steady selfless service to Krishna, develops love for the Lord
and love is the ointment that enhances the vision of the eyes (BS 5.38):

premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena
santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti
yaṁ śyāmasundaram acintya-guṇa-svarūpaṁ
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is Śyāmasundara, Kṛṣṇa Himself with inconceivable
innumerable attributes, whom the pure devotees see in their heart of hearts with the eye of
devotion tinged with the salve of love.

So after meeting Rama and going out on scout missions for Sita, Hanuman remembered his powers
at the time that someone was needed to go across the ocean to Lanka. We know that Lord Rama is
the SPG, full in every ability and opulence. He could have gone to Lanka instantly if He wanted, but
He was playing the role of a human. This was essential to killing Ravana, who didn’t have immunity
from humans. The Lord also likes to give His devotees the glory: He empowered Arjuna to fight and
kill the great generals on the battle of Kurukshetra, but He could have just killed them all instantly, if
He wanted. He gave Arjuna the credit, as Hanuman gets the credit for leaping across the ocean and
finding Sita. Hanuman also does something instructive before flying off: he calls out the name of
Rama. This tells us that no matter what ability we have in DS, it is the chanting of the holy names
that will make it complete and perfect, thus we should start our day with the chanting, and carry it
through in every activity with practise.

So Hanuman crossed the ocean, but it wasn’t as easy as just flying over. This is often the case in
spiritual life. The activities are not there for us to do and be proud of afterwards or get a sense of
satisfaction so we can rest with ease. Devotional service will challenge us to uproot our negative
qualities, because we have to become pure to reach the goal of devotional service, which is the
eternal association of Krishna. Krishna is the Supreme pure (BG 10.12):

paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma

How would we associate with Him, with our enmity, pride, anger, greed, prejudice, and so on? We
can’t take those with us to Goloka. They need to get weeded out here. Challenges and tests will
accomplish that. Thus, we can’t question why difficulties come up in the execution of DS, because
we think that, if I’m doing this for LK, if I’m living my life for LK, why am I having problems? But we
don’t realise that DS- being very much an active, conscious, pure being, Bhakti devi- is helping us to
get rid of our impurities, and the more active we are in recognising them, addressing them and
praying to Krishna for help with getting rid of them, the less the challenges are, or the less
troublesome they will be to us. So although Hanuman and other pure devotees like him don’t have
to go through these tests, they do so repeatedly to show us that, if they can do it, so can we, and
how do we do it? By just taking shelter of Krishna fully, getting good guidance from Guru, sadhu and
sastra and pushing on.

So Hanuman faced 4 adversaries:

Mainaka, the mountain: rewards of DS

Surasa, the mother of the snakes: pick your battles

Simhika, the demoness that paralysed him: the envious

Lankini, the guardian of Lanka: discretion is the better part of valour

After all of this, he still had to find Sita, and safely carry the ring and message of Rama to Her. He
faithfully did this, and then created the disturbances in the gardens that caused the demons to find
him and take him to Ravana. Now Hanuman was very intelligent and very powerful, so why would he
allow himself to be captured? Hanuman was assessing the strength of the demons to gauge if they
were going to be difficult to defeat. The monkeys and bears had to be ready for fighting them. He
also wanted to have audience with the demon Ravana once and for all and carry the message that
Rama had sent for him. The Lord was giving the demon a chance to redeem himself and avoid the
huge war and loss of life.

The Lord had Himself tried to broker such a peace deal in the Mahabharata, so if anyone would
criticise that Rama and Krishna were just waging wars, as SP was saying in a class the other day, that
people say that the whole BG is about war: the Lord is the eternal father of all living entities, and He
doesn’t want to kill His children. We always say that in Kali yuga, He comes to kill the demoniac
mentality and previously, as Krishna and Rama, He killed the demons themselves, but even as
Krishna and Rama, He did give them a chance-many chances- to change, to let go of the demoniac
mentality and surrender. To Duryodhana, Krishna even showed a partial universal form, but it made
no difference. Demons were determined to be demons, and so they were punished. Sometimes,
even LC had to show His anger, and He was fully prepared to kill Jagai and Madhai when they
attacked Lord Nityananda. But Lord Nityananda- the guru, intervened on their behalf as they
surrendered- and saved them. Here, Lakshmana, Lord Nityananda Himself, was also present, but
Ravana had no intention of surrender. So no one could save him. So after delivering the message, we
know that Hanuman escaped from the demons and burnt Lanka. It was a grave warning that Ravana
didn’t heed. As the city burnt, his reputation, body and achievements would all soon go up in flames,
literally.

So the battle loomed ahead, the bridge was built and many pastimes took place: we remember one,
of how the little spider, or some say squirrel, was trying to help with the building and criticised by
Hanuman for being in the way, but Rama corrected him that DS doesn’t recognise how big your
actions are but only the love that it is done with. After Rama and His army crossed the ocean, they
reached Lanka and the battle began and all Ravana’s great commanders were being killed. AlthougH,
He was irritated, as a typical demon, he didn’t think of surrender but kept making more plans,
eventually sending his dearest and most powerful son, Indrajith, who fought with Lakshmana and
injured Him severely. So this is the seminal moment of the battle and the whole Ramayana, because
the Lord is giving Hanuman a chance to show his most amazing abilities and save the day and the
war. Hanuman goes to kidnap the doctor from Ravana’s side, with Vibhishana’s advice and the
doctor advises that only a special herb from the Himalayas will cure Lakshmana.

So Hanuman flies all the way there, an encounters more obstacles, and he also can’t recognise the
herb from all the other vegetation. Thus the famous image where he lifts a whole section of the
mountain where the herb may be and carries it through the sky to Lanka, for the doctor to look
through and harvest. Thus Lakshmana is saved, and able to defeat Indrajith. This is important
because only Lakshmana could defeat Indrajith and not Lord Rama: Indrajith had a boon that he
could only be killed by a person who hadn’t slept for 14 years. This was accomplished only by
Lakshmana who stayed awake to protect Rama and Sita while they rested in the forest. So in this
way, Hanuman had a huge role in the victory of Rama over Ravana, but he had no interest in gaining
rewards from it. When Rama offered him any benediction, he could have asked for the 3 worlds and
he would have gotten it. Instead, he asked only for a hug from Lord Rama, which is another famous
image.

So HH BCaiSM was saying last weekend that Hanuman is always chanting the holy names of Rama.
He recognises that in the names of the Lord, is the Lord, and so, there is everything. Thus, he is
constantly chanting with love. What is interesting to note is that this is in Treta yuga, millions of
years before LC appeared to propagate the chanting of the holy names. So the chanting of Krishna’s
names was always known: it’s not a new fad or trend. It was practiced by His devotees from time
immemorial- Narada and Lord Shiva are always chanting, for example- but in other ages or yugas,
there were different processes for attaining God realisation. Treta yuga was for sacrifices, and Lord
Rama set the example by performing many great sacrifices when he became the king of Ayodhya.
Hanuman simply chanted the holy names to maintain his devotional perfection (which he had
already reached), which teaches us that chanting is the means to attain perfection and it is the
perfection also, so we can see it as the journey and the destination as well.

But to establish the yuga dharma in this age, the Lord Himself must appear to do it: no one else, no
matter how elevated can do so. Though Hanuman is known as one of the Chiranjeevis, who is still on
the planet, chanting the Lord’s holy names and blessing many with his presence, he did not spread
the chanting as the yuga dharma, despite being a pure devotee. Even LN, the Lord’s expansion, and
AA, His incarnation, were both here on the planet before LC appeared, but They also demonstrated
that only Krishna Himself could give us the holy names as the means of deliverance and the love for
Him that comes with it: They prayed for Him to appear and do so. Now we’re so incredibly fortunate
to be given these holy names so easily and a chance at real perfection, by LC’s causeless mercy: we
must develop pure chanting, as well as the desire to give these holy names to others, and follow in
the footsteps of great devotees like Hanuman.

So we said that Hanuman is still on the planet, so he has appeared at other times in the Lord’s
various pastimes. One such place is Ahovilam. Ahovilam is the place that Lord Nrsimhadeva originally
appeared in to kill Lord Nrsimhadeva. There, the Lord is visible to us in 9 self-manifested deities. One
of those deities carries a bow and arrow: Lord Nrsimhadeva as Rama, called Kaaranja Nrsimha or
Sarnga Nrsimha as the Lord’s bow is called Sarnga. The reason this occurred is that Hanuman was
once performing austerities there to have darshan of Lord Rama. Since that dham is the place of
Lord Nrsimhadeva’s appearance, Lord Nrsimhadeva appeared to Hanuman. Hanuman asked, who
are you? When the Lord told him, Hanuman was so devoted to Lord Rama that he said, well, I want
to see Rama and no one else: this was because of His steadfast devotion to Rama. The Lord was
pleased with His devotion and showed him that He was indeed Rama also, which pleased Hanuman
very much, and so the Lord manifested a deity of Himself in the same feature and the tree that
Hanuman sat under to meditate is still there in that blessed place.

He also appeared in Krishna lila. There is a pastime when the Pandavas are in exile and Bhima went
to get some flowers for Draupadi. After walking for a sometime, he saw a monkey near a banana
garden. This monkey was very old, and his tail was lying across the path. Bhima wanted to go and get
the flowers. But the tail was lying on the road, and ksatriyas, brahmanas and higher class people do
not cross over animal bodies. Crossing over animal bodies is inauspicious, and crossing over human
bodies is insulting, and crossing over Vaisnavas bodies is very bad.

So Bhima looked at the monkey and said, “Move your tail from here.” The monkey said, “Who are
you?” “I am Bhima, the Pandava. So please move your tail.” The monkey said, “I am so aged. I came
here because of all the bananas, so I can just sit and eat the falling bananas. I’m too old to move. Can
you please move my tail?” So Bhima said, “Alright.” When Bhima went to touch the tail he found it
to be more hard than the Himalayan mountain. Then he put two hands there and tried to lift it, he
couldn’t even raise it a hair’s breadth from the earth. It was so heavy. Bhima realized his mistake.
“What is the strength you have in your tail? Obviously you are no ordinary monkey. You say you
cannot move because you are so old, but then I cannot even lift your tail. So who are you? Please tell
me.” This is another instance of the Lord teaching His devotee humility, in this case, Bhima.

“You are my brother,” the monkey said. “I am Hanuman, your older brother.” So Bhima was very
happy. Then Hanuman gave a benediction to Bhima, that He would stay in the flag of Arjuna and
whenever Bhima would perform a huge action on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, then Hanuman will
roar and that would make 100 chariots on the other side collapse. Thus Pandavas got the blessings
of Hanuman before the battle.

Then, as we discussed last week, Hanuman appeared as Murari Gupta in LC’s pastimes. To recap,
Murari Gupta was born in a family of Ayurvedic physicians and was a close associate of LC’s in
Navadvip who was in school with Him, and engaged in debates with the Lord in their youth. He
joined the sankirtan movement when LC returned from Gaya, and Murari Gupta used to sing sweetly
and dance expertly. LC tested his devotion to Rama by preaching to him about LK’s sweetness and
told him to just worship LK. Although MG loved LC so much, he couldn’t imagine giving up the
worship of Lord Rama, and so prayed to Him to give up his life because he couldn’t defy LC or stop
serving Lord Rama. Then he approached LC, who informed him that it was a test and he should never
give up the worship of Lord Rama, because he- Murari Gupta- is Hanuman. In another pastime, LC
showed Himself to be Rama with Sita and Lakshmana and MG saw himself there as Hanuman.

Thank you so much for your kind attention during these glorious pastimes. SP ki! Jaya!