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Hanuman, devoted companion of Lord Rama, crosses the ocean to find Sita

the gist

Hanuman, also known as Maruti, Bajrangabali and Anjaneya, is a deity in Hinduism, revered as a divine vanara and a devoted companion of Lord Rama. Central to the Ramayana, he is considered a chiranjivi, and his tales are also recounted in the Mahabharata and various Puranas. In the Valmiki Ramayana, Anjana receives a divine blessing from the wind god Vayu, who grants her a son, Hanuman. In most Vaishnava traditions he is the son and incarnation of Vayu, while in Shaiva tradition he is regarded as an incarnation of Shiva. According to the Valmiki Ramayana, as a hungry child he mistook the sun for a ripe fruit and leapt up to eat it; in one version Indra's thunderbolt struck his jaw, and the gods then granted him boons of unique powers and strength. In the Ramayana story, when the search for Sita reaches the ocean, Jambavan lifts the curse that had made Hanuman forget his powers, and he grows to the size of a mountain, crosses to Lanka and finds Sita in a grove. Later, when Lakshmana is gravely wounded, Hanuman carries a whole Himalayan mountain of herbs back to the battle.

so what

In the Ramcharitmanas of Saint Tulsidas (around 1575 CE), Hanuman is the ideal loving devotee with heroic courage, strength and powers, and Tulsidas's hymn praising him is popularly recited as the Hanuman Chalisa. He is revered as an exemplar of self-control, faith and commitment to a cause, uniting strength with loving devotion to Rama, and his veneration through iconography and temple worship has grown significantly in recent times.

similar stories in other cultures

China: Sun Wukong, the Monkey King of the 16th-century novel Journey to the West, can travel 108,000 li in a single somersault and acquires the 72 Earthly Transformations, including the power to become animals and objects. Greece: Hermes, the herald and messenger of the gods, moves quickly and freely between the mortal and divine worlds aided by his winged sandals.

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Adapted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Image: Kaushlendrapathe, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons