Jaya Guru Datta

The advice given by Surya came as a big relief to Ruksharajasa. Forthwith he went, jumped into the lake and regained his original male form. Just as Ruksharajasa readied to fly back home, he observed the two helpless vānaras observing him innocently. The helplessness in their faces melted his heart completely.

It could be that the vānara tiny babies would have clung to him screeching, ‘father’ and ‘mother’. What to say of their confusion- the babies were unsure whether this person their father or their mother. What were they to address him as? Couple of minutes before he was their mother. Now suddenly he had become their father. ‘What is this? The same person is our father and our mother’- the puzzled monkey babies would have thought and peered at him in total confusion. What would be our plight if such drama were to be replicated in any human life? We dread to think.

Did we not discuss that all babies are cute- be they kittens, pups, calves, cubs or infant monkeys? Even in our species, infants are so tender and cute. Seeing the innocent face of the infant, the heart is totally drawn so much so that we seek to take it home and raise it. The same infant grows into an adult and his form turns strange. The charm vanishes. Along with it, innocence also vanishes.

Astonished at the strange plays of the Lord, Ruksharajasa carried the babies and flew back home. Thus, even in this version, Vali and Sugriva, the sons of Ruksharajasa, were the uncles of Hanuman. A short while after their birth, Hanuman was born.

When Hanuman, the aspect (amsha) of Shiva, took birth, the entire world was permeated with auspicious omens. On the sixth day after his birth i.e. on the New-moon day, around dawn Hanuman began to wail loudly as he was hungry. It was a day of solar eclipse and hence all the saints were engrossed in worshipping the Sun-god. Desirous of fetching a fruit for her son, Mother Anjana went into the forest.

Don’t we often notice new-borns waking up at dawn crying for milk? Our Hanuman too was extremely hungry like other babies of his age.

Let us see what happens next.