Kunal Singh: RAMA NAVAMI: Hanuman and The Vasanta Navaratri

Surprisingly despite the presence of so many erudite religious VHP/RSS Hindu scholars nobody seems to have bothered posting anything regarding Rama Navami.  So I figured I should post it, as apparently it seems quite like 'Chat', 'Rama Navami' is apparently another Hindu festival which can now be termed 'Bihari' as others don't seem to bother celebrating it anymore. I am not talking about high culture of Thyagaraja etc but of common rural folk.

Immediately following the Chata celebrations in Bihar, Ramanavami iscelebrated which marks the birth of Rama.  In the city of Patna duringRamanavami various temples encourage participants to come andcelebrate the event and a small mela is held near the Patna railwaystation near the Hanuman temple.  However, the event seems to be more visible outside of Patna in the rural areas.

Strangely, Ramanavami is marked more by the worship of Hanuman, Rama's greatest devotee, than by the worship of Rama himself.  And as I headed south of Patna towards the rural town of Hilsa, I wouldencounter the many "dhwajas" put up during Ramanavami, the triangularflags fluttering in the wind.  This is indeed the most visible characteristic of the festival.  Very tall bamboo poles are put up
with triangular orange/saffron flags mounted atop the poles. Such flags are a familiar site to most people living in the area as traditionally, most families in the Bihar/UP/MP area used to have a
"dhwaja" in their courtyards. 

Rama Navami is the conclusion of the spring navaratri.  The winter navaratri is observed by the worship of Durga/Kali and the spring navaratri is observed by the worship of  ... Rama ?  No Hanuman!  Because it is said that Hanuman is the only way to acquire the blessings of Rama.  There is a good reason for this, as the sage of the Hanuman mantra is indeed Rama himself.

Thus the navaratri tradition themselves seem to have been put in place by
Rama (Durga is said to have been worshipped by Rama prior to waging battle
against Ravana thus giving rise to the winter navaratri).  And the purnima
which follows is termed 'Hanuman Jayanti.'

Now Hanuman is deemed a part incarnation of Shiva himself.  This may seem confusing, but indeed if one understands the Sanskrit matrkas one can easilysee that the Hanuman mantra has a strong element of Shiva in it. Thus thewinter worship of Shakti and the spring worship of an incarnation of Mahadeva.

 

Hanuman was apparently by present demarcations a Jharkhandi and by former an ex-Bihari who seems to have been born in a village named after his mother 120 km from Ranchi.  He was quite a trouble making youth, and was known to show off his own spiritual prowess and spoil the penance of quite a few rishis, thus one can presume that the natural Bihari influence was quite strong and he likely lived in the jungles in the presence of such rishis.

He showed off his unusual prowess and created so much trouble that one of the rishis finally cursed him to cause him to lose memory of his prowess. As he grew up no rishi would take him as a student due to ill feelings and misunderstandings of his youthful misadventures.  Thus Hanuman was
self-taught or in other words the Surya devata whom he 'followed' (most likely tracked in his body) taught him all the shastras that he needed to know and he became invincible even to the Brahmastra.

 

Thus Hanuman is worshipped during the Rama Navami festival, and this is done with great vigour not only in the large temples dedicated to Hanuman such as  those in Patna, but in the smallest of villages where Hanuman can be seen on all the triangular saffron flags flying atop high flying bamboo poles, one such flag even graced the chariot of Arjuna in the Mahabharata.  It is during this time that they are all replaced and new ones put in their place which makes for quite a colorful landscape in the Bihari countryside.
Hanuman in the countryside is synonymous with strength, prowess and victory and is used even as a warcry quite like 'har har mahadev' in fights between large groups of people..  Every flag of Hanuman echoes with the Bihari rural sentiment: "Jyon Jyon Hanuman Paanva Parantaa Wahi Pataala Chala Jaaye Turantaa!  Jai Hanumantaa, Jai Hanumantaa!

 

The "dhwaja" is a declaration of victory.  Though the idealistic would say that it was a victory of good over evil, I sometimes wonder if it isn't outright a declaration of martial victory.  Typically Hanumana is invoked by the bhojpur populace during fighting.  For example, when two groups in the rural regions around Hilsa would attack each other, such as over a land dispute, they would either call on Shiva for courage, yelling "Har Har Mahadev" or would remind themselves of Hanuman burning the Lanka with "Jai Mahavir Swami!"  Then the two groups would typically charge each other lathis or swords spinning the men hopping and turning quickly like monkeys in the process.

Typically when kids in the region became afraid of either ghosts or some other menace, they would recite the Hanuman chalisa to themselves.  And the chalisa would accompany them on long treks during dark hours of the night.  And then of course there is the fondness of Bihari villagers for that old bhojpur saying expressing admiration for Hanuman's strength which translates into "wherever Hanuman's feet touched the ground, that ground immediately sank into the nether regions."

Thus it seems that the dhwaja has become symbolic of a very ancient victory for the population of the region.  That it is associated with Hanuman seems to give it a more martial interpretation.

 

(What was he doing in what is present day Tamil Nadu)

 

Supposedly the Surya devata told him to go join Sugreeva.  It seems he may have had prior political connections to the region as well.  His father was Pawankumar and his grandfather was the vanara king Prahalada Vidyadhara who in support of Ravana in his fight against Banasur, had sent Pawankumar to assist Ravana.  Pawankumar had in a fit of anger left his wife Anjani in a
remote home and only visited her once during which time she supposedly conceived Hanuman before going off to war in favor of Ravana.  The story regarding Vayu devata is quite interesting.  I suspect that during her time alone, Anjani may have had quite a bit of time to perform 'tapasya' and
became known for it.  At one time, it is said that she felt a touch of 'vayu' but found nobody around.  Eventually, Vayu devata confessed that it was he who touched her but he did not violate her chastity as he was omnipresent in a secret way and was everywhere.  Apparently this seems to be a reference to Anjani's achievement of yogic ability, as in yoga, 'vayu' is associated with the sense of 'sparsha' and thus the special characteristics of Hanuman at a very early age!

 

 I suspect that the undergoing of various religious rituals by queens/mothers in the past may have considerably strengthened the children, the same being true of the men.  It is said in the tantra that the male determines the 'prana' and the mother the 'blood' characteristics.  And spiritually developed parents will not due to any fantastic miracle, but both by birth, and by later repeated contact will lead to children with higher internal energy.  Thus it was said about Buddha's son Rahul that by his mere proximity to Buddha he achieved enlightenment!  It is said that men of higher internal energy have
a stronger energy field which will alter you as well over time.  It's definitely true, as my kung fu instructor who can externalize energy can create a strong enough aura for his devotionally or religiously minded non-kung fu types to describe it as "divine love/bliss" because a sense of
calm overtakes your body quite forcefully, calming all of your nerves.  Of course the Shakti followers know exactly what it is! ;-)