What does Lord Hanuman represent? || Acharya Prashant (2020)

Acharya Prashant

🧔🏻‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquiry-gita-course?cmId=m00021  📚 Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?cmId=m00021  📝 Read 3 handpicked wisdom articles, just for you: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articles?cmId=m00021  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  Video Information: 26.02.2020, Shastra Kaumudi, Rishikesh, Uttarakand  Context:  ~ What does Lord Hanuman represent? ~ Which virtues Lord Hanuman stands for? ~ What does Ram stand for? ~ What is Devotion? ~ What is commitment?   Music Credits: Milind Date ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .

Transcript

00:00Pranam Acharya ji. Can I ask what does Hanuman ji represent?

00:13In fact, the audience can contribute to this.

00:20Which virtues does he stand for?

00:26Which all virtues rather?

00:28One each from the different members.

00:33Devotion.

00:34Not merely devotion.

00:35Don't just say devotion.

00:37Devotion is a double edged sword.

00:40Devotion to Ram.

00:44There is nobody who is not devoted, mind you.

00:46But we are devoted to all the nonsensical things.

00:53Devotion to Ram.

00:55Now you must ask, what does Ram stand for?

01:01What does Ram stand for?

01:05Yes, and?

01:10Strength, well said.

01:14And?

01:20You could say one pointed devotion.

01:25Absolute commitment to Ram.

01:30We are committed.

01:31There is, it will be difficult to find someone who is not committed.

01:34But we are committed to, with all

01:53my verbal ammunition, I find it so difficult to convince people who are already committed.

02:07And I feel utterly helpless, very helpless.

02:13I try to talk.

02:14I try to tell.

02:17I see the fellow rushing towards his own destruction.

02:24But he is committed.

02:25What do I do?

02:37I feel I am talking to a wall.

02:41I cannot penetrate.

02:46My words come back to me.

02:52It's a very dangerous word, commitment.

03:01Remain without a center.

03:04Remain without an anchor.

03:09Fly loose.

03:13But don't commit yourself to nonsense.

03:25And when you commit yourself, your commitment must be like Hanuman's.

03:32I'm committed only to Ram.

03:38I don't look at anything.

03:40I mean, I could have as well offered Ravan a great deal.

03:48Ravan had all the gold in the world.

04:01And he would have welcomed Hanuman, cutting a deal with him.

04:04He had already seen his prowess.

04:10With a stroke of his fiery tail, he had already once put Lanka to fire.

04:17But that's what.

04:21I'm not committed to money.

04:22I'll not be tempted by the one with money.

04:25That's Hanuman.

04:26I curse my memory.

04:43There is a beautiful one by Kabir Saheb on this, and I cannot recall it.

04:51Kabir sang sadhu ke rookhi sookhi khaaye, kheer khand bhojan mile, sakat sang na jaaye.

05:11That's commitment.

05:25Yes, what else about Hanuman?

05:33Now unless you can look at Hanuman in this way, it's very futile worshipping him.

05:41Very futile.

05:43And that's why religion has come to such a degraded state.

05:50Because we are worshipping symbols without knowing at all what they stand for.

06:04Anything else about Hanuman?

06:05You want to?

06:06Love.

06:07Yes, of course.

06:08And at some point, you will see these things necessarily go together, don't they?

06:16Love, devotion, strength, commitment.

06:19You can't have one without the other.

06:26And that goes with that, commitment.

06:32Nice.

06:37That's a very important thing, that innocence.

06:44Almost animal-like innocence.

06:49It's a reason he is represented as vanar.

06:52Now the historic person who would have actually assisted Ram was obviously not a monkey.

07:03But the representation is that of a vanar.

07:08And there is a great reason behind that.

07:14What you are showing is that here is someone uncorrupted by all social influences, just

07:22as animals are.

07:27Animals may not have an enlightened mind, but they also don't have a perverted mind.

07:38In that sense, and to highlight that aspect, Hanuman is represented as a vanar.

07:48That he is not a social being.

07:51Not at all social.

07:52He does a lot of things that the society would probably not look favorably at.

08:00Would you like someone who, for example, blows away your power station?

08:08But that's what Hanuman does.

08:09He goes and gobbles the sun itself.

08:14That's in today's terms akin to a brash teenager blowing up the power plant and all the energy

08:27is gone.

08:28What's the sun?

08:30The source of energy.

08:33So here is a boisterous teenager and what does he do?

08:38Blows up the power plant and the world is without any power or light or heat or some.

08:44And he doesn't marry.

08:49Society doesn't quite like that, does it?

08:51By some accounts, he did marry.

08:54But then you still call him brahmachari in popular parlance.

09:03Before he puts Lanka to fire, what does he do with all the fruits?

09:10What does he do to the Ashok Vatika?

09:15First of all, he satisfied himself with all the fruits, goes with his physique.

09:31So all those things.

09:32It's a beautiful combination of a lot of virtues.

09:39But you have to decode and if you're not deciphering the symbolism correctly, then you're just

09:47misreading the message or not reading the message at all.

09:54It's worshipping something very hollow, whereas it really carries a great meaning.

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