“Abandoning his beggar form and reassuming his monkey form, the elephant among monkeys [Hanuman] placed those two heroes on his back and departed.” (Valmiki Ramayana, Kishkindha Kand, 4.34)

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भिक्षुरूपं परित्यज्य वानरं रूपमास्थितः।
पृष्ठमारोप्य तौ वीरौ जगाम कपिकुञ्जरः||

bhikṣurūpaṃ parityajya vānaraṃ rūpamāsthitaḥ।
pṛṣṭhamāropya tau vīrau jagāma kapikuñjaraḥ ||

“Call me a cynic, but I have lost trust in about every institution that guides mankind. It doesn’t matter where you go. It doesn’t matter what country you are in. It doesn’t matter which language you speak. The people at the top, the ones in control, are corrupt.

“To the worst possible degree, I might add. They have no problem experimenting on children. They have no problem suffocating them, in the name of junk science. They steal elections out in the open, and if you catch them, they say that you are crazy. They label you a conspiracy theorist and they make sure you have no platform for voicing your concerns.

“I don’t trust any of the doctors. They are either in it for the money or too afraid to speak out against the establishment. They don’t know how to treat people properly, and visiting them, even by accident, is like guaranteed death.

“Teachers, friends, police officers, local religious leaders – I am at the point that I will stay at home, but not to escape a virus. Rather, to avoid conversations with people I don’t respect. Yes, this is an extreme viewpoint, but I am at least being honest with you. The same can’t be said of these other people.

“Which leads me to the initial meeting between Rama and Hanuman. We know of the exalted positions of the participants. Shri Rama is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Lakshmana is an equivalent, but manifesting differently. Lakshmana plays the role of Rama’s loyal younger brother.

“Hanuman is in a monkey form. He descends from Mount Rishyamukha at the request of Sugriva, the king of the monkeys in Kishkindha. Hanuman assumes a false garb, at first. He pretends to be a brahmana, asking what two youths, who look like warriors, would be doing in the forest.

“Shri Rama essentially gives a poker face. He doesn’t say anything, while Hanuman keeps talking. Eventually, the false form is no more. The truth comes out. I am wondering how Rama implicitly trusted this stranger He just met.

“I would be skeptical. This guy only moments prior pretended to be something he wasn’t. Sure, he might be saying nice words to me, but that is only after I didn’t play the game. Now, he proposes to take me up to the top of the mountain to meet with his friend. Why would I believe him?”

To begin, the words spoken did make an impact. It was not a decision made blindly. Rama applied intelligence. He talked the matter over with Lakshmana; sort of like a side conference held between an attorney and their client in a courtroom.

The evidence pointed towards trust. The words Hanuman spoke indicated intelligence and culture. It could be deciphered that Hanuman was well-versed in the Vedas, that he was properly representing the interests of his leader, and that he was great at seeing a job until its successful completion.

These attributes were necessary at the time, since Rama’s wife was missing. This incident underscores how Narayana can never be daridra. The source of men, the Supreme Lord, is never poor. He is married to the goddess of fortune, after all.

In that setting it looked like Rama was the beggar, that He was in need of charity. The truth is Narayana can find assistance in any place, at any time. Rama lacked the benefit of a royal army. He was basically by Himself, left to search the entire world for someone who had gone missing.

The meeting with Hanuman was serendipitous, though there was no randomness or chance involved. It was the Divine will for the alliance between Rama and Sugriva to take place. Hanuman won the trust of Rama in the same way that he would later win the trust of Sita, who was suspicious of seeing a monkey in the city of ogres.

If Rama and Lakshmana trusted Hanuman enough to hop on his shoulders and be carried up the mountain, we should have no issue extending the same faith. Hanuman is Rama’s representative through the continuation of time, and in that role he shines.

In Closing:

Up to mountain’s top to thrust,
Those brothers implicitly to trust.

Where Hanuman to them new,
Claimed a monkey leader he knew.

But still someone just met,
How proper assessment to get?

Shri Rama knowing all,
So instantly as friend to call.

Categories: questions

Tags: hanuman, hare krishna, poem, poems, poetry, ramayana