Hanuman Takes Diksha and Attains Nirvana

As the night ends and the sun rises, the way a sadhu lights up the path to liberation, Hanuman tells his ministers that he will go to the forest to do penance, just as Bharata Chakravarti did long ago. The grieving ministers beg him not to leave them without a protector, but he replies that one who throws back into the ocean of samsara a man who has climbed out of it is no friend but truly an enemy, and that when the soul suffered in hell no mother, father, brother, sister, friend or wife could save it.

Having gained a rare human birth and knowledge of the Jina's teaching, he says, the wise must not be careless: where there is union there must be separation, all beings from men to the Indras are bound by their own karma, and in human life no one knows when death may come. He enjoyed the pleasures of the gods for sagaras (oceanic ages) through many births without being satisfied, as fire is never satisfied by fuel, and now he seeks the supreme state of the Siddhas, free of birth, old age and death.

Hearing this, the queens in the inner palace weep at the coming separation until wise people console them. Unshaken, Hanuman gives the kingdom to his eldest son, bestows fitting wealth on everyone, leaves his jewelled palace that rivals a god's, and is carried in a gleaming palanquin of gold and gems, hung with banners, chowries and pearl fringes, to the forest called Chaityavan, while the citizens weep to see it pass.

In the forest sits the yogi Dharmaratna, a Charana rishi (sky-walking sage) rich in riddhis (supernatural powers), the mere sight of whom destroys sin. Seeing him from afar, Hanuman steps down from the palanquin, bows with folded hands and asks for diksha, saying he has become free of attachment to his body and all outer things; the sage praises his resolve, telling him the world is hollow, the body perishable and pleasures a house of disease, and that such wisdom arises only in the discerning.

With the sage's leave, Hanuman sits in the lotus posture, bows, and casts off his crown, earrings, necklace and every ornament. Breaking the bonds of his queens and turning his face from delusion, he pulls out the hair of his head with his own soft hands in keshalocha (the ritual plucking of the hair), gives up all possessions and takes the mahavratas (great vows).

Seven hundred and fifty great kings and Vidyadharas, among them Vidyutgati, Hanuman's dearest friend, hand their kingdoms to their sons and become monks with him, taking up the twenty-eight mulagunas (root virtues of a monk). Hanuman's queens and the queens of all these kings first weep in the fire of separation, then grow detached, go to the aryika (nun) Bandhumati and take the vows of aryikas, putting aside their jewels for a single white sari with virtue as their only ornament.

Keeping the five great vows, the five samitis (rules of careful conduct) and the three guptis (restraints of mind, speech and body), Hanuman stands firmer in his conduct than a mountain, living up to his name Shrishaila. Indra and the gods sing his spotless fame, praising and worshipping him again and again as one who has taken up the dharma taught by the omniscient Vitaraga (passionless one) and will surely cross the ocean of births.

With the fire of meditation the great sage Hanuman burns away every last strand of the eight karmas and attains siddhahood from the summit of Tungigiri. Endowed with infinite qualities such as Kevala Jnana (omniscience) and Kevala Darshana (infinite perception), he will dwell forever in the realm of the Siddhas, and the chapter closes with the prayer that his story may help destroy the listener's karmas.