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Hanuman Credits the Lord

Sundarkand 33

बार बार प्रभु चहहिँ उठावा । प्रेम मगन तेहि उठब न भावा । प्रभु कर पङ्कज कपि के सीसा । सुमिरि सो दसा मगन गौरीसा ॥१ । सावधान मन करि पुनि सङ्कर । लागे कहन कथा अति सुन्दर । कपि उठाइ प्रभु हृदय लगावा। कर गहि परम निकट बैठावा ॥२ । कहु कपि रावन पालित लङ्का । केहि बिधि दहेउ दुर्ग अति बङ्का । प्रभु प्रसन्न जाना हनुमाना । बोला बचन बिगत अभिमाना ॥३ । साखामृग कै बड़ि मनुसाई । साखा तेँ साखा पर जाई । नाँघि सिन्धु हाटकपुर जारा।निसिचर-गन बधि विपिन उजारा ॥४ । सो सब तव प्रताप रघुराई । नाथ न कछू मोरि प्रभुताई ॥५ । ताकहँ प्रभु कछु अगम नहिँ, जापर तुम्ह अनुकूल । तव प्रभाव बड़वानलहिं, जारि सकइ खलु तूल ॥३३

Meaning · English

Rama tries again and again to lift him, but Hanuman, lost in love, has no wish to rise. Rama asks how he burned Lanka. Hanuman says a monkey's only skill is leaping branch to branch. All of it was Rama's power. For one whom Rama favors, nothing is out of reach; by his grace even a wisp of cotton can burn the forest fire.

Two words carry the verse. Prema magana means sunk in love: the mind has gone under, like a man too deep in water to stand. Pratapa is power, the weight of a king's name behind an act. Hanuman is at Rama's feet and does not want to rise. Rama lifts him, embraces him and seats him close. Shiva, telling Parvati, breaks off to say that he himself is lost in the same memory. Then Rama asks a plain question: how did you burn Lanka, a fortress Ravana guards, with its crooked, hard-to-enter walls? Hanuman answers without pride. A monkey's talent, he says, is going from branch to branch. He leapt the sea, burned the golden city, killed the demon host and ruined the garden. Then he gives it all away: it was your pratapa, Raghurai. Nothing of this was my own lordship. The doha closes the thought. Nothing is beyond the one with whom you are pleased. Even cotton wool, so quick to catch fire, could burn a forest fire if you willed it. Tulsidas shows why Hanuman, the doer of the deed, is the humblest person in the room. He knows where the strength came from.

A small lamp in a window seems to light the whole street, yet the glass-maker, the oil and the hand that struck the match all stand behind that flame. Hanuman looks at his own great deed the same way: the light is real, and he points past himself to the source.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: Rama's Debt to Hanuman · Sundarkand 32
• Next: Hanuman's one request · Sundarkand 34
• All of Sundarkand · Ask Krishna about it

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