If the heading
of this article has surprised you a bit, then that sure was the objective! Yes,
we do read about Hanuman in Mahabharata too.
Hanuman was
blessed by Ram to be cheeranjivi,
i.e. immortal. We come across Hanuman twice in the epic of Mahabharata.
The first and
probably the well-known episode is when Bhim meets Hanuman. Bhim and Hanuman
were brothers, as they were born of the same father, Vayu, the wind god. Once during the exile of the Pandavas, Draupadi
asked for the Sughandika flower or
the flower with the celestial fragrance. Bhim went into the jungle to get the
flower. On the way, he found an old monkey lying with his tail blocking the
way. Bhim haughtily asked the monkey to move its tail. Hanuman, asked him to do
so himself, if it was bothering him. Bhim tried to move the tail, but couldn’t
move it even an inch. Bhim knew that this was no ordinary monkey. He bent on
his knees and asked him to introduce himself. Hanuman then showed him his usual
form and Bhim sought pardon from him. This is considered a lesson in humility
for an otherwise arrogant Bhim.
The other
episode is relatively lesser known. Once at Rameshwaram, while looking at the Ramsetu, the bridge built by Ram, Arjun
commented as to what made Ram take the help of monkeys to build a bridge when
he could have built a bridge of arrows all by himself. Hanuman appeared and
challenged him to build a bridge of arrows, which could just about hold the
weight of one monkey. Arjuna accepted the challenge, and started building a
bridge of arrows, which he was good at. But Hanuman managed to destroy every
bridge by just one step of his. Seeing this, Lord Vishnu appeared and chided
both, Arjun for challenging the mighty Hanuman and Hanuman for making Arjun
feel so small that he was contemplating taking his own life in shame.
At this, Hanuman
felt sorry and promised to help Arjun during the forthcoming war of Kurukshetra.
Later during the war, he sat atop Arjun’s chariot, in the form of a flag, thus
giving the chariot a sense of stability. At the end of the war, Krishna asked
Arjun, to get off the chariot first, which was against the war protocol. As
soon as he did, Krishna followed and then came down Hanuman and after bowing to
Lord Krishna, he vanished. No sooner had he vanished, the chariot was up in
flames and reduced to ashes. A shocked Arjun was at a loss of words. Krishna
explained that the chariot had withheld all the celestial weapons hurled at
them, thanks only to Hanuman and him, the only two who could withstand the
negative effects of such deadly weapons. If they had dismounted first, then he
along with the chariot would have been reduced to ashes!
The first one is
a well known myth from Mahabharata, but the second one is a lesser known one,
both giving lessons in humility to the Pandav brothers.
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