A Love For The Ages

When one hears the Ramayana being given, and after all is said and done:  Ravanna is defeated, his stronghold laid waste, his demon hosts thwarted, Sita rescued, Lord Rama has his throne returned to him, everyone's together and things are right with the world again - then comes the part with Hanuman and his relationship to Rama.  It is the most beautiful of relationships - I know, because whenever I contemplate it, all these decades after that one hearing, my heart is stricken and the tears well up.

One can say, "I love God, I love God above all else and I acknowledge God."  This is well and good, especially when one has taken one's own faith into hand and probed it and pursued it in some depth.  That is the beginning of responsibility and an endless exploration.  The one inherent entrapment which derails the journey is in keeping God "out there" and separate.

One can say, "Moreover, I have found God within myself - or my Self - and I acknowledge that 'I am That'; God my Beloved is within me and I am within God."  That implies taking still more responsibility, and tends in the direction of Knowledge, of Jnana.  As the former example is of great value, so is the latter very significant, however far one comes or is guided.  Alone with this, one may run the risk of a narcissism and most unfortunate delusion.

When one - precisely from and in cognizance of these latter two - arrives at the recognition of God-as-Beloved in the absolute and surrounding Formless, in one's own Form, and in the Form standing before one (not that one ever confuses this with loving "people", but residing fast deep and sovereign in one's love for God, and only thus loving God in the "other," however in darkness that one might be, as one holds God in oneself and over and above oneself, knowing that in all matters God is holding oneself in the timeless Heart of Infinity, one's own Infinity)...when one gets this and values and cultivates this, that really is taking responsibility and that is Bhakti, the way of devotion.  It's nature is conscious, its form is love.



So at the end of the Ramayana, after the most remarkable Bhakta, Hanuman the monkey, has defeated the entire demon host with his mace and burned down Ravanna's city with his flaming tail after they'd set it on fire, helped rescue Sita, fulfilled the tasks in Rama's service - now in Ram's court and before all present he is asked by Lord Rama, who is the embodiment of Divinity for that Age in Hindu Scripture:  "Dear Hanuman, so what are you actually?  Man or ape?"

(Hanuman was known as "the Breath of Ram," and as "Son of the Wind" - this lends significance to what follows.)

Hanuman replies:  "When I don't know who I am, I'm Your servant.  When I know who I am, I'm You."  And they embrace - this is a very important story, which only the heart or a child can understand.  When Rama hails and praises him before all the others there, and offers him anything he wants, he responds:  "Lord save me, save me from the pit of ego!"

A lovely song addressing devotion to Ram, from a group near Boulder back in the '70s, has these lines concerning Hanuman and Ram's brother Laksman - reflecting their respective relationships to Lord Rama:

"Sri Rama is my Lord and His Name is my protection;
His righteousness my strength, and His grace is my redemption.
For the soul of Hanuman is Ram ..."  etc.

and 

"Sri Rama is my Self and my Lord and my companion;
His thought is my command, and His glance is my direction.
For the soul of Laksmana is Ram ..."  etc.

One is oneself in the attitude of Hanuman, or of Laksman, it's not a song about some archaic lore, it's about you - period.  It's about the perfect Relationship.

In my thoughts, I hold my two little granddaughters on my lap at bedtime, and I tell them the story of Ram and of Hanuman, of their feats and their noble destiny.  And then I sing them this little number which also comes from the Boulder of the '70s:

Ram asked Hanuman, "My servant, what do you think of Me?"
Ram asked Hanuman, "My servant, what do you think of Me?"
"When I serve You, You are my Master; when I worshp You are my God;
but You and I are One, Rama, You and I are One;
You and I are One, Rama, You and I are One.
You and I are One, Rama, You and I are One.
You and I are One, Rama, You and I are One."