Secrets of the Sacred — Vol. 7
He could have ended the war in a single afternoon.
Lord Hanuman — the son of the wind god, the devotee of Ram, the being whose strength was so immense that as an infant he had tried to swallow the sun thinking it was a fruit — sat quietly on the shores of the ocean, watching the other monkeys despair.
They needed to cross to Lanka. The ocean was vast. Nobody knew how.
And Hanuman said nothing.
Not because he was afraid. Not because he lacked the power.
Because he had forgotten he had it.
The Child Who Was Too Powerful
When Hanuman was born, the world was not ready for him.
As an infant, he saw the rising sun — brilliant, golden, enormous — and decided it looked like a ripe fruit. He leapt into the sky with a laugh and flew directly toward it, his tiny fist outstretched, ready to grab the sun and eat it.
Indra — the king of the gods — panicked. He hurled his thunderbolt — the Vajra — at the child. It struck Hanuman on the jaw. He fell from the sky, unconscious, to the earth below.
Vayu — the wind god, Hanuman’s father — was devastated. In his grief and fury, he withdrew all the wind from the world. Every living being began to suffocate.
The gods rushed to Vayu, begging him to relent. One by one they came, and one by one they offered the child gifts — immortality, invincibility, the ability to change his form, mastery over all weapons.
Vayu was appeased. The wind returned.
And Hanuman — the child who had tried to eat the sun — woke up with more divine gifts than almost any being in creation.
The Curse That Changed Everything
But the sages were watching. And they were not pleased.
Young Hanuman — now knowing his extraordinary power — became, in the way of children everywhere, somewhat difficult to manage. He disrupted meditations. He moved objects that sages needed. He played pranks that, given his strength, were considerably more disruptive than ordinary pranks.
The sages called a council. And they made a decision that would change the course of Indian history.
They cursed Hanuman to forget his own power.
Not to lose it — his gifts from the gods could not be taken away. But to be unable to remember them. To live as though he were ordinary — until someone who needed him reminded him of what he truly was.
“You will not know your strength,” the sages said, “until someone who needs it tells you.”
Hanuman accepted the curse with the same cheerful equanimity with which he accepted everything.
And forgot.
Decades of Ordinary Life
For years, Hanuman lived as a devoted, humble servant — first in the court of the monkey king Sugriva, then as a member of the army searching for Sita.
He was beloved. He was wise. He was kind.
But nobody thought of him as the most powerful being on earth. Because he didn’t think of himself that way either.
When the army reached the ocean and despaired — when every monkey looked at the vast water between them and Lanka and saw only impossibility — Hanuman sat quietly with them.
Not strategising. Not preparing to leap.
Just sitting. Uncertain. Like everyone else.
The Moment That Woke Him Up
It was an old bear named Jambavan who remembered.
Jambavan — ancient, wise, present at the creation of the world itself — looked at Hanuman sitting quietly on the shore and felt something stir in his memory.
He walked to Hanuman and sat beside him. And he began to speak.
He told Hanuman about the day he was born. About the sun he had tried to eat. About the Vajra that struck him. About the gods who came one by one with their gifts. About the wind that stopped and the world that suffocated and the extraordinary child who had caused all of it simply by being himself.
He described each gift in detail. Each blessing. Each power.
And as Jambavan spoke, something happened to Hanuman.
His eyes changed. His posture changed. His body — as if remembering something it had always known — began to grow.
He remembered.
Not gradually. All at once. Like a dam breaking.
Every gift. Every power. Every blessing from every god who had come to appease his father on that day long ago.
Hanuman stood up. He looked at the ocean. And he smiled.
What Happened Next
He leapt.
One leap — from the tip of India to the island of Lanka — crossing an ocean that an entire army had believed was uncrossable.
He found Sita. He burned Lanka. He returned.
And the war that everyone had thought impossible became possible — because one being remembered who he was.
What This Story Is Really About
The sages who cursed Hanuman were not being cruel. They were being wise.
Because a being of unlimited power who does not know his own limits — who has never had to struggle, never had to doubt, never had to sit on a shore and wonder if he is enough — is a being who has never truly chosen to use his power.
The curse gave Hanuman something the gods’ gifts never could:
The experience of being ordinary.
Of sitting with doubt. Of watching others despair and feeling that despair himself. Of not knowing the answer.
And when Jambavan reminded him — when the power came back — it came back to a Hanuman who understood, for the first time, what it meant to be without it.
That is why, when he leapt, he did not leap with arrogance.
He leapt with devotion.
The strongest being on earth had forgotten he was strong.
And in forgetting — he became worthy of remembering.
Jai Hanuman. 🙏
— Divya India | Spiritual Lifestyle | Wear the Sacred
#SecretsOfTheSacred — Vol. 7