Hanuman

There are many Ramayanas or stories of the life of Rama, the son of Dashrath and Kausalya. In each there are tales of Hanuman, a monkeyman who was from tribes of half monkey half human species. In the time of Rama these people lived near Ayodhya the place where Rama was established as a king.

The original Ramayana is believed to be the oldest which is written in Sanskrit. It is written in a Sanskrit which is older than what we get in the Mahabharata which shows that it is older. This is like reading a literary in English which was written in the 1600s and then reading a literature which was written a year ago. Both are in English and yet we can honestly tell that one is in Old English.

The original Ramayana is attributed to Valmiki who was a yogi living near to Ayodhya. He was a son of Pracetas one of the original people according to the Vedic rendition of Indian history. The original people were sons of Brahma, a supernatural deity.

There are many stories about Valmiki. There is one which cites that he was a robber and that he was tricked in repeating the name of Rama by Narada Muni who instructed him to say mara instead of rama where eventually mara converts into rama because one syllable follows the other. However, this story is not supported by the Valmiki Ramayana.

In this article, I wish to ask readers to understand that anything which is given as being the Ramayana and which is inconsistent with what is in the Valmiki Ramayana should not be used because if it is inconsistent with the Valmiki Ramayana, it is invalid or the Valmiki text is itself in question which causes a paradox.

If Valmiki Ramayana is invalid, all other Ramayana are invalid because the other tales are based in part or full on Valmiki’s writing.

If we accept Valmiki, then anyone who wrote anything which is inconsistent with his story cannot be accepted unless we agree to warp the tale.

The most popular version besides Valmiki’s Sanskrit text is the Ram Charita Manas or the Lake of Events of Rama. This was produced by Tulsie Das. It has many deviations from Valmiki. As far as I am concerned, one should read Valmiki first and then if one is interested to check the other versions do so one by one with the understanding that other writers had motives to change Valmiki for one reason or the other.

The problem with the Valmiki version is that it is a rough shod, downright cruel story which is hard to accept through and through. Hence, we can understand why it became necessary to twist the story and change some of its events.

For instance, in the Valmiki version, Rama’s wife, a princess name Sita (See-Taa) was kidnapped. This happened to her because she did not comply with Rama’s advice and she insult and refused good advice from Rama’s brother who was posted as a guard to protect her from magicians in a remote forest.

Later after Sita was kidnapped, Rama fought a war with her kidnapper. After defeating the kidnapper, Rama called for the release of Sita who was held captive in a palace garden. However, when she approached him, Rama made it clear that he would not accept her by his side and that she could go wherever it suited her except for by his side.

Again, later when Rama and Sita were reunited and they became King and Queen of Ayodhya, Sita became pregnant. In that condition, Rama banished her from the city of Ayodhya. He did this on the pretext that a citizen criticized him for being with a woman who was with another man.

These are cruel instances in the Ramayana which Tulsie Das did not like and so he adjusted the story to either omit these instances or to change them to make Rama’s behavior palatable.

This rewriting is however not acceptable in my opinion. In fact, it is violent maneuver because it produced through the years, devotees of Rama who are pseudo devotees only. These people admire a Rama who is not the Rama who lived in the time of Valmiki.

There were also some other changes in the various Ramayana. One problem which arose in the evolution of the rendering of Rama is that there is a book called the Yoga Vashishtha. This text is attributed to Valmiki. Whether he wrote it or not is still contended. However regardless, it is factual that in the Valmiki Ramayana, Vashishtha was one of the guru-priests of the Raghu dynasty of which Rama was a part.

In the Valmiki text, there is a part which Rama is banished to the forest. Sita and Lakshman, his brother went with him. He stayed a short time near Ayodhya. One of his brothers named Bharata, proceed to that place to convince Rama to return the Ayodhya and cancel the banishment order.

Bharat tried to convince Rama not to comply with the exile command. Two leading guru-priest Jabali and Vashishtha tried to convince Rama but Rama rejected their philosophy.

However, in the Yoga Vashishtha, Vashishtha Muni taught Rama about the absolute nature of the self. This was in Rama’s youth. Rama did not accept every aspect of that philosophy however.

Today however some advaita vedantists broadcast the Yoga Vashishtha as the ultimate thesis on self-realization. Some of these exponents of advaita vedanta cite every Ramayana except Valmiki. Some of them give stories which they say are from the Ramayana of Valmiki but which are not in that text.

In relation to Hanuman he made his debut in the Valmiki Ramayana as an agent of a monkeyman named Sugriva. Rama and Lakshman crossed into an area of the territory which was colonized by Sugriva’s people. Sugriva was hiding in that place from his brother King Bali. Being afraid that perhaps Rama and Laksman were sent by Bali to dispose of him, Sugriva sent Hanuman to interrogate the strangers (Rama and Lakshman).

When Hanuman first spoke to them, he did so in fluent Sanskrit which surprised Rama who alerted Lakshman about it, because it was unusual for any monkey man to speak the language coherently.

However, this shows that initially in the Valmiki Ramayana, Hanuman was not introduced as a god, demigod, deity or incarnation of Shiva. He was merely the agent of a banished monkeyman prince named Sugriva.

Later in the text Hanuman proved his worth when he jumped from the southern tip of India to an island out in the sea. He was circumstantially given the task by some other monkey men and bearmen because he was known to be the one who could jump the furthest. All the moneymen could jump long distances but Hanuman was the best in this feat. It is not that he was the only one who could do it but he was excelled the others.

When he reached the island of Lanka, he found Sita, Rama’s wife, who was kidnaped by the King of the island. He asked her to jump on his shoulders so that he could return her to India and to Rama. She refused explaining that he was a monkeyman and was unfamiliar with human morality which prohibited her from being in touch in any way with any other male besides Rama.

There are many other incidences but in none of these is Hanuman explained as a god, demigod, deity or incarnation of Shiva.

There is no statement I read where Hanuman was familiar with the Yoga Vashishtha or with advaita vedanta. There is no verse where he compared himself to Rama in any way. There is no statement about him being one with Rama.

But this does not mean that another Ramayana lacks these statements. It is only that the Valmiki rendition does not have it.