Shiva & HanumAn (was Re: Shri Rudram 1.6)

[Vaidya N. Sundaram]

On Tue, 6 Oct 1998, Anand Hudli wrote:

>  From the background of HanumAn as the son of the wind God and the
>  fact that Rudra is mentioned as the Father of the Maruts, it is
>  possible to infer that HanumAn is an aMsha of Rudra/Shiva. Of course,
>  HanumAn may have been more directly identified as such in the
>  purANas or the various rAmAyaNa's -- I am not aware of a reference
>  offhand.

Namaskaram.

 In the story about the origins of Hanuman, it is said that Kesari
and Anjana (Hanuman's parents) prayed to Shiva for a son and hence
HanumAn was born to them. In fact, the story goes a little further
than that, in that, Anjana's father, also called Kesari, asks a boon
of Shiva that his lineage will never die down. Hence Shiva is said to
have said that he will Himself satisfy Kesari's wish, and although
Kesari has only one daughter Anjana, she has HanumAn as a son, who is
a Chiranjeevi.

 There are infact some other references to the identity between Shiva
and HanumAn in the Ramayana. When Sri Rama and Sita are praying to a
Shiva Linga at Rameshwaram, HanumAn is not there; he is supposedly
looking for a lingam. In the Shiva PurAnam, it has been said that at
that time, Shiva and Parvati were together in the Lingam, and that
after that, Sri Rama and Sita were taken to Kailash; after the three
muhurtams, Sri HanumAn appears again in the picture. People have
interpreted this as a clear place where HanumAn has revealed that He
is Shiva Himself.

 In another instance, when HanumAn first lands in Lanka, basically to
look for Sita, he defeats the Lady of Lanka; she then says that the
doom of Lanka is imminent as Shiva Himself has come to destroy Lanka.
It is to be remembered that Ravana was nothing if he was not a Shiva
Bhakta. Shiva is said to have given His devotee a last chance before
permitting Sri Rama to defeat Ravana. (It is well known that Shiva
never lets any of His devotees be defeated).

 There are a few other such references, and if you are interested, I
would direct you to the commentary on the Sundara KhAndam of the
Ramayana by Sri Anantha Rama Dikshidhar. It is a great book, running
into close to 650 pages, explaining all the philosophical and hidden
meanings behind every word of this Chapter of the Ramayana.

Cheers,
Vaidya.

================================================================
"bhava shankara deshikame sharaNam"
List archives : http://listserv.tamu.edu/archives/advaita-l.html
================================================================