|| JAI BAJRANG BALI ||

The true beginning of Hanuman's story begins in the court of heaven, of whom Indra is the king and Bhiraspati is the priest-advisor. In this court, a beautiful nymph, Punjkasthala, was persecuted for her indiscretions. She was sentenced to be reborn as a vanara, half-monkey and half human. Upon her grieving and remorse, the sentence was diminished, and she was told that she would be freed of the curse when she gave birth to an incarnation of Lord Shiva.

In her next life, the woman was born as Anjani. She married another vanara, Kesari, who was brave and strong. Due to her past karma, her inborn gunas inspired her to worship Shiva for years and years. Finally, Shiva was pleased with her penance and blessed her by saying that she would give birth to His next avatar, or incarnation.

In Ayodhya, Emperor Dashrath was severely disturbed by his disposition. He had three wives but no children. He sought help from his priest-advisor Vashishta. Vashishta instructed him to perform a yagna, or pooja and the demigods would surely be pleased and grant him boons. So Dashrath performed the pooja according to proper Vedic rites and finally, at the end of the pooja, when the fire went out, a bowl of payasa, or rice pudding was left in place of the fire. Priests instructed Dashrath to give each one of his wives some of the payasa. He gave each of his four wives, Koushalya, Kei Kei and Sumitra some of the payasa. When each of the wives had got their payasa, there was still some left in the bowl. Suddenly, a large bird came and snatched the bowl away. As the bird flew towards his home over the forest, by the force of a strong wind, he dropped the bowl. Under the point where he dropped the bowl, Anjani was performing meditation with outstretched hands. The bowl was guided by the wind and landed in Anjani's hand. Recognizing that the dropping of the payasa in her hand was no mistake. Anjani ate it. Soon, Koushalya gave birth to Shri Ramachandra, an incarnation of Sri Hari Vishnu, Kei Kei gave birth to Bharat, Sumitra gave birth to twins, Laxman and Shatrughna, and Anjani gave birth to Shri Hanuman, an incarnation of Lord Shiva. Since His birth was secured by the wind, His godfather became Pavan, the divine personification of the wind and His true parents were Anjani and Kesari. His parents named him Anjaneya.

Seconds after Anjaneya was born, He became very hungry. Looking around the sky, he caught a glimpse of the sun. Seeing the sun's bright color and round shape, the Baby mistook it for a fruit and leaped towards it. His leap was so great that he reached the sun in no time. Opening his mouth wide, He swallowed the sun and the entire galaxy was overcame with darkness and lifelessness. Rahu, who controlled the eclipses, was unable to do his job when he saw that the baby had swallowed the sun. He rushed to Indra and reported that a demon baby had eaten the sun. Enraged, Indra mounted his elephant and flew towards the sun. Upon seeing the baby with the sun in his mouth, Indra struck Anjaneya with his bajra, or lightning bolt. The bolt struck Anjaneya on his chin which broke and Anjaneya fell unconscious back to earth. In Sanskrit, Hanu means chin, and therefore Anjaneya came to be known as Hanuman.

As Hanuman fell through the atmosphere, Pavan saw that his child had been injured by Indra and lay unconscious on the ground. He grew enraged and took hold of all pran vayu, or oxygen. All of earth's creatures began to die. All other gods soon intervened and negotiated. They brought Hanuman back to consciousness and each gave him powers and boons. For example, Yam gave him immortality, Brahma gave him immunity to the Brahma Astra, Indra gave him more strength than the Vajra, etc.

As Hanuman grew up, he became a very mischievous child. He was known to use his powers to play tricks on Rishis. On one such day, when Hanuman enraged one Rishi, the Rishi took him back to Anjani and told her that he cursed her child, that until he used his God given powers for good, he would forget how to use them. Hanuman did not use his powers any longer.