Hanuman (/ˈhʌnʊˌmɑːn/; Sanskrit: हनुमान, IAST: Hanumān)^[6] is a Hindu god and divine vanara (monkey) companion of the god Rama. Hanuman is one of the central characters of the Hindu epic Ramayana.

Though Lord Hanuman is extremely popular, yet there are some interesting and 13 UNKNOWN FACTS ABOUT LORD HANUMAN ..

1. Pawanputra Hanuman was an incarnation of Lord Shiva –

Anjana, a beautiful Apsara in celestial palace court of Lord Brahma was cursed by a sage that, the moment she fell in love her face would transform to that of a monkey. Lord Brahma thought of helping her and she took birth on Earth. Later, Anjana fell in love with Kesari, the monkey king and they both married each other. Being an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva, she continued with her tapasya to please the God. Lord Shiva was impressed and she wished him to be her son so that she would be freed from the curse of the sage.

Few days later, King Dasrath was performing a yagna after which the sage gave him kheer to feed all his wives. A portion of Kaushlya, his eldest wife, was snatched by a kite who flew all the way where Anjana was meditating. Lord Vayu (aka Pawan – Wind) on the signal of Lord Shiva kept the khee r in Anjana’s hand. Thinking it as Lord Shiva’s prasad Anjana ate it and thus gave birth to his incarnation – Pawan Putra Hanuman , the son of the Lord of the Winds.

2. Hanuman was not Lord’s birth name –

The name was coined to describe the disfigurement of Lord’s jaw after he was stuck by Indra’s thunderbolt. As a child named Maruti, the Lord miss took Sun to be a ripe fruit in his hunger and went with all his vigor to grab it. This angered Indra who stuck the child with Lighting bolt. This left the child with an injured cheek and jaw.

Hanuman is derived from the word Hanumat of Sanskrit. Hanumat is joining of a word and a suffix. Hanu or Hanoo means Jaw and Mat becomes the suffix. So, Hanuman means one who has swollen or disfigured jaw.

3. Lord Hanuman also had five real brothers –

Lord Hanuman had five real brothers and all were married. It is mentioned in “Brahmana Purana”. Purana contains a description of Lord Hanuman’s father Kesari and his dynasty. It is also mentioned that Vanar Raj Kesari had 6 sons; the eldest son was Lord Hanuman. The names of the brothers of Lord Hanuman were Matiman, Shrutiman, Ketuman, Gatiman and Dhritiman respectively and they all had children. Therefore, their dynasty was several years old.

4. Lord Hanuman and Bhima were both brothers – 

Lord Hanuman was born by the grace of Pawan Dev, but do you know that “Bhima” was also born by the grace of Pawan Dev? When Maharaja Pandu was living in the forest with his wife Kunti and Madri, then at the same time, Queen Kunti worshipped Pawan Dev with the desire to have a son, which resulted in the birth of “Bhima”. Thus both Lord Hanuman and “Bhima” were brothers.

One day, when Bhima was searching for a flower his wife wanted, he saw a monkey sleeping with his tail crossing the path. He asked him to move his tail. But the monkey didn’t do it and asked Bhima to move it. Bhima was very arrogant with his strength. Nevertheless, he couldn’t move or lift the tail. Therefore, he realized that this was not a mere ordinary monkey. It was none other than Hanuman. He lied there just to reduce the arrogance of Bhima.

5. Despite being a Brahmachari, Lord Hanuman was the father of a son – 

You will be surprised to know that despite being a Brahmachari, Lord Hanuman was the father of a son. The name of Lord Hanuman’s son was “Makardhwaja”. After burning the whole Lanka with his tail, Hanuman dipped in the sea to cool off his body. It is said that his sweat was swallowed by the fish and thus Makardhwaja was conceived and born to a mighty fish of the same name.

6. The reason behind the Lord Hanuman’s name as “Bajrangbali” – 

Once, seeing Goddess Sita applying sindoor, Lord Hanuman asked her “why does she apply it on her forehead”. To this Goddess Sita replied that “since Shri Ram is her husband, I apply sindoor to wish her long life.” Lord Hanuman thought that if Goddess Sita applied a little sindoor on her forehead, the age of Sri Ram can be prolonged, then if I apply it on the whole body, the life of Shri Ram will increase manifold. Thinking this, he applied sindoor all over his body. As sindoor is also called “Bajrang”, from that day onwards Lord Hanuman came to be called as “Bajrangbali” and that is why whenever he is worshipped sindoor is offered to him.

       7. Once, Lord Ram issued a death sentence to Lord Hanuman – 

After Lord Ram became the King, once, when the court was adjourned, Narada – known for creating disharmony between Ram and Hanuman – asked Hanuman to greet all the sages except Vishwamitra, since he was a King once. Hanuman did so, but it did not affect Vishwamitra.

Narada went on and instigated Vishwamitra, which angered him so much that he went to Ram and asked him to punish Hanuman to death. Vishmamitra being his guru, Ram could not ignore his command and punished Hanuman to death by arrows. Next day in the field, the statement was to be executed, but all arrows failed to do any harm to Hanuman as he kept chanting Ram!

Since Ram had to abide by his Guru’s word, he decided to use the Brahmastra. To the surprise of all, Hanuman’s chants of Ram even failed the most powerful Brahmastra! Seeing this, Narada went to Vishwamitra and confessed his mistake, stopping the ordeal!

8. Panchamukhi Hanuman – 

It is said that Lord Hanuman took form of Panchamukhi (The Five-Headed) to kill the demon king of Patala (netherworld) who had kidnapped Rama and Lakshmana. On the mission of rescuing them, Hanuman learned that to kill Ahiravana you need to extinguish five candles, in which the demon king’s soul reside, at the same time. So, Lord Hanuman morphed in Five heads, viz – Hanuman, Narasimha (a lion’s visage), Ahiravana (an eagle head), Varaha (head of boar) and Hayagriva (head of horse) so that he could do the needful

9. Lord Hanuman’s Role In The Mahabharata –

Arjuna was a skilled archer and was capable of conjuring wonders with his arrows.

During the Mahabharata war, he requested Lord Hanuman to be present on his chariot to which Hanuman asked him to prove his mettle. Arjuna then claimed that he could reconstruct the bridge Rama’s army had built to cross the ocean. Intrigued by his claims, Hanuman challenged him to create a bridge that would be able to withstand his weight. He promised that if Arjuna succeeded in the task, Hanuman would accompany him on his chariot. An eager Arjuna, created the bridge in a jiffy but it collapsed even faster as soon as Hanuman set foot on it.

A crestfallen Arjuna approached Lord Krishna who convinced Hanuman that Arjuna should be given another chance. With Krishna’s blessing Arjuna built the bridge again, and this time it did not crumble under Hanuman’s weight. Hanuman then realised the fact that Krishna was an incarnation of his revered Lord Vishnu and was overwhelmed. He agreed to aid Arjuna in his battles with the Kauravas and thus Arjuna’s chariot featured Hanuman on its flag.

After the battle of Kurukshetra, Krishna asked Arjuna to step down the chariot. Krishna thanked Hanuman to stay with them during the war in the form of a flag on the chariot. Hanuman came in his original form, bowed to Krishna and flew away. As soon as he left, the chariot turned into ashes. Krishna explained to a shocked Arjuna, that the chariot would have burnt long time back due to the effects of celestial weapons thrown at it during the war. However, Lord Hanuman protected it.

         10. Hanuman also created his version of Ramayan –

After the war at Lanka, Hanuman went to Himalaya for continuing his reverence of Lord Ram, Hanuman etched his version of Ram’s tale on the walls of the Himalayas with his nails.

When Maharshi Valmiki visited Hanuman to show his version of Ramayana, he saw the walls and felt sad as Valmiki believed that Hanuman’s Ramayana was superior and that his arduously created version of the Ramayana would remain unnoticed. Realising this, Hanuman discarded his version. Taken aback, Valmiki said he would love to be reborn to sing the glory of Hanuman!

         11. Lord Hanuman barred Yama from claiming Ram – 

When Lord Rama decided to leave his earthly existence for his journey to Vaikuntha (heavenly abode of Lord Vishnu), he knew that Hanuman would not let him do so as he was a great devotee. So he instructed Hanuman to find his ring which had fallen on the ground and then disappeared in the Patal Loka. Hanuman went on the task of finding the ring and was met by the King of Spirits. He told him that the falling of the ring signified that the time for the end of Lord Ram’s avatar had come

         12. Hanuman invented the “Surya Namaskar” – 

Hanuman offered to pay his “Guru Dakshina” to his Guru Surya but he politely declined. So, Hanuman decided to honor his teacher by offering his gratitude and namaskars, imitating Surya’s movements across the sky each and every day. Thus, the Surya Namaskar was born as Hanuman’s Guru Dakshina to his teacher, Surya.

        13. Lord Hanuman is immortal –

In Hindu texts there is mention of eight Chiranjivis (immortal beings) and Lord Hanuman is one of them. It is said that he will walk this earth chanting Shree Ram’s name and stories until the end of Kaliyuga.

There are some notable religious reformers who believe to have seen Lord Hanuman in their life time, including Madhvacharya (13th century CE), Tulsidas (16th century), Samarth Ramdas (17th century), Raghavendra Swami (17th century) and Swami Ramdas (20th century).

The Hanuman Chalisa is a Hindu devotional hymn in praise of Hanuman. It was authored by Tulsidas in the Awadhi language, and is his best known text apart from the Ramcharitmanas. It is one of my personal favourite devotional song that I listen to very often. There is many versions to it, but I love listening to HANUMAN CHALISA by Shekhar Ravjiani.

Today is HANUMAN JAYANTI. May Lord Hanuman give us COURAGE and STRENGTH in our lives!

#Hanuman #HanumanJayanti #Rama #Vanara #Ramayana #Bajrangbali #mythology #Hindu,

References:-

https://hanumanchalisa.net/hanuman-interesting-facts/

https://www.scoopwhoop.com/inothernews/lord-hanuman-interesting-facts/

https://www.reckontalk.com/lord-hanuman-life-facts-hinduism-story/

https://www.jagranjosh.com/general-knowledge/hanuman-jayanti-1586269316-1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanuman

15 Unknown Facts About Lord Hanuman, The Symbol Of Strength And Energy