Adventures with the Sun

Every day, an hour before dawn, Anjana went out to collect flowers and fruits. Usually Hanuman was asleep then. So she would leave him at home and return before he woke up. 

One day, she was held up on her way back. Hanuman woke up at the usual time. He was terribly hungry. He called out to his mother, “Ma I am hungry”. He waited for his mother to run to him. 

He said loudly “Where are you, Ma?” Still there was no reply. 

When he found no sign of Anjana he decided to find food on his own. He thought “Why should I not go out and get fruits to eat?” He ran down the steps of his home. Then he noticed a red ball to the east. It was at some distance. It was the sun rising. 

Hanuman watched the sight. It was beautiful. The whole sky was aglow with morning twilight; the sun looked like a big juicy fruit. Hanuman thought that the red sun was a fruit and flew up to snatch it. 

As Hanuman approached the Sun, who rides a chariot pulled by seven white horses, his father Vayu, became concerned that the heat will scorch him and blew a frigid blast to protect Hanuman. 

By coincidence, it was the day of solar eclipse and the demonic tital Rahu – a disembodied head who periodically swallows the sun and the moon – was also on his way to the sun’s chariot. He saw Hanuman, grown to enormous size, seated on the chariot.Hanuman sees Rahu too, and mistook him for a wild plum. Rahu fled to Indra’s court where he complained of cosmic injustice saying “I’ve been assigned the task of swallowing the sun but now it seems there is another, bigger rahu around, and he even tried to eat me”. Alarmed, Indra marched out on his divine elephant Airavata. Hanuman saw Airavata, mistaking him for another plum fruit, and lunged for him as well. So Indra hit at Hanuman with his terrible weapon Vajrayudha. Hanuman fell down and was hurt. His cheeks became swollen. (This is why he came to be called Hanuman. ‘Hanu’ in Sanskrit means the cheek.) 

Vayu, the wind god, saw Hanuman was wounded. He also saw the weapon returning to Lord Indra. He picked up Hanuman and ran in to the patalaloka, the world below the grounds of the earth. As the wind god, left the earth, there was no air in the world. People, animals and trees struggled to breathe and started to die.

Then all the gods came and consoled the Wind God. Each god conferred a boon upon the little Hanuman. Brahma, the Creator said, “No weapon will be able to kill this boy.” Indra said to the boy, “You will be a Chiranjeevi’ (immortal).” 

Blessed thus by the gods, Hanuman grew up to be as strong as his father. He flew about as freely and was quite mischievous. The Rishis, who were troubled by his mischief, pronounced a curse on him. Hence, Hanuman would never know how powerful and strong he was. 

Somebody else will have to remind him about his strength. (Later Lord Rama is known to have reminded Hanuman about his strengths.) Legends say, we chant Hanuman Chalisa, to remind Hanuman of his strengths.

Jai Sri Ram