Hanuman was the son of Vayu, the wind god, and Anjana. Hanuman
didn’t always have the power of eternal life. Hanuman’s mother left him when he
was a baby monkey so he had no one to teach him what things to eat and things
not to eat, and what is dangerous or safe. One day this innocent little monkey
was flinging through the trees under the canopy looking for something to eat. His
hunger grew more and more with each swing, but the poor little monkey still couldn’t
find anything to eat. As he was swinging through the branches, he accidentally
picked one of the skinnier, weaker branches. The branch broke and Hanuman lands
had on the ground. As Hanuman laid on the ground in a daze. He saw an orange
circle between the leaves of a couple of trees. His eyes grew out of excitement
thinking he found a mango to eat. What Hanuman thought to be a mango was
actually the sun in the far distance about to set. Hanuman with no knowledge of
what it is, reaches out toward the sun. Vayu notices his son and stops Hanuman
from touching the sun and saves him from burning himself. Vayu worried about
Hanuman, since his mother left him and there was no one to take care of him,
quit his job to make sure Hanuman is safe at all times. This caused a problem
in the world because Vayu is the wind god, and if there is no wind there would
be no air, and without air there wouldn’t be people or other animals and bugs
and stuff. The other gods start worrying and try to convince Vayu to come back
and start blowing wind again before everyone dies but Vayu was way too
concerned about his son. Brahma, the creator of the universe, then gave Hanuman
the gift of eternal life. And Surya, the god of the sun, bought him an
unlimited supply of mangos. This way Hanuman could never die out of doing
things he didn’t know were dangerous, and he would never go hungry. Satisfied with
these gifts given to Hanuman for his safety and hunger, Vayu returns back to
his old job and brings back the winds.
Authors Note: I just retold the story of how Hanuman got
eternal life and free mangos with a little bit more description.
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Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way.
I really did not understand this story in the book, but you retold it in a way that I found much easier to follow. You depicted Vayu as a loving father who was worried about Hanuman since his mother had abandoned him and I thought that was really neat. It also made more sense to me out like that on why he stopped blowing wind, to focus on his son. Also, I was confused as to why Hanuman was so special to get all the gifts he had from the gods and now it makes sense that it was not him in particular that was special, but his fathers job as wind god that was needed so the gifts to Hanuman made sure he did not need further help. I also love the description in this story, of the sun in between the branches, of the feelings of Vayu and the gods, very great. Good job !
ReplyDeleteSoham, I really enjoyed this story. Like Brittany said above, I really did not understand this story very well, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that someone had decided to retell it. I love that you decided to stick to the storyline, and just add more detail to it. It really clarified the story a lot, and now I have a more clear image on what Hanuman is all about and how he came to be eternal. Great job! I look forward to reading more of your stories in the future :)
ReplyDeleteHey Soham. Since this is not the first time for me to visit your blog, I decided to comment on two of your storytelling posts this week. Once again, you did a great job of summarizing a story from our reading with great detail. I really like how concise your writing is. It reminds me a lot of Narayan's writing style because you expose us to all of the major points without getting distracted by other details. Good job!
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