Ramayana Reflection – Hanuman in Lanka 1 – Overcoming Obstacles

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you. Most of us when we are aiming something, riveting something, demanding something difficult in our life, when some obstacles come, we become disheartened.
If we are going in a car and suddenly we find a big roadblock along the way, we may just wonder how I go ahead. If you are determined to go ahead, you will find some way and move on. If you are not, you just come back.
So Hanuman was on a mission to Lanka and his journey from the southern tip of India to Lanka was a momentous journey. And the obstacles that he experienced along that journey are of universal relevance. The obstacles themselves are specific but they represent universal challenges that we all face while moving forward in life.
So Hanuman went to a mountain on the coast of the Indian peninsula in the tip and he leapt off. He leapt off into the sky. He had been blessed with mystic powers and he had phenomenal physical power and he was assisted by the wind god who wanted to wanted to help his son become successful in his extraordinary mission.
The wind flowed behind him helping him move fast. As he sped through the sky, the sheer momentum of his leap was such that so normally when we leap we push on the ground. Push on the ground and because the ground is firm we are pushed up.
That’s how people do say high jump. Force them down and then they move up like that. So that’s how he did.
So the force of his downward push on the mountain was so great that trees and animals they flew off the mountain. And his flight into the sky created a partition among the clouds as he flew up and he marched along. Sped along actually through the sky.
As he was going there suddenly he was flying, flying, flying and suddenly a mountain arose from under the sky and that mountain was actually a mountain named Mainak. Mainak had long ago been favoured by an ancestor of Rama and therefore he wanted to do some service to Hanuman. So to Hanuman who was a servant of Rama.
So Mainak told Hanuman Hanuman was just moving forward. Hanuman was flying along and suddenly this mountain came, came, came and just blocked his way. And Oh Hanuman Oh son of Vayu you are going on a formidable mission and I am sure you must be tired.
You have been flying for a long time. Rest on my head for some time. Rest on my back for some time.
And afterwards you can resume your flight. I want to serve the one who is serving Rama in such a wonderful way. On hearing this Hanuman looking for him.
He did not want to stop on his mission. He wanted to just speed onwards so that could reach the destination find Sita and then speed back and give the message to Rama. Actually the Vanaras had all been given a period of one month by their king Sugriva to go in the different directions and either locate Sita or come back whatever be the status of their mission.
And the group of Vanaras who had gone south they had already exceeded their one month quota. So that’s why Hanuman was concerned. He wanted to go as quickly as possible and did not want to waste even one moment.
At the same time he saw Mainak who was offering service with a sincere heart and Hanuman did not have the heart to refuse. So what did he do? He lowered himself touched Mainak and again rolled with his thank you for your hospitality I have accepted it. Please allow me to move on in my mission towards finding mother Sita.
Mainak was pleased by both the diligence and the culture of Hanuman. Diligence in pursuing service of Ram and in a cultured way accepting in a nominal sense but still in a cultured way accepting Mainak’s offer of service. So in life there are times when we have to say no and the way we can say no to more less important things is when we have a yes for more important things burning within us.
The good is often the greatest enemy of the best. If you have two choices one bad and one good we will naturally choose the good and make the good choice but if there are two choices one is good and the other is the best then if we consider three choices good best and bad we will reject the bad very easily but rejecting the good for the best is not that easy and that is what this pastime preaches for Hanuman he could have said actually I’m interacting with a servant of Ram to be cultured to be dignified to be sensitive with other devotees of Ram that is also my duty I’m simply doing my duty yes this was also his duty but at this particular point when Ram was in anxiety and agony in separation from Sita Ram’s duty Hanuman’s duty was something else his far more urgent duty was to find Sita so he had a yes for that bigger service burning within him and because of that yes for a bigger service he was able to say no to the service that was not that important in our life we often can get priorities mixed up we may get comforts in life and we may see those comforts as the proofs of our hard work Hanuman could have said that I have worked so hard I’ve been flying for so long and it is because of my superhuman effort in fighting that now I have earned the right to this comfort I can relax on this mountain sometime but he did not so comforts can often lead to complacency and complacency can distract us from our powers I saw for Hanuman to have rested in Nainaka there was nothing wrong in the sense of it was not sinful it was not immoral but still it was wrong it would have been wrong in the sense that it would have delayed him in his mission so the good can be the enemy of the best and when our eyes are fixed on the best then we can say no to the good whenever we are pursuing any goal in our life while going towards that goal we may find lesser good things also coming up in our life and if we let those good things distract us from the best then we treat ourselves of the best because of the good so Hanuman by politely not rudely or curtly rejecting Nainaka but politely respectfully accepting the intent but not changing his intent he did all so if some people offer us some things which are good but not be the best we don’t have to make a big show and just disdainfully rejected we can be respectful we can be kind but we can’t let anyone and everyone change our priorities for us we have to march forward steadily no matter what happens and as Hanuman kept flying through the sky more and more and more at that time he came across suddenly another powerful deity or some strangling creature so this was Surasa she was actually a formidable celestial lady and she just expanded herself in size and she told Hanuman that the creator Brahma has given me the benediction and whoever comes in this way they will have to enter into my mouth they will be that that’s how I will get my prey oh monkey you cannot escape now initially Hanuman had seen this huge demon looking demoness looking creature come out and open her mouth her jaws deadly they looked like the jaws of death for a small human being if alligator or crocodile comes along it’s about to snap the jaws close and devour the kind of fearsome sight that would be that was the kind of sight that Hanuman saw now Hanuman initially expanded himself so he saw this demoness huge mouth he expanded his size and then the demoness also expanded her mouth Hanuman expanded his mouth and she expanded her mouth Hanuman expanded himself further and this competition of expansion went on and on and on and the demoness was thinking I will best this monkey no matter how big he becomes I will become bigger Hanuman was observing Hanuman’s purpose was not to defeat the defeat this particular demoness his purpose was to keep moving onwards if it was necessary he would have fought and defeated but he did not want to spend time in that so what did he do as the demoness had made her mouth huge he had himself made his body also huge suddenly shook made his form very small he had this mystic power while he could change his form the shape the size everything so suddenly came down to a tiny size and in that tiny size with lightning speed he entered into the mouth of the demoness and came out and then he folded his hands in front of her and said the blessing of Brahma was that whoever is going along this way will have to enter into your mouth I have entered in your mouth and have come out now please let me go in my service to Ram seeing the wit of this creature the demoness smiled normally monkeys are not considered very intelligent but Hanuman was buddhimatam varishtam he said that he was the greatest among intelligent beings and just very intelligently overcame this obstacle without fighting how did he do that by the crazy weapons so in our life we always need to know which battles to fight and which battles to bypass when we are going towards a particular goal in life now we may come up with hundreds of things which you could do but if we have a purpose we all have limited time limited energy and we want to put our limited time and limited energy to the best possible use if you start fighting every possible battle that comes up before us then we lose time we lose energy and the important battle that for the battles that are important for us we won’t be good to those battles choosing our battles is extremely important for all of us in our life journey and quite often we are not able to choose our battles because of our ego our ego means that we always want to prove ourselves right we want to prove ourselves better we want to prove ourselves the best that there is in the lot now we have to sometimes choose do I want to achieve my goal or do I want to be the best in this particular situation so if our ego is very strong our ego makes us want to be the best in every situation and in trying to be the best in some situation where it’s difficult to be the best we lose out on that which is best for us so actually even in day-to-day arguments with people our love for our purpose our love for our goal our love for the values for which we are living our love should free us from the need to be right in every argument whenever there is an argument between two people I mean you are wrong I am right now we may go on and we may actually be right also but sometimes the other person just not ready to accept now if we don’t have the time if we have some higher purpose in our life something we are doing something important okay whatever it is leave it you may not be so blind let it go let’s not get into this right now you have your view I respect your view so we have to know which battles to fight and which battles to avoid so sometimes if we are not intelligent in this we can end up losing our energy in trivial battles for Hanuman is a warrior now if he had allowed his male warriors ego to come in the way he could have said this is a female I can easily defeat her why should I take the lower position actually he did that now in front of a female who had assumed a huge form he took a tiny form so in a sense it was almost like he accepted defeat there’s not that he actually accepted defeat it was just that he outwitted her but in doing this from a physical perspective he could assume he’s small and she’s bigger so he accepted that small form why because for him proving his own greatness was not as important as fulfilling his purpose so in our life our purpose what is our purpose in our life we all have been given certain talents certain abilities and we are meant to use those talents to make a positive contribution in life and that is that to use them in the service of God use them in service of children of God all our living beings here whatever capacity we have that is our higher purpose and sometimes we’re fulfilling our higher purpose we may have to just accept the humble position don’t get into unnecessary arguments just move on so by choosing our battles we will have a time and energy available for the really important battles and we will be able to bypass smaller battles by adopting a move of mobility as Unuman was speeding on moving on and on suddenly he felt himself paralysed just couldn’t move he had been going for a long long long time and as he had been going along he had felt in no time he was actually scaling the ocean and he had confidence he was thinking that by chanting the names of Ram the great souls they cross over the entire ocean of material existence what is the small ocean one small ocean within this material existence he surely crossed it over by the power of the name of Ram he was chanting the names of Ram Ram Ram Ram and he was crossing the ocean and suddenly he found himself paralysed just couldn’t move he used all his power he still used power he still looked down he was flying through the sky he looked down and there he saw a demoness looking at him with a sinister smile on her face and she was licking her lips demons there the Akshasas are a particular breed of people who are in English we can call them cannibals those weird human beings of course Hanuman was a monkey but basically flesh eaters including human eaters eaters of human beings so she was looking at Hanuman mouthwatering way so Hanuman immediately understood what had happened this demoness had some mystic power by which she had paralysed him and then as Hanuman was watching suddenly using the mystic power the demoness just dragged him down and he felt himself just pulled up before he could do anything before he could know what was happening this demoness opened her mouth and just went into the mouth Hanuman had his wits about him the demoness plan was that to get Hanuman in her mouth and chew him and kill him there but Hanuman used the momentum that the demoness only had generated and instead of letting her any opportunity to chew him in her mouth just went right into her alimentary canal just sped down her alimentary canal and came into her intestine this demoness was shocked what happened she thought I’ll get some delicious food but the food has disappeared and then suddenly as Hanuman was inside her Hanuman used all his strength now her digestive fluid was also filled with toxic substances after all she was a she was a demoness she was capable of digesting flesh also so Hanuman using his mystic power he kept himself untouched and then he used his full power to just blast open from inside her belly and as he ripped her belly apart from inside and came out the demoness screamed in horror and fell back as she fell down to her death into the ocean with a gigantic flash creating a huge stormy wave all around as she fell into the ground Hanuman as he leaped up into the sky Jai Shri Ram he kept marching on kept flying on now here Hanuman what was his strategy he was actually overpowered and because of the mystic power that his demoness had he could not move he could move only according to her will when she wanted him not to move he got paralysed when she wanted him to move he is dragged down into her mouth but what did Hanuman do Hanuman took the element of surprise he took advantage of the momentum that he had and with that momentum he just moved on so when we are overpowered when we face problems where we are powerless rather than becoming disheartened rather than letting ourselves become feeling helpless we can keep looking for opportunities and actually speaking many times in life suddenly the door on the path of our life closes we want to pursue a particular career and while pursuing that career suddenly we get some rejection in interview or we get some we don’t pass a particular example or in a particular relationship we get a no the door to the express way of our life suddenly closed right in our face now when the door is closed what am I supposed to do now unfortunately sometimes when we are faced with a situation that we are helpless about that we are powerless to deal with we just waste all our time and energy glaring at this closed door how dare this door close in front of me keep staring and glaring at that door and at that time as that door is closing life will open someday always when one door closes some other door will open but if we are not on the watch out if we are let if you let ourselves become filled with resentment about the door that is being closed then we have no opportunity we don’t have the intelligence the alertness and therefore not the opportunity to actually look at that open the door and to pursue that door so no to a particular door in life is not a no in life is a difference in life we all may face failures but failures in life are different from a failed life we all will face failures in life but we don’t have to be fail in our life if we keep ourselves open keep ourselves hopeful keep ourselves positive keep ourselves having an attitude of service no matter how many doors close in our life we should know that God is always in control and God wants the best for us in the Bhagavad Gita we should know that God wants the best for us and even when the worst seems to be happening to us still God is there God is right next to us in our heart he wants the best for us so rather than resenting why did this go wrong why did this door get closed we faithfully hopefully open-mindedly look for other doors that were open so Hanuman could have become resentful he could have become frustrated I’m not able to move I mean dragged into this monkey demon his mouth what will I do but as he was dragged in he had the presence of mind and that was because of his strong service attitude he wanted to serve Ram no matter if he was faced with a demoness with the power that was much more powerful than him so he used the element of surprise and used the demon’s own strength demoness own strength against her it’s a rushing so if we even when we are powerless if we don’t make ourselves filled with resentful resentment if we don’t become resentful if we stay hopeful we will find a way forwards even if one door closes second door closes third door closes rather than glaring at the closed doors we stay open to the doors that are opening and we will be able to find a way to move on as Hanuman kept speeding through the sky he had come a long long long distance the other Vanaras had told him that they will all perform austerity for him that means their plan was that they said that whatever austerity we perform we will pray that the merits of that austerity go to you so Angada and other Vanaras said that we will stand on one leg with our other leg raised high and we will be chanting OM and the fruits of that will offer to you so Hanuman was meditating on how they were all other Vanaras in his group were praying for his success where being austerities for his success he remembered the expression on Ram’s face Ram was so forlorn so so distressed he thought now I have come so close I have to find something I have to find something although it had been a long exhausting flight for him but remembering those for whom he was working and those with whom he was working Hanuman felt his energy resurging up within him remembering Ram for whom he was working remembering the other Vanaras with whom he was working he felt his energy again rising as he came into the into Lanka he had as he was flying through the sky he assumed a huge form and Hanuman had confidence in his own prowess he knew Ravana was a powerful demon he knew that there will be formidable demons over there and he had confidence that whatever the demons came in the way he would be able to fight with them but still he didn’t want to be foolhardy he wanted to be strategic so he decreased his form now the Lanka that is described in the Ramayan was actually a huge island and within the island called Lanka there was an area which was actually the kingdom of Lanka and it was in this kingdom so this kingdom was walled off by a fort so there was a fort on all sides so that means the Lanka as an island it did not have a fort on the coast there was an area of the island that was outside the fort and Hanuman landed over there after landing over there Hanuman assumed a small form and he started very alertly moving forward tiptoeing onwards and he came to the wall and he was planning to he could see there were guards on various areas and strategic points the guards are watching vigilantly to prevent any intruder any aggressor from coming in and as he was observing at that time he looked for an opportunity to go inside and when the guards were just passed by one guard had gone this way another guard had gone this way no one was looking Hanuman took that opportunity although still in a tiny form he just leapt across climbed up the wall and leapt across and came in and as he was about to come inside as he was about to go in suddenly a huge demoness strong looking woman said I am Lankini he said I am the guard I am the in charge of guarding this deity this island I am the in charge guarding this island oh monkey you think you are so clever that you can slip through the guards you cannot do so you will have to face me and I will destroy you no one who comes who tries to sneak into this kingdom can live you have had this audacity and for this you will have to die she spoke like this Hanuman was now so eager so eager so desperate so much longing to somehow get on with the task of finding Sita as he did not want to waste any more time so rather than talking with this lankini Hanuman could size up the power of the opposite side just by looking at them that’s what warriors are good at they can size up people so he looked at the warrior looked at this lankini and he just slapped her and he did not hit her hard enough for the blow to kill her but he hit her hard enough that she would fall and she would become disoriented and in that one moment for disorienting her Hanuman just sped in he sped in and disappeared into the city lankini she stunned Hanuman at this point he had actually been in a tiny form and in a tiny form this demon had thought what power can this small creature have but when he hit her with such power it just flowed she felt shocked and as she was trying to gather her senses and recover and try to understand what had happened she remembered a prophecy that had been made by Brahma long ago Brahma had said that oh lankini you will be the guardian of this deity guardian of this island and you will be able to protect this island for a long time but eventually when a the end of lanka’s reign of Ravana’s reign she alarmed she got up and she looked around Hanuman had disappeared by this time and Hanuman when he was facing lankini what did he do he again did not waste his time in unnecessary argumentation he did not waste his time in proving his strength what did he do just one blow get out of the way and move on the important thing for Hanuman was to move on so when we are moving forward in our life journey sometimes we may have to use our strength as Hanuman had to use our strength use his strength but while using our strength we don’t have to make that battle into an exhibition of our strength alone we have many bigger battles to fight Hanuman knew that his purpose was to find Sita so our goal is not to show our strength our goal is to fulfil our purpose Hanuman hit lankini but not so much that she will be killed Hanuman just to move forward is getting her out of the way so our goal is not to prove our greatness our goal is to get on on our way and when we keep this in mind then we will not lose our sense of proportion our purpose will keep us will give us a sense of proportion sometimes in fighting there are soldiers and warriors and armies which use excessive force against opponents when it is unnecessary and that is undesirable it wastes time it wastes energy and more importantly it can be brutal Hanuman had no reason to do this as his purpose was clear he also got a sense of proportion so the prime lesson that we learn from Hanuman Hanuman’s flight to Lanka and entry into Lanka is purposefulness by our purposefulness we can first prevent the best prevent the good from becoming the enemy of the best by our purposefulness we can avoid ego battles the desire to prove our greatness from coming in the way of our achieving great things by the purposefulness we can find a way even when all the ways seem to be closed and by our purposefulness we can when we have to confront have a sense of proportion in moving forward steadily what happened after Hanuman entered into Lanka and how he met Sita how he earned her trust amidst the atmosphere suspicion that we will discuss in our next talk thank you very much