Incidents in Shri Hanuman’s life and their significance
Hanuman Jayanti celebration indicates the balanced coexistence of the whole human fraternity with nature’s incredible creature, Lord Hanuman from the Vanara community. People from the Hindu religion worship Lord Hanuman as a divine creature. This celebration has lots of importance to all however Brahmacharis, wrestlers and bodybuilders are especially inclined towards this celebration. There are many names through which Lord Hanuman is famous among his devotees like Bajrangabali, Pavanasuta, Pavankumar, Mahavira, Balibima, Marutsuta, Anjanisut, Sankat Mochan, Anjaneya, Maruti, Rudra and many more.
Hanuman avatar is considered as the 11th Rudra avatar of the Lord Siva with great devotion, strength, knowledge, divine power, bravery, intelligence, spirit for selfless service and etc. He has devoted his life only for his Lord Rama and Mata Sita and never shows his bravery and intelligence without any purpose. The devotees of the Lord Hanuman always pray him for getting blessed with the same for their bright future. He is worshipped in many ways by his devotees; some meditates by repeating his name many times to get power, fame, success and etc in life whereas some read the Hanuman Chalisa to get the same.
The history behind Celebration of Hanuman Jayanti
Once, a great saint named Angira went to visit the heaven king, Indra and welcomed there through the dance presented by a damsel named, Punjiksthala. However, the saint was not used to that type dance and started meditating on his God. After the end of the dance, he was asked by the Indra about the performance of dance. He was silent and said that I was in deep meditation to my Almighty because I have no interest in such dance. It was very ashamed to the Indra and damsel; she started disappointing the saint and then cursed by the Angira that “Behold! You shall degrade to earth from Swarg. You will be born as a female monkey in the mountain forests”.
She then felt sorry and regretted to the saint then a merciful saint supported her through blessings like, “A great devotee of Paramatma will be born to you. He will forever serve Paramatma”. She became the daughter of Kunjar (king of the monkeys on earth) and got married to the Kapiraj Kesari of Mount Sumeru. She gave birth to the Hanuman with the help of five divine factors such as curse and blessings of the saint Angira, her prayers, blessings of Lord Shiva, blessings of Vayu deva and Putreshti Yagna’s fruit. It is considered that Lord Shiva had to rebirth as a human being on the earth in his 11th Rudra avatar in the form of Hanuman as He could not serve to Lord Rama by being in His real form.
The whole Vanara community including all the human fraternity was happy and celebrated his birthday with great enthusiasm and joy by dancing, singing and lots of activities. From then, it was started celebrating as a Hanuman Jayanti by his devotees to get strength and wisdom like him.
Ritualistic worship
1. Ritualistic worship of Shri Hanuman (Maruti) There is a specific science to the ritualistic worship of each Deity. This means that actions done in a particular way during the ritualistic worship, have a specific underlying science. Just by following these actions, we can get the maximum benefit of that Deity's Principle. The following questions and answers contain the divine knowledge received by the seekers regarding exactly how some routine actions should be performed during the ritualistic worship of Shri Hanuman (Maruti).
1. Applying sindoor
Q. - How should a worshipper apply sindoor before starting the ritualistic worship of Shri Hanuman?
Ans. - Sindoor should be applied with the ring finger.
2. Offering flowers
Q. - Which flowers should be offered? In what number? What is the method of offering flowers ?
Ans. - Flowers and leaves of calotropis (ruee) Five or multiples of five. The stems of flowers should be turned towards the Deity.
3. Waving incense sticks
Q. - Incense sticks of which fragrances should be used? How many incense sticks should be used? What is the method of waving?
Ans. - Kewda, Chameli (Jasmine) and Ambar. Two incense sticks. Holding them between the index finger and thumb of the right hand, the incense sticks should be waved thrice, in a clockwise direction, in a full circle.
4. Circumambulation
Q. - How many circumambulations should be performed around Shri Hanuman?
Ans. - Minimum five but if a worshipper wants to perform more, then they should be in multiples of five.
Prevalent ritualistic worship
Saturday is considered to be the day of Shri Hanuman while in the rest of India (Bhaarat) both Tuesday and Wednesday are considered to be His days. There is a custom of offering sindoor and oil to Shri Hanuman on these days. Breaking a coconut in front of Shri Hanuman also appears to be an age-old custom. For spiritual progress, Shri Hanuman with His face to the left (Vaammukhi Hanuman) or Shri Hanuman with an attitude of service (Daas Hanuman) is worshipped.
Hanuman Mantra:
Manojavam Maruttulyavegm
Jitendrium Buddhimatam Varishtham
Vatatmajam Vanarayuthmukhyam
Shri Ramdutam Sharanam Prapdye
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