If you have ever stayed in India or read the Ramayana you would be familiar with Hanuman. The monkey god who was the most ardent follower of Sri Ram.
What I want to share with you today are some lesser known facts about Hanuman:
Incarnation of Lord Shiva
Hanuman is an avatar of Lord Shiva. When Vishnu took a human form to save the world from atrocities of Ravan, Shiva took the form of Hanuman to assist Vishnu in his endeavours.
Hanuman means Broken Jaw
When Hanuman was a young child he thought the Sun was a bright fruit and he went towards it to eat it. The gods got worried but were not able to stop him so they approached Indra the ruling king of gods. he struck Hanuman with his celestial weapon Vajra. The weapon struck Hanuman on his jaw and broke it. Since then he was known as Hanuman as in Sanskrit the jaw is called hanuman and man means broken.
Ashta Siddhi, Nava Nidhi
Hanuman was in possession of special powers and abilities which made him stronger than even the gods. In fact he was so powerful that he could have single handedly flown to Lanka, beaten Ravan and his army and rescued Sita. However he did not do that as he knew it was destined that Ram will rescue Sita, so he just supported Ram all the way and helped him whenever he faced any challenges in his mission to rescue Sita.
His Ashta (eight) Siddhis (supernatural abilities) were the following:
-Aṇima: Ability to reduce his size as small as he wished
-Mahima: Ability to increase his size as large as he wanted
-Garima: Ability to increase his weight as heavy as he wanted
-Laghima: Ability to reduce his weight as light as he wanted
-Prapti: Ability to obtain any material object by just wishing it
-Prakamya: Ability to hear or see anything
-Isitva: Strength to overcome anyone in a fight
-Vastva: Ability to control anyone by magic
His Nava (nine) Nidhis (valuable assets) were the following:
-Mahapadma: Large lake filled with jewels
-Padma: Himalayan lake filled with minerals
-Shankha: Conch shell
-Makara: Crocodile
-Kachchhapa: Tortoise
-Mukunda: Quick Silver
-Kunda: Jasmine
-Nila: Sapphire
-Kharva: Vessels baked in fire
If there is any other special traits of Hanuman you would like to share, let me know in the comments
