Hanuman went to the Himalayas to continue his worship of Rama after the victory over Ravana where he scripted a version of the Ramayana using his nails. At that time Maharishi Valmiki visited Hanuman to show his own version of the Ramayana but became disappointed and stated that his labor will go ignored on which Hanuman discarded his own version which is called the Hanumad Ramavana. Valmiki got so touched with this that in his version he understated, he would take another birth to sing the glory of Hanuman.
After the war the time arrived for Rama to depart to his heavenly abode. At that time Hanuman requested to remain on the earth as long as Rama’s name exist and Sita accorded his desire granting him that his image would be installed at various public places so that Hanuman could listen to Rama’s name chanted by people and thus Hanuman is one of the immortals of Hinduism.
Hanuman is also known as the brother of Bhima as both have the same father, Vayu. During the exile of Pandava’s, Hanuman appeared as a weak and aged monkey and lied with his tail blocking the way of Bhima on the field. Bhima unaware of his identity asks to remove the tail to which Hanuman answered that Bhima should remove it himself. Bhima tried hard using all his strength but failed and therefore inquires into Hanuman’s identity. Bhima also requested and sees the same size of Hanuman in which he had crossed the sea to go to Lanka looking for Sita.
Popular folk art of Karnataka, Yakshagana depicts Hanuman as phophets, power and presence in the present age. Many prophets of modern times had claimed to have seen Hanuman such as Madhvacharya (13 Century A. D.), Tulsidas (16 th Century), Sri Ramdas Swami (17 th Century) and Raghavendra Swami (17 th Century), Swami Ramdas (20 th Century) and Sri Sathya Sai Baba (20 th Century). Swaminarayan strongly believes that other than worship of God, Hanuman is the only lower deity who can save us from the evil spirits and thus should be worshiped.
Wherever the deeds of Sri Rama are sung, the presence of Hanuman removes the fear of demons. A variation of such texts can be found in Tulsidasa’s Vinaya Patrika and the Mahabharata. Hanuman also reserves a special place even when Ramanpath takes place. Villagers consider Hanuman as their protective guardian. His images can be seen in a number of temples especially where images of Vishnu’s avatars are installed. It is believes that Hanuman idols and images keeps the area free from evils. It is also believe that Hanuman protects people from accidents and that is why his idols can also be found on mountain roads.
