Hanuman’s Journey to Maturity 1 – How a curse can be a blessing – HG Chaitanya Charan Das

How many of you were there yesterday? Okay. How many of you were not there yesterday? Okay. How many of you are not there today?

Alright. Okay. So We’re discussing on the topic of Hanuman’s journey to maturity, not a physical place. But we are going to talk about how we can grow toward maturity by learning from Hanuman’s example. Yesterday, we had played a game.

Can you also raise your hands how many were there yesterday? Okay. More than 50%. Thank you. 70%.

But this game will be for those who were there yesterday already. So I’ll give you a yesterday we had played a game where I give a word and then you construct a sentence based on the Ramayana or Mahabharata using that word. Today’s game will be a little different. A little difficult, a little easier. Both ways.

I’ll give you a word, and through a series of words that I give, we will construct a summary of yesterday’s class. So I’ll give you a word, and you can think of in what context that word can be used to connect with a point or especially a pastime, an incident that was described yesterday. Okay? Mischievous. Mhmm.

Yes? Lord Hanuman, he wanted to, he he had he thought that the sun god is fruit, so he wanted to go and grab. So that shows the mischievousness of the child. Yeah. So Hanuman was as a child, he was mischievous demigod.

Yeah. You said there are two connotations to that. You’re a semi god, what profile uses. But the other connotation is that it’s a child of a celestial being and a human. So Yes.

Hanuman ji falls in that category. Yeah. Actually, later I thought about Hanuman falls in both categories versus He’s also a great devotee. He’s a celestial being himself. He’s a devotee, so he’s not officially having a position of a devta.

So the second meaning is more appropriate. Good. So then, panic. Panic? Yes?

Moment while they stop the air, after seeing Hanuman in a, in a very, hurtful state, the Arduyutas go to panic mode. Yes. So when they saw Hanuman in a which state? Hurtful state. Hurtful.

Okay. In a lifeless state, you can say. Hurt state. Yeah. That’s true.

They they get panicking, then they shower blessings on him. Very good. Thank you. Oh, God. He’s moving forward nicely.

Now. Blessing and curse. Yes? Whatever, Hanuman got blessings from all the devatas because Voirideva was angry with the Correct. Yeah.

Some god. Yeah. It’s excellent. So you blessings twice and curse once. That’s good.

That’s good to very nice. Yesterday, we’re discussing that there is ability or power, and there is maturity. Okay. See, I don’t have much maturity losing this. Okay.

So we have so child Hanuman to adult Hanuman is this journey. Edibility, but not maturity. And we’ll today see how he went on this journey. And so when he was cursed, that curse was not out of hatred. That curse was also not so much out of anger.

It was more for protection. And then, we discussed later about graceful and grateful. Do you remember those two words? Yes, two? When, there is maturity, but power is there, then one is grateful.

But when power is not there, but maturity is there, one is grateful. Yes. Yes. I just use I use I try to use rhyming words. So ability and maturity are used, and later power with Character.

Character. Yeah. So if you have character, character and maturity are somewhat similar. They’re different, but we’ll explore that here. It is the same same point.

So if we can be grateful so there’s a there’s a four patterns that is called second pattern because so what are the four words over here? If we have power sorry. If I have power, if we have character. So we have both, then we are? Grateful.

If we have character and lack power, then we’ll be still? Graceful. Yes, Krishna. I accept gracefully whatever happens. If we have power but no character?

Yes, we become arrogant, prideful. And it means that? Resentful. This is where why is this happening? From resentful, we can also become hateful, you can become vengeful.

Why should anyone else have anything good in life? And then, Okay. So now I’ll be talking about Hanuman’s journey towards gratitude. And so not gratitude, towards maturity. So here also we will have the same word game, but in a slightly different way.

I’ll be talking about four incidents broadly, which indicates Hanma’s maturity. And after each incident, I’ll describe each feature I’ll describe. So I’ll stop and I will use a word which I have used in the previous section. That means, in that section, I have used the word. You can try to spot where I use that word.

Okay? So I’ll be using an acronym CARE. That mature when we have maturity, then we truly care. We care for the things that matter for us. Now if you see, one of the characteristics of maturity is commitment An immature person, somebody says when the going gets tough, what happens?

Tough. The tough get going. But there are other people, they get going away. They’re not so tough. They go away from there.

They don’t get going. So now the test comes. See, Hanuman’s right entry itself. When we have baby Hanuman. Actually this is described later now.

When we in the Ramayana’s natural narrative when Hanuman enters where is he? Where is the in which kanda does the entry happen? Yes. In the kishkin, the kanda. And then after that, in the he like sometimes, you know, sometimes in a movie or a TV series, there is some character that character comes in and then that character becomes the show stealer.

Mhmm. That character is so attractive that everybody is talking about that character only. So it is Ramayan but in Sundarkand, Rama is absent. And like Hanuman steals the show from Rama. He doesn’t steal the show, of course.

He is serving Lord Rama. But then his character is so captivating and endearing. So he enters into into the Ramayana in the section before that. So we have various kandas in the Ramayana. So what is the first kanda?

Palakanda. Palakanda. That is where Lord Ram’s Then? Ishkindakanda. Then?

Sundar Kanda. Then after that? Indakanda. Indakanda. And after that?

Utter command. Yes. So now Hanuman enters over here. Because Hanuman enters over here and then he becomes the central character over here. He becomes the guy as a show stealer over here.

So interestingly when he enters, he is it’s who is he with? He is with Sugri. Now, if you consider there has been a tragic misunderstanding between Sugri and Vali. And if we consider what happened, that Vali misunderstood Sugri first, and And so, he misunderstood that Wali is dead. And Wali misunderstood that, ‘Suguri tried to kill me so that he could take over the power.’ So now, Wali attacked Sugri, and Sugri had to flee to save his life.

Now, at that time, Hanuman had no obligation to go. Hanuman was not a blood relative. Hanuman was one manara in the Manara Kingdom. He was powerful in his own right. But he did not have to go with Sugriva.

And going with Sugriva meant that Hanuman lost everything. He himself said, Sugriva could not go back to Kishkirta. And Lakshman followed him. Now Lakshman is also nobody was obligated to do go. Sentence was only for Ram.

Sita insisted that she will go because she’s his wife. But when, Lakshman went, we could say that he’s his younger brother and so he went. And it’s not a it’s not an obligation, but he felt that I am duty bound because I’m the younger brother. But when Sugriva went to the forest, there is a brother’s wand over here. But when Sugriva was sent to the forest, Hanuman went with him.

And that is actually simply friends. And if you see, overall, it is not even friends. It is one of the servants born. The relationship between Wali, sorry, Sugriv and Hanuman is not exactly friendship. They’re always conscious that actually, Sugriv is the king, or Sugriv is a member of the royal family.

So Hanuman, the very fact that he left it all to be with Sugriv shows that he was a person of principles. He could have chosen you, this is not my fight, they are their misunderstanding, they resolve it all. But he did not do that. He stuck with Sugriyu. This also shows to some extent.

Sometimes Sugriyu has seen him, Sugriyu forgets his promise and other things. But and sometimes Sugriyu may not be seen as someone such a stellar character. Good character. But the fact that Sugriyoo would attract friends like this, that also shows his character. So Hanuman and Jamaran both came with him.

We’ll focus here on Nooman. And in general, what is the opposite of commitment? Abandonment. Okay. One is abandonment.

Let’s see. Abandonment. Sorry, in? Irresponsible. Irresponsible.

If committed, it’s irresponsible. Right? Indifference. Indifference, apathy. Not?

Not committal. -Non committal? Okay. That’s a synonym. That’s an antonym, basically, from the words itself.

But how will non committal be seen in terms of actions? -Um, it’s wishy washy. -Yes. Wishy washy, we could say. Some people are like a chameleon.

With whatever people you are, you take that form. And it’s basically somebody who does not have commitment for their primary criteria would be convenience. Whatever is convenient, whatever is ex the English word on the news is expedient. Expedient is whatever is the easiest thing to do. So some politicians, they just, they will blow whichever way the wind blows whatever position the voters want to hear they’ll speak those words and by that they say it is said about politicians before the election they shake your hands after that they shake your feet so what happened is sometimes people just they’re expedient so it could have been expedient for Hanuman.

I don’t want to get involved in this. But the fact that he was with Sugriha, that itself shows his commitment. And commitment is a sign of maturity. Maturity has many different meanings to it. One aspect of maturity.

Now, how is maturity related with commitment? It requires maturity to understand that good things they take time. They cost effort pain. Good things in life don’t come easy. That is commitment.

It can arise only when we understand it. So this is the aspect of maturity. A baby who is immature now, babies are immature not intentionally, but they’re just immature. Or a baby, they feel hungry, start crying. They expect that somebody else has to come and feed them.

That’s understandable. They can’t feed themselves at that particular point. But an adult person understands, okay, I cannot just depend on others to feed me. I have to make some arrangement. So for that, maybe I have to learn cooking, I have to earn money so I can employ someone who will cook for me, or I’ll go out and make some arrangements by getting at some food.

So that when somebody is immature, they just go by the path of least resistance. And the fact that Salman has chosen this particular option of being with Sugreen itself shows his great maturity. And that’s one aspect of maturity. And sometimes when we are criticized or we are unfairly accused or something that accusation itself hurts but there are people who we may not want enemies, but we all have people who are opposed to us in some way or the other. Now the harsh words of our opponents, it hurts us.

But what hurts even more is the silence of our friends. And at that time, those whom we thought we could count on, they don’t come and support us. And that feels very painful. We feel abandoned, we feel rejected. So that commitment, that’s where- that’s why sometimes it’s called fair weather of friends.

Now as long as the weather is good, then I’m afraid. As soon as the weather becomes bad, then goodbye. So those kind of friends are not not the kind of friends that we can count on. So commitment is whether it’s friendship or servitorship, servitorship in the mood of friendship, friendship in the mood of servutorship whatever is the particular flavor of the relationship that is there Hanuman shows his commitment. And to some extent, one’s maturity is seen by how one sticks through the tough times.

One of the truths that only a mature person understands is about happiness in the moda buddhi. What Krishna says in 1837, All the good things in life, they take time. So the mature person is able to see and push through the poison till they get to the doctor. This is a mature person. Now when there’s somebody immature, they look at the poison and they say, bye bye.

It’s too much. I can’t push through this. So sometimes it happens in youth. Sometimes, students want to choose a career. I was in Stanford a couple of years ago.

There was one young woman, young, girl and her mother had come, and they’re telling that this girl, obviously she’s in Stanford, she’s brilliant, but she this was her sixth year in the first year. So what happened? She’s been changing her major for six years. And I said, I wanna find my passion in my life. Well, there’s your whole life to find your passion.

First, get a degree. And sometimes people nowadays, this whole idea is that if you can’t find your passion, your life has no meaning. No. It’s not that you have to find our passion. Sometimes we have to create meaning in our life.

So uncommitted means that I’m not criticizing her in that sense, but it is you can’t be so fickle. You can’t just keep changing your ego from one year to the next year, second year. Commit to one thing. Sometimes this may not be the best thing for us, but but let’s do it, let’s learn, let’s grow in character, let’s grow in commitment, and then we can explore other things later. So commitment means that sometimes what happens is we ask a question.

We are all determined to a large extent by the question that we are asking. So when it is said that the the animals are always asking questions, where is food? Where is sex? Where is where is strength? Where is shelter?

That kind of things. So we humans can ask bigger questions. The question will be: what is the meaning of life? What is the purpose of life? But even then, commitment means that we could ask two questions: what is the meaning of life?

That’s a very important question. Now, that question is a philosophical question, and that takes time to find an answer to it. But we can ask a much more practical question: what can I do right now to increase the meaning in my life? What can I do right now to increase the meaning in my life? What does this mean?

Now we may say the meaning of life is you want to go back to Krishna. Okay, that seems we’re a long way away and we have a whole lifetime before that. What do I do in that lifetime? Okay, is there one service I’m meant to do? How will I find that service?

Well, maybe it’ll take time. Right now, what can I do? See, all of you, you know, you could have stayed home and watched TV. You could have done so many things just to come here. You hope to learn something meaningful.

Oh, I could have been in India. I’m traveling here because I feel that sharing the message of the Gita adds meaning to my message of Shastra that adds meaning to my life. Hopefully, it adds meaning to somebody else’s life. So it is it is this question, how can I add meaning to my life right now? What can I do right now?

Maybe I can speak one kind word, maybe I can learn this particular skill, maybe I can push through this project and complete it just so that I can learn the ethos of responsibility discipline. So commitment is a sign of maturity and Hanuman exhibits that. Children can be very fickle and that’s why parents have to push children at times. Parents. Children do not feel like studying but you have to study.

So his commitment shows his maturity. So this is the first part where anyone’s very entry is itself a sign of his maturity. That where he is. Okay, so the word here is? Okay.

Commitment. That’s not the word for a second. That will be too obvious. So. Misunderstanding.

Misunderstand? Where was that word used just now? In what was described? Yeah. Can you make a sentence good?

Mhmm. Duty bound. Thank you. Duty bound. Who was duty bound?

Yeah? Hanuman ji. He he he was no. Lakshman ji. He was duty bound to Savuddha Ram, and he also followed around to the forest.

Yes, very. As contrasted with. You’re on the right track. I did the beginning. Yeah.

Hanuman. Yeah. So you could say that, Hanuman was not duty bound because he was not a blood relative. But still Hanuman went and that shows his character. Okay?

So now after that Hanuman sometimes, if you consider a movie analogy I don’t want to remind you of movies. There are two ways you become Krishna conscious. One is, you bring Krishna into your consciousness. So, you bring Krishna into our consciousness. That means, we hear Krishna’s pastimes.

We chant Krishna’s name. We behold Krishna’s little pictures. The other is, we bring what is in our consciousness to Krishna. That means whatever things naturally interest us, we try to connect them with Krishna. So now if you consider movies.

Most of us have probably watched movies and we we live in a world which is. The culture is shaped by movies. So often the entry of a character is quite dramatic or it signifies how the character is going to be. So Hanuman’s entry seems to be a bit undramatic over here. Yes.

When the one when Rama and Lakshman are entering into Kishkinda, Rama is in agony, in pain, crying out, where is it, Dabi? Is she safe? Is she not safe? We see this? Sugriva, he’s out on top of the mountain, and from there he sees he gets, Ram, who are these people?

So when we see someone, we want to put people into some identifiable categories. If somebody comes in and, you know, is this person Indian? Is this person American? Is this person Indian, South Indian? Now, somebody looks like an Indian, but they have x, they have they have very much American accent.

I mean, it’s an American Indian, or Indian American, or whatever category you want to put it. Sometimes we can’t put in categories. Then there’s a little bit of a concern. So if we see somebody coming at night, that person looks like a relative. Okay?

This person’s a relative. But then we see they have come. Okay, this was an impossibility of my relative, is it? So when Suguru sees, he sees, oh, these people are dressed like sages, but then they are carrying weapons. Who are they?

He becomes alarmed. Are these people sent by Bali to assassinate me? The way Sugriev is living is a very fearful state. He’s constantly worried whether Vali is going to get him. And for Vali, it’s very frustrating.

It’s that Sugriv wants to punish him, wants to kill him, and Sugriv is right next to him. But he just cannot go there. Why? Because of her curse. So when I was in Singapore, I was giving this class and I said that you know, Vali felt about Kishkindh.

Sorry, Vali felt about this, Prischemak Mountain and that area where Sugri was there. Vali felt the way China feels about Taiwan. So he just couldn’t get there. But then, Taipei also, China will get back in some other way. So then, while Sukhuri went to Anima, he says, you find out who are they.

So then Anima went there. And now Lord Rama is in agony, and the first thing that happens is that as Hanuman approaches them and Mahan speaks that his words are so sweet, so soothing, that Hanuman speaks a few words, introducing himself, asking who they are. He doesn’t tell his identity, but just speaks very sweetly. And Ram turns to his animal, so it’s Lakshman, and he says, ‘Who is this person? This person must be learned in all the Vedas.

This person must be brought up by wonderful parents, this person must have created some scars from previous life. Just by those words he praises Hanuman so much. And this is where actually if we consider, he talks about two things, and the gopis also talk about the same two things when they talk about Krishna. So madhuraya gira is that they have Krishna has a sweet voice, and valguakyeya. Valguakyeya means pleasing, touching, loving words.

So the most effective speech is where a person has a sweet voice and speaks very pleasing words. Now, all comedies some people may have very sweet voice. And somebody may have a great singer. And because they have a sweet voice. But if you meet them backstage, one devoted friend he had before he came to Bhakti was big into music.

So he told me he was a big fan of a prominent Indian musician, and he had a voice which is, like, pure gold. So he finally got in that studio, and he went on the backstage. He wanted to be there. And that same person, he when he went on backstage, and that person with that same golden voice was literally hurling obscenities at all the studio stuff. Like you might hear on the streets of some of the more violent areas in his cry.

All kinds of obscenities, he said. It was just the biggest disappointment of my life at that time. Some people may have sweet voice, and they sweetly speak hurtful words. So Now so it’s good to have a sweet voice. Now some people just they can’t be help.

They have a they just have a raspy voice. Their voice is maybe because of some speech deformity or whatever, throat problem, whatever. We all have an actual voice from birth. We can’t control how sweet our voices, but we can try to please speak in a way that is pleasing. So Krishna says, ‘anutvega karam vakya’ He says in 1715 that the character and the austerity of speech doesn’t say speak sweetly.

That’s not in our control, in the sense that our voice is not sweet. We can try to speak sweetly in this and that. We can speak words that are pleasing, that are encouraging, that are appreciative. So Hanuman, hate, falls in this category. He has sweet voice, and he’s speaking pleasing words.

And life is tough. We all can find faults with each other, and there are many faults to find with each other also. But if we can just appreciate and encourage each other, one encouragement will just change the spirit of a person. Sometimes, you know, you speak some words of appreciation and the other person says, you made my day today.’ It will cause one heartfelt appreciation. You can mow a person for a whole day.

You sometimes You can mower a person for weeks. So Hanuman exhibits this ability that he is he at this particular point is a character. So interestingly, Haruman was earlier known for power. But now, he’s not his power is not seen only. He is subordinate to Sugriv also.

And Sugriva himself is not the most powerful monkey. Sugriva is being persecuted by Vali. So that same man who had such extraordinary blessings in his childhood, first we show his commitment. See his commitment. And then we see that he’s praised for his sweet speech.

And then what Hanuman does is, he ensures that there is an alliance formed between Ram and Sugriva. So what is the economy we are discussing? Care. So I’m right now discussing about alertness. Now one aspect of a mature person is they are they’re not just caught in their own head and their own thoughts.

They’re alert. Okay. This is the purpose I’m here for. And as a purpose that you are supposed to do. Do sometimes we send somebody to okay you go and inform them and get this from that place and they go there and they start talking with that person and they get so caught in talking and they come back oh did you get that why forgot you know they become yoga blessed when Sugri offers a seat to Ram, Sugri neglects Lakshman.

But you know Hanuman and Lakshman have a have a special bond. It’s because they are both in similar situations that Hanuman is there in the forest not because of any any target on him. So Lakshman is on the forest not because of any target. Right? So he offers a sleep to Lakshman.

And then later on, when Sugriva gives the kingdom back, then what happens? Sugriv has been, for years, in an area with no Wi Fi. And he comes to an area with full Wi Fi. And he goes on a four month Netflix binge. So he just forgets everything.

So now as these four winds go forward, what come to the end, then it is that Hanuman. Hanuman alerts him. So three people alert him. First is Hanuman alerts him. Then Tara alerts him.

And then after that, Lakshman. Lakshman just alerts him. Lakshman agitated him. Lakshman agitated and he educates him. But either way, at that particular time, true friendship is okay that when the friend is in trouble, you stand by the friend when they’re in trouble.

But true friendship also is when the friend is getting oneself into trouble, we don’t stand and go with them into trouble. We try to stop them. We try to warn them. That is also friendship. So his his alertness is seen and I am talking about alertness primarily in terms of his relation his so first, you know, when he enters, at this particular point, he doesn’t have a relationship with Ram.

So it is our cap. Generally a person’s character, a person’s maturity, a person’s virtues they are seen in relationships. It’s in isolation. I can be very humble when there’s no one with me. Isn’t it?

What does it require? As the American comedian said. I love humanity. It’s only human beings I can’t get along with. So most of our virtues are seen in relationships.

So here, first, he shows his commitment. His alertness is in forging an alliance for Sukhin. And then after that, in war mink. So both of these, he does. And in this way, again, mature person, one of the characteristics is that they’re alert.

They’re not just caught in their head. For many people, there’s so much drama going on inside their head only that they’re not even aware of what’s going on in the world or to speak of having an opportunity or noticing an opportunity and tapping an opportunity. So he’s alert over there. So so here so this is the second part. I’m going to the last two parts now.

But with respect to alertness, this particular incident, agony. Agony? I’ll be in agony if you don’t remember the word agony. Who was in agony? Yes?

When, when when Hanma was sent by Sugreev to, to find who these two persons were, Lord Rama was in agony in separation of the temple. Yes. True. Good. Good.

So category. Okay. Maybe category is a little complicated word over here. Just simple. What would you put in this context is?

Yes? Abhijit, Lakshman and Hanuman ji wearing the same Excellent. They’re the same category. Actually, I didn’t think of that side, but that didn’t translate to the mind. And we tried to put people into categories and we observed them.

So Sugri was alarmed because he could not put Ram and Lakshman in the category. Are they sages? Are they warriors? They’re sages, but they have weapons like warriors. He just couldn’t make sense, but that’s a brilliant sentence.

Thank you. So now, the third part we’ll discuss is responsible. Now if you see, after this what happens is that they decide to go on a search for Sita. And this is where Hanuman starts coming into his own that there is this whole concept of, like, leadership without position. Leadership position without position or influence without authority.

Sometimes somebody may get a position of being a leader. Now when the Vandaras start searching for Sita, the group that goes south who is the leader of that group? -Jamal. -Angat. So now it’s interesting that Sugriv and Angad have a bit of a tense relationship.

Although, Vali had tried to pacify things, Vali had told Angad, Don’t hold Sugriv responsible for my death. It’s my own karma that is guilty. And he tells Sugri, please, whatever I I persecuted you, but neither Anwar nor Tara had anything to do with it. Please don’t get back at them for what I did. So he tries to create reconciliation.

And yet for Angad, one day his father is the king and the next day not only is his father dead, but the person who was directly or entirely responsible for his father’s death is now the king and he has to serve that person. It’s not an easy situation for him to be in. And because Sugriv also wants to bond with Angad, So Sugriv goes out of his way to respect and accommodate him. That’s why he makes Angad the leader of the group. And this is the most important group because the Vanaras have seen Raoul going southwards.

And they also heard that Raoul is in the South. Whether he has gone to his abode or he’s gone somewhere else, we sit down, we don’t know. But that’s the most that’s the most clue that they have, and that’s why that’s the direction they are likely to find. So, Sugriva entrusts a big response into Angad. And that’s how he wants to have a relationship with him also.

Now interestingly, Lord Rama, whom does he entrust this particular task of finding Sita? Hanuman. He calls Hanuman, and he gives his own signal. He gives a, memento by which Sita will be able to identify and remember him. Hanuman could have said, ‘You’re tasking me with this responsibility.

You make me the leader of the group. You make me the official leader.’ See, many people, when responsibility is given, or when responsibility is available, they wait first for the position. Let me take the position. So, this is this book which I have written about ‘Mita for the CEO’ where I talk about these two things in leadership. There is the position of a leader, and there is the disposition of a leader.

Now, if we see Krishna himself never becomes the official king of Dwarka. Of course he’s glorified as Dwarka Dheesh, he’s the king of all kings, but he in the Dwarka’s hierarchy he remains the servant of Ukarsi, who is the actual king. So Krishna doesn’t take the position of leadership officially, but still he is the protector of Dwarka. So many of us, we feel, ‘Yes, I want to do a lot, but I just don’t have the resources, I just don’t have the position. Once I have that, then I do it.

So now the real test is that if we now we could say if we have position and disposition, we can be maximum effective. It’s true, but sometimes we don’t have that. So Hanuman, he earns the position of leadership and that is a remarkable journey. How he does that? So, being responsible.

Now, we could say, sometimes if we are responsible, we could be responsible in either of these categories. That we have the position and we use the position. But even if we don’t have the position, we can be responsible. And now he is given this special task, the bandra’s start off. And as they’re going south, they’re trying to search and search.

Initially, they have huge enthusiasm that they’re going to find Sita. But then as they keep searching and searching, there’s no clue of Sita anywhere. And then they start getting discouraged. And they go into the into a deserted area. Or it is an area where they can’t even find any water.

And they started getting out. What do you mean words today? So this is where Hanuman is observing. When Jamban is there, Jamban has become a little old. Hanuman is there, Hanuman is there.

So Hanuman is there, Harnaman is there. So Harnaman objects. Harnaman objects. There’s a cave, and there’s a bird coming out of the cave. And the bird is dripping water.

So, okay, Harnaman points to the other one, and the cave seems to be huge. They can’t see anything inside. And now Angad, he’s young, he’s born in royalty, and they respect him because he is the prince. But still, when Bali was the king, Bali was so powerful that nobody was there to threaten Kishkindha. That’s why Angkad does not have much experience of the real world war.

He is very powerful. He is a hero. And he has not let anyone experience any of that experience. He just doesn’t know how to do it. So Hanuman, without sidelining and without, minimizing his position, Jaindl suggests that all hold each other’s hands and go inside so that nobody gets lost in the cave, and they all start going inside.

They go in and in and in. For a long distance, they point to their cave, and finally, they see a light over there. And as they come closer, okay, where’s this light? And they see that there’s lush greenery, and there are fruits, and there’s a lake, and there’s wonderful water over there. And the vanara starts running to try to eat and drink.

And once he says, wait. Wait. Wait. They start to find out what this place is. And he keeps everyone to wait, and they look around and they see that there’s a yogini sitting over there.

He’s sitting, the effulgence coming from her body. And she looks very silly, Hanuman goes there and offers her respect his respects to her. Who is your meaning? Mata Anasuya. Sorry?

Mata Anasuya. Okay. Anasuya is whom? Ram and Ramakshmasita meet earlier. Yes.

This is Swayamprabha. Swayamprabha is a celestial male. She said that. She has been Indira long ago had an apsara whom for whom he had created a replica of heaven on the earth. And then later on, that apsara went with him to heaven, and she wanted to have this as a retreat center.

No. She said she had entrusted Svayun Prabha as the person to take care of it. And she is just, she explained all this. She says, you have come here, the servants of Brahma, you can have whatever you want. Vayampraha has mystical power, she’s aware, she recognizes who there.

And then the Vanalas eat and they eat, and they eat tree water, and they get rejuvenated. And then anger turns. It’s been a long long way inside. How do we go back from here? Can you tell us the way?

As Swami Prabha says, Indra has arranged so that anybody who comes in here will never be able to go back. So you’re telling this to us now. That anybody who comes in here will never be able to go out. Now Angad gets angry. Tell us how to go out, otherwise No one says, come down.

Gently, montage of jewels. He says, And we saw that bird going out. These birds are no threat to the treasure here. Yes. Yes.

We are also not a threat. We don’t want any of this wealth. We may not be able to go, but I’m sure you have the power. You please help us come out of this. And we are only here to serve, Lord.

We have no interest in the treasure over here. You have helped us, you have given us food, you have given us water, we are grateful. Please bless us so that we can go on our mission.’ So what Rams said earlier, Hanuman’s sweet speech, pleasing words, that’s not just a one time observation. That’s what Hanuman uses over here. So sometimes when we have to get things done, we can try to use force, and it’s required at times.

But generally, trying to force others to do things it over a period of time backfires unless we can actually connect with them and with our earnestness, with our sweetness, appeal to them. We can’t really be sure. So responsibility is like a leader is supposed to have power, but the biggest power a leader is supposed to have is not just over others. It’s a leader needs to have power over one’s own temper, one’s own emotions, one’s own speech. And that’s the responsibility that Bhumman shows over here.

So, Amprabha says, ‘Yes, I can help you.’ But he says, ‘I have I have to honor Indra’s words. Indra wants this place to be secret, and he says, all of you will have to close your eyes. Close your eyes, and then I will take you out. They all close their eyes their eyes are in one moment. So Emperorva uses mystic powers, and she brings them out.

And then she brings them out. Once they’re on the same side of the mountain, they’re on the other side of the mountain. And they’re closer to the ocean. And this is over here, we’re talking about how Anman you don’t have to have a leadership position. That influence without authority comes from capability.

If somebody has capability, they will be recognized. They will be able to fix problems. And now after this, they keep searching. And they search, and then what happens is that they hear. They’re searching close to the ocean, and they’re thinking that, okay, across the ocean is yes.

But then as they are waiting, they start seeing the huge ocean. And this ocean is so big what do we do? And now at this point they’re not even sure the lunga is across the ocean. They just see this is where it end we’re at end we don’t even know whether they should work or us. If you’re going to scale the ocean, they have to have some assurance that one guy has caused the ocean.

So as they’re sitting, they just they they work very hard, and they’ve not got anywhere and closer to find Seetha. One danger has passed, they seem to have come out of the danger, but then another danger is there. This is that Sugriva had told all the come back within one month. If anybody is later than one month, they will be executed. You say, that’s very harsh.

Why execute him? But the point is that you may not have executed them, but that was a way to ensure compliance that you could take this issue seriously. As Vandana, you can’t just wander around and eat fruits and not do your mission. So now one month has already passed. And the other two minds, when they go into Swam Prabhas Cave and come out, they realize that no time has passed.

And now some of the Vandana says that, you know, Subhriya told us to come back within one month and so on. We should go back. We should inform him what has happened. Adarmana said we should keep pressing on phalis phalisita. Adarmana said, down.

He’ll be angry, angry with you. And in hunger, you know, he he becomes he explodes, he says that. But if you go back, he’ll have all of us killed. And no one says, no, why would he kill you? He said he had no hesitation to get his brother killed.

Now if we go back and we have failed the mission and they’re also late in coming back, he will have us executed in front of all of our family and friends and we’ll be humiliated. So Angad still has that bitterness. Over here, this comes the biggest test of Hanuman. That’s the last part to talk about. What is that coin?

Care. So, let’s skip the part of the game which you’re having, because you wanna finish the class in time. So ‘E’ is empathy. Generally, in an army, at one level there is hierarchy. Where is your leader?

You have to follow them. Another level, speaking against the king or speaking against the leader. That’s considered, rebellion, that’s considered treason, that’s considered to be insurrection. A very serious crime. So now when Sugriv starts speaking when Sugriv is spoken of negatively by Angad, Hanuman faces a test.

Hanuman got a good anger with Angad. But Hanuman understands that Angad has been given this huge responsibility. This is the new political dispensation. Like, say, normally what happens is if one political party is in power, that political party goes, and quite often, many of the top leaders in diplomats or bureaucrats, they also resign. Because and they are also seeing the previous part.

New people come in. If somebody from the old dispensation is they have to prove their loyalty. Are you here for this? So so great. Angad has been given this assignment, and he’s not able to fulfill it.

He’s frustrated. So is he really, suspicious of Sogreep? Does he really think Sogreep is malicious? And should Anuman get on his case. Anuman just stays calm.

He’s an angad, he’s just at this point he’s a teenager. He’s a younger child, if not a teenager. He’s been interested in this huge responsibility, and quite often, anger or even hateful speech or hurtful words, they come not from a they can come from two different places. They can come from a place of enmity, you know, that or they can come from a place of insecurity. The two are very different.

Enmity is where that person wants to destroy us, and they’re just venting it out. They’re just bringing it out at particular times. But sometimes they can come from a place of insecurity. Somebody spreads some nasty rumor about us. What kind of person would do something like this?

It’s a terrible thing to do. But, you know, they could do it because they hate us, they’re enemies, or they could do it because, you know, I thought that, you know, you are so good now. If I, you know, if if everybody respects you, then nobody will care for me, and I’ll be lost. And I feel great fear because of that. It’s not a good thing to do, but some action coming from place of insecurity is very different from action coming from place of enmity.

Everybody has insecurity in their life. So, Anwar tries to pacify the answers. So greed is just ruler, and let’s try to stay calm, let’s make a decision on what to do. See, any big expedition, any big project that we try to do, there’ll always be differences of opinion. And now, when there are differences of opinion, there’s a problem.

How do you solve a problem? Sometimes the only way to solve- sometimes you just can’t solve a problem. Especially the problem that comes from difference of opinion, the only way to solve that is that Krishna sends a bigger problem. And that bigger problem forces us to forget our differences and unite to face that problem. So the vanaras, some of the vanaras, is for those we are not finding Sita, we are searched and searched.

And we cannot go back. We’ll be humiliated, we’ll be executed. It’s better that we end our life here since we will fast to death. And so there is- there is this act suicide. Interestingly, everything can be the three modes.

So there can be suicide in sathogna. Now how can suicide be sathogna? Normally we’ll think it’s tamas. Let’s do it say tamas normal. But suzary atogona means that if a person feels that there is no point for me to live anymore, then they decide that I will no longer maintain my body.

Just stop eating and stop drinking. And that can be done out of frustration, but that can also be done out of enlightenment. Some sages. This is called as. Traditionally this is called as Prayavratha.

Prayavratha. The first sannyasin ISKCON who got, got Parkinson’s dose, an Indian sannyasin in Marwada Maharaj. So he went to Rindavan, and it was incurable for him at that time, at once. This was many years ago. So he just stopped eating food.

So, somehow his godmother said, ‘Please eat something Maharaji.’ He said, ‘This body is meant to serve Krishna. If I cannot serve Krishna, why should I maintain this body?’ And then nothing another. He passed it for somewhere thirty two-thirty three days, and then very gracefully left his body. So Prayavrata is very different from suicide. Suicide is often where people use some artificial means to end their life.

But it has naturally stopped me. So the manaras decide that kids are going to fast with. And as they stand in their room, Hanuman is trying to pacify them, Hanuman is trying to encourage them, But things are just going out of control. And not all the mandaras sit there. But the annuman is torn.

Should I just go back? They keep searching. Should I abandon these mandaras? And at that time, a giant vulture comes over there. A giant vulture like being starts walking over there.

Walking. Not even walking properly, they’re not drawing and walking. And he starts looking at all the vanadas and licking his lips. Today, I’m going to feast. Apart by someone.

Or before I die, I’ll be the body’s going to be ripped apart. Who knows? So, Nirvana started panicking, and then Ambeda speaks, Alas, it seems that we are going to fail in our service to Lord Ram despite our best efforts, just as the valiant jitteryun failed in his service to God. Now, there is this whole thing called coincidence. Nowadays the word coincidence is not so much common.

In New Age there’s another word called synchronicity. Any of you heard this word? Synchronicity is where multiple things happen at the same time. So sometimes when we it is a coincidence that God’s ways of staying anonymous. Krishna is not something.

It’s when making two things happen at the same time. So now Angad, why would he remember Jatayu at this particular time? And why would he speak about Jatayu? That itself shows that how Angad was also dedicated, devoted to Ram’s service. Jatayu fought valiantly till his last breath and was just too much for him because he was elderly.

And Angad is thinking about Jatayu at a moment when he’s good about to pass to death and he sees this giant vulture going to eat them up. So that phrase, that those sentences itself and that memory itself shows his devotion to Ram. And Hanuman, he could have antagonized Angadha, he could have fought with Angadha, he could have criticized Angadha, but he saw he’s frustrated. But he basically still has that position. He wants to serve, he wants to serve Ram, he wants to be first sister, he’s just frustrated.

Everybody in life gets angry, And sometimes anger is not because the person is short-tempered. Anger is just because the person cares so much. Anger shows how much we care. Now, of course, anger is not the only way we show how much we care. If that is it, then it’s not good.

But Sukri, Anmaan, by his empathy, he keeps Anmaan. Although Anmaan doesn’t stop from wanting to end his life, his attitude is not lost for him. He speaks those words and suddenly then, Sampati? Jesus. Jesus, what did you say?

What happened to Jatayu? Oh, Maharaj, please tell me. -Oh, Vanaras, please tell me. Then the one suffers, so who are you? You know Jatayu?

-Yes, Jatayu is my younger brother. I am Sampati, and I have not seen him for many many years. Then, Sampati starts telling the story of how he and Jatayu had both tried to rise up high into the sky and close go close the sun. And then they both are getting burned, so Sampati, the elder brother, spread his wings to shelter Jetaey. So his wings got burned, and he fell to the ground, and since then they have been separated.

So then, Angadya tells Jetaeyu about the story of Jetaeyu, and Sampathis are lamenting. I protected my brother at that time from the sun, but how unfortunate I am that I could not protect my brother from this demon. I am old and weak and free. I cannot do anything right now. And we request the one that has said, Please take me by the waters and help me to do the ask to offer some water for my brother.

He did that, and he’s still avenging, and asked, I cannot do anything for my brother. I cannot avenge his death, I cannot punish the demon who killed him. And at that time, Angadhar thinks, just, you must have the sharp eyes. Do you see Rama going by? Do you know where Rama is?

And hearing this, some baddie perks up. He says, Yes, I can do some service for the cause for which my brother laid his life down. And he says, Although my body has become free, my vision is too sharp, as I can see that across the ocean Lanka there is Sita, and Rawal has her. And I feel confident that he will soon go there and find Sita and come back. So this is where the Vanara’s joint mission finally brings them to a place where now they can leave at Kosnaka.

And then all of them are eager to do the service, but none of them is capable of doing the service. And that’s when everybody is talking and falling silent. Then Jambavan turns towards Anima. And that’s when he reminds him of Hanuman. And then from here onwards, there’s Hanuman’s solo mission.

He’s alone going to Lanka and doing extraordinary things in the service of Ram. But before he gains his power back, he has shown how he has matured so dramatically. So that maturity is what will stand him in good stead when he faces the obstacles in the ocean, when he faces the obstacles in Lanka, and when he finally meets Sita and is victorious over there also. This is the journey of Hanuman to maturity. And as he- as Jambavan speaks to him, Hanuman, who has been silent all this time, till now Hanuman has done wonderful things, but it is not primarily by his power.

It is by his intelligence. It is by his expertise, by his sensitivity. One of the qualities of Hanuman is Buddhimatham Among the wise people, he is the best. So his wisdom, his maturity, his empathy, all these are seen over here. And then Hanma will go on his glorious journey to Lanka, which will be like a spectacular success for him.

So, we will summarize what we discussed today. Broadly, today we discussed about how an Hanuman regains his power before regaining his power that is his. How his maturity is seen. The maturity of Hanuman it is seen in broadly four ways. What is the acronym?

Care. C was? Commitment. So all the good things in life often require time and effort. So the opposite of committed is often fickle.

Like a chameleon. A person. Then things get tough, and some people just go away from those things. But hanuman sticks with sukhreev. So Hanuman being with sugrib, even when he had no reason to be in terms of a blood obligation, that shows that he has become committed.

That is self assigned of a possibility. A of maturity is alertness. For all of us, we all can think about our maturity in different ways. Can am I committed to things? Am I ready to persist in something even I will create difficulties?

Prabhupada is committed to sharing Krishna’s wishes no matter what happened. Prabhupada is alert to look for opportunities. Where can I serve Krishna? What can I do to serve Krishna? So, Hanuman’s alertness is seen in two ways.

One is his speech by which he forms an alliance with Supreme, and then alliance between Ram and Supreme, and then there is this warping. He doesn’t get get infatuated like Sugri does, but he keeps he brings well so. Sugri will come to separate. And r was? Responsible can be many different things, but But here, I specifically use a heads up heads up.

If you take the service take the service even without waiting for the position, the position may or may not come. So a truly responsible person somebody’s leadership quality is that they may have the position on their own other position, but they always have the disposition. So we discuss how an Oman, especially his his responsible nature is seen in his dealings with Swayampara in the cave. So there he does not lose his school. He does not attack.

He respectfully acts over them. Last was? Empathy. So this is especially seen with Angad. And Angad starts speaking rebellious words against Guru.

That is so his his hurtful words or his harsh words or his aggressive actions, you could say. His aggressive or rebel treasonous words, whatever you can whatever you use. Those come not from a place of enmity. They come from a place of Insecurity. Insecurity.

So sometimes when somebody speaks something which is very shocking, you say, how could you speak like this? You are committing a Vaishtha of Prad, you go to hell because of this. And so I said, okay. I don’t understand where the question is coming from. When Ram says, help me.

Thank you very much. Let us pray to Hanumanji that by his mercy we all can in our life and our service. We all can stay committed despite temptations, despite the appalling shortcuts, despite our mind’s tendency to be overcome. That we may all may always be all alert to find better ways to do our dharma, to do our seva, and try to improve by finding new ways as well as doing what we’re doing better. In this way that we can be responsible so that we don’t complain, we don’t have the facilities, but that we tap whatever opportunities we have without waiting for the position.

And then when we are working with other devotees, with other people, other family members, rather than judging them and condemning them, we can all have empathy by which we can help them go through difficulties and not just get breakdown, but rise up stronger and better. We have few minutes for questions. Any questions or comments? Question in one of the slides. You mentioned about, Krishna consciousness in two ways.

Can you please go back to that slide, Prabhijana? And can you please explain the difference between those two? I’m flattered that you consider these two as lines. Okay. Yeah, I can slide through them.

So now bring Krishna into our consciousness is something just straightforward. You all understand that. That it basically means that we come to a temple, we go to a holy place. And that’s how we bring Krishna into our consciousness. So now, what does bring what is in our consciousness to Krishna mean?

It means it can mean two broad things: one is that when we live in the world, there are certain internal things. Internally, we are attracted to certain things, and externally, there are some attractive things. Now we can call the external attractive things as maya, as sense objects. And that is true, but that’s one way of looking at it. We could call them as these external objects, we could call them as visaya.

Visaya is sense objects. But another way of looking at it is it is vibhuti. It’s what Krishna also wrote in the tenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. So there are many attractive things in this world And if we can develop the vision to see that the attractiveness of these objects comes from Krishna, then this is already in our consciousness and we can connect it to Krishna. So if somebody has a great interest for art or music or decoration or whatever it is that they have interest in, then those things will naturally be there in their consciousness.

And can they connect that with Krishna? Okay. So for them they can remember Krishna in many different ways but if they have to do some art they just get completely immersed. If they are like they are getting to some music they are completely transported to another domain. So what is naturally in our consciousness, that could be because maybe that person grew up in a place where there’s a lot of beautiful art, a lot of musical culture was there, whatever it is.

It Could be external. It could be internal. So internally, when we’re internally attracted to something, we can say that that is in a negative sense, it’s our vasana. We all have lust, anger, greed, all this. But our internal attraction could also be the vrutti that we have according to our varna.

Varna means this is not simply a category of brahmacharya shiva. It’s actually the natural attraction of our consciousness to certain things. So if we are naturally attracted to some things, then we could use those to connect with Krishna and to serve Krishna thereby. So what does this mean practically? That if we already have some natural interests or talents, so say if somebody has a lot of interest in say architecture, Then, let’s say their interest in architecture is mundane, or maybe they say I’d like to see different architecture, but let me look at say architecture that is connected with with sacred things.

Maybe what kind of temples are we building? What is the architecture in that? So the interest in architecture is already in our consciousness. We can bring it to Krishna. So to bring what is in our consciousness to Krishna, that is also one way to cultivate Krishna consciousness.

And that way, because that thing is already in our consciousness, it will be easier for us. We can very, you could say, comfortably and joyfully connect with Krishna in this way. So it’s important for all of us to find that. It’s important to help our children find that. I was in America and stayed at one devotee’s home and it wasn’t like America I see it all the time so I thought that so anyway so this, it’s the only that, mother is a double PhD, the father is a PhD, they’re brilliant, you know, those combined genes are there, they’re a kid.

So this kid, he was 10 and he was in the he’s in the part of the American National Robotics team. Apparently, the robotics Olympiad is there. And he was going to represent America. And talking with the kid was brilliant. And then his mother was telling me, till five he was very interested in Russia.

And then he discovered robots and he forgot Krishna. Oh, how does he say? I don’t know. He always is talking about robots and So then I was talking to the parent, then this boy came and started talking with him. And then I asked him that, when you make robots for these competitions, what kind of robots do you make?

So he said that, mostly it’s Amazon which is funding funding the robotics industry. They want very efficient robots for packing, unpacking, transporting. They want to replace labor with robots as it’s possible. So they are the main drivers. So robots with efficient movements of body.

That’s what we look for. So then and I’ll ask you a few questions about robots. It was he was so enthusiastic. It was like the Ganga flowing through his mouth. -When Nimal Pandit asked Kishokashvili to glorify Ganga, he spoke hundred verses spontaneously.

So I find he was so enthusiastic. -I asked him that, do you. In these robotic competitions, do they like innovative ideas? Yeah, innovation is appreciated very much. Then I said, what do you think about making a robot of Krishna speaking the verses of the Gita?

So I said, oh, that’s not a good idea. And he walked away. And he walked away. Then I continued talking with his parents. Then after five minutes he came back, you know, it’s not such a bad idea.

Nobody else would think like this.’ And then he said, ‘Nowadays there’s this whole emphasis on diversity and inclusivity.’ So, yeah, think about it. And a week later his parents called me and he says, you know, he’s now reading the Bhagavad Gita to find out which verses will sound cool or his robot. So the idea is that if there are some things you’re naturally attracted to, we don’t have to simply dismiss them as mundane. Sometimes we have to be a little more creative in seeing how those things can be connected with Kashi. So let’s bring what is in our consciousness to Kashi.

Okay? Thank you very much. Any other questions? So thank you very much. It’s wonderful to be here in Portland.