Hanuman Turns Away from World, Body and Pleasures

Rama and Lakshmana rule in deep mutual love, like fathers to their people, enjoying the splendour of a Baladeva and a Narayana. In spring, when fragrant breezes blow, cuckoos call and everyone is drunk with love, the munis (monks) withdraw to fearsome forests to meditate, while the two brothers, with their queens and subjects, revel in gardens with colour play, water sports and forest outings.

In summer, when rivers dry up and the heat burns like fire, the great munis stand in kayotsarga (the standing meditation posture) on mountain tops facing the sun. Rama and Lakshmana meanwhile stay in the fountain pavilion or in shady groves among water machines, sandal and camphor, seated on crystal slabs beside sandal-sprinkled lotuses, fanned with chowries, sipping cool water scented with clove, cardamom and camphor, and listening to the vina, flute and sarangi under bowers of creepers.

In the rains, while yogis meditate beneath trees amid lightning, thunder, peacock cries and flooding rivers, the brothers sport like Indra with their queens in jewelled palaces as high as Sumeru, perfumed with saffron, camphor and black aloe. In autumn the sages meditate by lakes and riverbanks, bearing hardships and wearing away karma, while the royal household, in garments white as moonlight, plays on those same banks. In winter, when the cold scorches the trees, the sages sit motionless through the night where snow falls and icy winds blow, absorbed in shukla dhyana (pure meditation), while the brothers enjoy music in their inner chambers with devoted queens whose voices outdo the vina.

Gautama then turns to Hanuman, son of Pavana and Anjana, a Kamadeva (one of the great souls of matchless beauty) also called Shrishaila, who lives like a god in the city of Karnakundala, served by thousands of Vidyadharas. One spring, absorbed in devotion to the Jina, he sets out in his vimana (aerial chariot) with thousands of queens and Vidyadharas to worship at Mount Sumeru, passing forests, lakes on the Kulachala mountains, step-wells with jewelled stairs and many Jina temples.

From the vimana he describes Sumeru to his queens: golden Jina temples with spires blazing like the sun, the Bhadrashala forest at its foot, jewelled slabs on its girdle, and the Panduka forest on its summit, where the birth bathing of the Tirthankaras is celebrated. Each of its four forests holds four akritrima (uncreated, eternal) chaityalayas (temples) without beginning or end, where gods come and go, Yakshas, Kinnaras and Gandharvas make music and apsaras dance, and the Panduka temples, golden as a smokeless fire or the rising sun, crown the mountain beyond even Indra's power to describe.

Alighting, Hanuman circles the temple three times and bows with folded hands before the uncreated images of the Jina. His Vidyadhari queens draw a mandala of jewel dust and, with their husband, offer the eight substances of worship: water from the Padma lake, fragrant sandal, rice grains of pearl, flowers of gold, silver, rubies, moonstones and the wish-fulfilling trees, nectar-like food, lamps of shining gems, incense of aloe and sandal, and fruits of the wish-fulfilling trees.

Wearing the sacred thread, fine garments and a crown bearing the monkey emblem, Hanuman worships among his queens like Saudharma Indra himself, with music, dance and song, and Indra's apsaras who see him praise him greatly. He takes up the vina and sings the glory of the Jina, and though his eyes never tire of the sight, he leaves before long so as not to commit any disrespect by lingering in the shrine, carrying the Lord's feet in his heart.

After circling Sumeru in the vimana and visiting its temples, he heads back toward Bharata-kshetra, but the sun sets on the way and he camps for the night with his army on a mountain named Suradundubhi, where the soldiers sit in lotus-scented breezes telling stories of the Jina. In the night Hanuman sees a brilliant star fall from the sky and thinks, ‘Alas, in this hollow forest of samsara (the cycle of rebirth) even the gods fall under the power of death; body and pleasures pass away like lightning and the ripples on water.’

He reflects that the restless horse of the senses drags the soul into hell and nigoda (the lowest form of life), that a fool who tastes pleasure for a few days suffers for endless ages like one who rules for a day and grieves for many, that even a god can fall to a one-sensed birth, and that sin alone is the enemy and merit alone the friend. Pleasures never satisfy, as fuel never satisfies fire nor rivers the ocean: he enjoyed goddesses in heaven for sagaras (oceanic ages) and queens on earth without ever being content, and if he does not do penance now he will die unfulfilled like the Chakravarti Subhauma and fall to a wretched birth.

Scolding his own mind for not fearing the hells, with their forest of sword-leaved trees and the Vaitarani river, he resolves to leave his kingdom, his faithful queens, his family and his people and to free his soul from beginningless karma. Freed from the veil of delusion as the sun breaks free of the clouds, Hanuman, devotee of Rama and son of Anjana and Pavana, grasps the true secret of the Jina's teaching and makes ready to walk the path by which the Jinas reached siddhahood (final liberation).