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Lord Hanuman
Lord Hanuman
is worshipped all over India with various names like
Anjaneya, Hanumanji, Maruti,Bajrang Bali, Mahavir ,Pavan
Kumar. He was born to the Wind God and Anjana Devi. He is
one of the seven chiranjeevis(immortal ones). The Sun God
Surya is considered as his Guru.The Valmiki
Ramayana has a seperate section called Sundara Kandam or
Sundar kand, which describes in detail the leelas of Lord
Hanuman is his search for Sita , across the sea.
The Sundara Kandam
comprises 2885 verses and the word Sundara means beautiful.The esoteric
significance of the sundara kandam is important. The ocean
represents the ocean of samsara. Lord Rama represents the
paramatma and Sita devi represents the jivatma. Hanuman
represents the Guru or Divine teacher.
:: Origin
of Sri Panchamukha Hanuman ::
The origin of Sri Panchamukha Hanuman can be traced to a story in the
Ramayana. During the war between Lord Ram and Ravana, Ravana took the
help of Mahiravana who was the king of pathala.
Lord Hanuman in order to protect Lord Ram and Lakshman formed a
fortress with his tail. But Mahiravana took the form of Vibeeshana and
took Lord Ram and Lakshman to pathala loka.
Hanuman entered pathala loka in search of Rama and Lakshmana.He found out
that to kill Mahiravana he had to extinguish 5 lamps at the same time.
So he took the Panchamukha form with Hanuman, Hayagriva, Narasimha,
Garuda and Varaha faces and extinguished the lamps. Mahiravana was
killed immediately.
The story apart, Sri Panchamukha Hanuman was the upasana deity of Sri
Ragavendra Tirtha, the saint of Mantralaya. The place where he
meditated on Panchamukha Hanuman is now known as Panchamukhi, wherein a
temple for Panchamukha Hanuman has been built.
There is also a shrine for Panchamukha Hanuman at Kumbakonam. This is
taken as the reference for the sculpturing of the Swami Murti in our
ashram.
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