Hanumanji Prevented From Serving Sri Ramji

You must have seen this photo: Hanumanji tearing open his chest, revealing the Lord's image inside.

Do you know the background of this?

Sri Rama Pattabhisheka was going on. The Lord was seated on the simhasana, and Hanumanji was sitting near his feet on the floor. The Lord's right foot was resting on Hanumanji's folded palms.

Bhagawan told Seetha Matha, 'If you want to give something to Hanuman, you can give it now.'

Matha took out a beautiful, invaluable garland of pearls from her neck and put it around Hanumanji's neck. Everyone started praising the garland, saying it was so invaluable, so precious.

Hanumanji started wondering—in this world, only that is precious which has the Lord inside, be it a being or an object. For it to be precious, the Lord should be there inside. Hanumanji became curious. Then, these pearls should have the Lord inside them.

Hanumanji, with his teeth, gently broke one of the pearls in the garland to check whether the Lord was inside. No, he was not there. Then he broke open another pearl. No, the Lord was not there. By this time, Vibhishana interfered. 

'Hanuman, what are you doing? Why are you destroying that precious garland?'

Hanumanji said, 'It doesn’t look precious to me; the Lord is not there inside.'

'Oh, if that is the case, are you sure the Lord is there inside your body?'

'I don’t know, but if He is not there, then I don’t want this body anymore.' Then, with his own nails, Hanumanji tore open his chest. The Lord was there inside, for everyone to see—just as He was seated on the simhasana, He could be seen inside Hanumanji's chest as well.

He is always there in Hanumanji's heart.

Later, the Lord touched Hanumanji's chest with His own hand, and not even a scar was left. Then the Lord Himself put the garland around Hanumanji's neck.

Some people grew jealous seeing Hanumanji's closeness to the Lord.

One day, as he was walking into the court, Hanumanji was told, 'You may not go in there. Service to the Lord has been divided between many people. Each task is delegated to someone; only he can do it. A list has been prepared, and the Lord has approved it.'

Hanumanji was shocked. They were trying to keep him away from the Lord.

He said, 'I want to see the list. I want to know what my duty is.'

The list was read out loudly in front of the Lord. Hanumanji's name was not there. Every single task was given to someone else.

Hanumanji asked, 'Can I do something if it is not there on this list?'

Everyone said, 'Yes. Everything is included in the list.'

'You know, when you yawn, you snap your fingers a few times. This is a tradition.'

By the way, do you know why yawning is considered a bad omen?

In the fight between Devas and Vritrasura, Agni and Soma got trapped inside Vritrasura's body. They could come out only when Indra made Vritrasura yawn. But when he yawned, Vritrasura's vital energies—prana and apana—also left his body. He was then defeated by Indra. Yawning points towards defeat. You snap your fingers to ward off defeat.

Hanumanji said, 'I will take up the duty of snapping fingers whenever the Lord yawns.' But for this, he had to always be with the Lord, looking at His face throughout.

Nobody could say anything.

Hanumanji got what he wanted.

At night, the Lord and Seetha Matha were retiring into their privacy. Hanumanji also wanted to go inside. Seetha Matha stopped him.

'You are our son, but this is not done.'

'But what if the Lord yawns in the night? How will I know?'

Hanumanji climbed onto the roof of the palace and kept on snapping his fingers. How else could he make sure that fingers snapped whenever the Lord yawned, if at all He yawned?

After some time, he could see a lot of commotion from below. The Lord's brothers had all come. Even Rajaguru Vasishta had come down. It was midnight.

Hanumanji could hear Vasishta calling out his name. When he walked into the palace, he could see the Lord sitting with His mouth wide open.

Hanumanji was still snapping his fingers. Now that the Lord was in front of him, Hanumanji stopped the snapping.

The Lord's mouth closed. He started speaking.

'Oh! What a relief.'

Do you know what had happened?

Yawning and snapping of fingers have to go together. As soon as Hanumanji snapped his fingers, the Lord gave out His first yawn. But then, Hanumanji did not stop. He kept on snapping his fingers. The Lord could not close His mouth. He had to give out a series of yawns until Hanumanji stopped.

Everyone panicked. The Lord was sitting with His mouth wide open, not speaking.

See the closeness between the Lord and Hanumanji.

As the Lord Himself had once said, 'We are one and the same.'

Knowledge Bank

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