HANUMAN SWALLOWS THE SUN. OR TRIES TO.

08-11-2005, 08:25 AM

HANUMAN SWALLOWS THE SUN. OR TRIES TO.

Hanuman was born the son of Kesari and Anjani. His mother Anjani was
previously an Apsara (celestial lady) named Punjikasthala who took
birth in the monkey race as a result of a curse. Despite this her
beauty was unrivalled and once attracted Vayu, the powerful god of
the winds. Hanuman was born as a result of the union of Anjani and
Vayu-deva, but as Vayu-deva revealed that this was not a sinful
activity since the appearance of Hanuman was ordained by the great
Lord Vishnu himself:

When Ravana had become invincible by the boons he had obtained from
Brahma, he became a terror to even the powerful demigods. With Lord
Brahma at their head, they prayed to the omniscient Lord Vishnu for
help. In response, Lord Vishnu confirmed that He would descend as
Rama, the son of King Dasaratha. He also ordered the demigods as
follows, "Soon my advent on earth will occur. Assisted by all of you
I will crush the despicable Ravana. The evil one did not ask for
immunity from humans and animals. As promised I will descend as a
human. Without leaving your posts as the controllers of the universe,
you are capable of expanding yourselves. You should therefore appear
on the earth as monkeys." In accordance to the wish of Lord Vishnu,
Indra, the king of the demigods, expanded into Vali, Surya, the sun-
god, into Sugriva, Vishwakarma, the celestial architect, into Nala
and the Ashwini twins into Mainda and Dvivida. Vayu, the wind-god,
expanded into the mighty Hanuman.

When appraised of their role in assisting Lord Vishnu, both Kesari
and Anjani became exceedingly grateful and were soon blessed with the
birth of an effulgent and powerful progeny they called Bali, one who
is extremely powerful. He was also called Bajrang Bali, Kesari-
nandana (son of Kesari), Anjani-putra and Anjaneya (son of Anjani).

As a child once Hanuman thought the rising Sun in the sky to be an
apple and quickly flew up in the sky desiring to eat it. Indra,
alarmed at the sight of some one approaching to swallow the Sun,
quickly deployed his weapon the Vajra. Struck by this powerful
weapon, the child Hanuman fell down unconscious. When Vayu-deva
witnessed this he became extremely angry and withdrew himself from
the universe. When the winds in the sky and the very life-airs became
suspended, there was great anguish in the three worlds. All the
demigods, headed by Brahma, implored Vayu-deva to give up his anger.

Vayu-deva finally gave up his anger and resumed his function in the
universe and the grateful demigods showered many benedictions on
Hanuman. Indra gave him the boon of being able to die only when he
desired, Brahma gave his protection from his powerful weapon the
brahma-astra and the other demigods showered him with many mystic
powers and weapons. Since the weapon of Indra and struck and broken
the jaw of Hanuman, he got the name by which he would be most famous.
Hanuman means "one with a broken jaw."

Hanuman accepted the very same Sun god he had tried to swallow as his
guru and learned from him the Vedic scriptures and science of war.
Later on, Hanuman on several occasions displayed his impeccable grasp
on Vedic scriptures, when trying to convince Ravana to give up Sita,
when counseling Sugriva and by strictly following the codes of battle
in the war against the rakshasas. His strength and skills as a
warrior are matched by his keen intellect, knowledge of the
scriptures and a deep compassion for all living entities.
http://groups.northwestern.edu/omhin...C%20-%20Hindu%
20Mythology.doc