28th January 2020

Hanuman gets the ultimate embrace

Hare Krishna. Let’s start our Japa talk. All of you are welcome in this conference.
Lord Rama was pleased with the service of Hanuman.He didn’t just say thanks to this great servant, but He embraced Hanuman.

Yesterday we had Sankirtana in Ichalkaranji. Maharashtra Padayatra also joined the Shobha yatra. Where the Padayatra ended, was a beautiful temple of Hanuman. There we had darsana of Hanuman. Hanuman is the ideal acarya for brahmacaris, sannyasis and also grihasta brahmacaris. He is ideal for all asramas. In that Shobha yatra,we sang a Tukaram abhanga.

govinda govinda mana lagaliya chhanda
govinda dehaya bheda nahi kaya
anandile mana preme pazarti lochana
tuka aane aali jevi nure chi ve gali

Translation
My mind is attracted/addicted to Govinda.There is no difference in Krishna , His form and His Holy Names. My mind is filled with Anand and eyes with love, seeing His form. [Tukaram Abhanga]

In the end Tukaram was saying.

tuka aane aali jevi nure chi ve gali

He is saying that he can’t live without Govind and it has become his hobby. He is saying that when the Lord embraces him then what else remains to be asked from Him? He doesn’t need anything. His life is successful. “If the Lord embraces me and accepts me then this is the perfection of life.” We had this discussion at Ichalkaranji during the evening satsang. At that time we had darsana of Hanuman. I told them how the Lord embraced Hanuman. Then I asked them, “Do you want to be embraced by the Lord? They all said yes. I’m saying this now that this is the right of all living entities. The Lord says that the jivas come to Him or approach Him. Why? Because every living entity or bhakta is very dear to Him. Then why won’t He embrace us? To get such an embrace is the right of all living entities. But a few jivas have become demons (badamaash) and they embrace some others. When the Lord was embracing Hanuman he was expressing his gratitude to Hanuman.

Many teams were looking for mother Sita. All of them were sent to the South. Sugriva had said that they all had 1 month and if they didn’t find her then they would be killed. All the teams returned within one month without any information of Mother Sita.

But Hanuman was very determined to find Her. He realised that one month had already passed. Then Angad said at that time, “I know my uncle and he is very cruel. Let’s rather fast and die over here.” I was hearing this yesterday. When they thought to kill themselves they met Sampati, the brother of Jatayu. Sampati had such power that he could see Sita in Lanka in Ashokavan. It was about 800 miles away. Sampati had received a benediction that when he serves Sri Rama then he will get his wings back. He told them that Sita is alive and gave Her address. When Sampati was just thinking like this to serve which was a great service indeed as it was going to reunite Lord Ram and Mother Sita, he started to fly again. Hanuman and company realised that there is the Indian Ocean in between. They started to discuss how far they could jump? Jambavan said that Lanka was 800 miles away. Angada said that he could go, but could not come back. While this conversation was going on, Hanuman was maintaining silence.

Jambavan turned towards Hanuman and made him remember his mystic power. He is pavan putra and he has so much potential that he can go to Lanka and come back very easily. Hanuman recognised his power and jumped from Mahendra Parvat (mountain) with the speed of wind. When he jumped some trees also started to go along with him just as few leaves or dust goes along with a moving vehicle. Hanuman is not just powerful, but intelligent also (shakti-yukti yukta). Everything doesn’t happen with strength alone. You need intelligent tricks also.

In this way he found Mother Sita. There are many incidents which are described. He kills various demons, son of Ravana (Aksh) and then is brought in front of Ravana in his assembly. Ravana put his tail on fire thinking that Hanuman will die. He is about to die when the wind started to blow and entire Lanka started to burn. Hanuman touched his burning tail against all the windows. In this way he showed a trailer of Lord Rama’s arrival in Lanka. Entire Lanka started burning. Then he went to the sea and extinguished his burning tail. He as looked at his reflection and saw that his face had turned black due to the smoke of the fire in Lanka. Then he returned to Rameswaram. Angad was very happy to receive Hanuman.

Then they went to Kishkindha where Sugriva was ruling. Earlier Bali was ruling there. Lord Rama had helped Sugriva to defeat him. There were all of them as well as an army of monkeys and bears. This party headed by Hanuman reached Rama and informed Lord Rama about Mother Sita. He said that he gave Lord Rama’s ring to Mother Sita and She gave him Her own ring to return to Lord Rama.

At that time Lord Rama said, “If I was in Ayodhya then I would have given you so many rewards. But now as I’m in a forest and I’m empty pocketed. Actually I don’t even have pockets”. At that time Lord embraced Hanuman expressing His gratitude and appreciation. Same thing is being expressed by Tukaram Maharaja – the jiva meets the Lord with eagerness. What else is needed?

Keep on chanting. When you have love towards the Lord then you will also chant with love.

Earlier I used to chant committing offences(nama-apradha), then one reaches namabhas where one have yet to realise the name completely. It’s just like the sun hasn’t risen over the horizon yet. The same happened with Ajamila. As one gets free from the offences, one reaches the level of ruci. As offences reduce then one reaches asakti, bhava. When we save ourselves from the remaining offences then we can chant with love.

Lord Caitanya is waiting for such a moment. The Lord is waiting for us. We have to make ourselves qualified. Keep chanting.

Gaur Premanande!
Hari Haribol!