atibala balam āśritaḥ tava aham
hari vara vikrama vikramaiḥ analpaiḥ |
pavana suta yathā adhigamyate sā
janaka sutā hanumān tathā kuruṣva
Followers of the Vedic tradition worship Shri Rama as the Personality of Godhead, the same person that the rest of the world refers to as God. Yet in this instance, we see Rama declaring His dependence on the might and power of another entity. How can Rama be God if He requires the help of others? The answer to this mysterious question uncovers the most well-guarded secret of life, the reason for our being on earth. Studying the personal nature of the Divine, including His names, forms and pastimes, is certainly beneficial, but to understand the complete picture, the full range of the Lord’s attributes, familiarity with the behavior of the Lord’s closest friends, those whose only business in life is to serve Him, is required. Of all the sincere servants, no one is dearer to Shri Rama than Hanuman. For this reason, Rama will do whatever it takes to praise and glorify His dearmost devotee, the son of the wind-god.
“Unintelligent men, who know Me not, think that I have assumed this form and personality. Due to their small knowledge, they do not know My higher nature, which is changeless and supreme.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 7.24)
These personal expansions of Supreme Spirit weren’t just concocted through some mythological tradition, but rather each incarnation and expansion exists eternally and often appears on earth. Many thousands of years ago, the incarnation of Lord Rama descended to the visible plane and enacted wonderful pastimes. Those with a limited understanding of spirituality and the discipline that worships God in a mood of love and affection have a difficult time understanding the activities performed by such incarnations. The lowest of mankind, the miscreants and the atheists, generally fear religion and spirituality, for they know their behavior doesn’t match well with the law codes established by the various spiritual disciplines. If they do contemplate a “God” in any way, they take Him to be an angry figure. After all, if such miscreants were to amass unlimited powers and capabilities, they most certainly would use them to instill fear in others. The desire to lord over nature in this way is the reason for the existence of the material world. Those who want to imitate the Supreme Lord’s capabilities of dominance, creation and destruction are allowed to carry out their desires on a playing field. The field, of course, must go through development, and since no one can actually equal God in any endeavor, there will naturally be collisions. Hence the material world ostensibly becomes a place full of misery, wherein defeat and heartache are found at every corner.
“I envy no one, nor am I partial to anyone. I am equal to all. But whoever renders service unto Me in devotion is a friend, is in Me, and I am also a friend to him.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 9.29)
The misuse of freewill lands the jiva soul in the material world. When the jiva wants out, when it wants to return to the spiritual land, the Supreme Lord tosses aside His vow of neutrality and directly takes an interest in a small section of the affairs of the inferior world. Usually the workings of matter and sense gratification are portrayed in a negative light, as they should be. But when the same material elements are used to advance the cause of Krishna consciousness, the purification of thoughts, words and deeds, they take on a divine nature, which is Krishna’s exclusive property. Everything certainly emanates from God, but material nature is put in the charge of various elevated living entities.
“Being fearless under Your protection, O intelligent one, I wish to see all the rivers, mountains and lakes of the forest.” (Sita Devi speaking to Lord Rama, Valmiki Ramayana, Ayodhya Kand, 27.16)
As part of His pastimes, Rama roamed the forests of India with His beautiful wife Sita Devi and His younger brother Lakshmana. When the Lord enjoys, He doesn’t do so alone. He has eternally liberated associates who join Him in the execution of His pastimes. Sita Devi and Lakshmana are not of this world, for their activities even validate this fact. One cannot hear Sita Devi’s kind words of wisdom and loving sentiments and take her to be an ordinary woman, princess, or daughter. Lakshmana and Rama’s other brothers were similarly spotless in character.
The monkey-king Sugriva vouched for Hanuman’s abilities. Assigning Hanuman with the task of finding Sita, Sugriva offered him the highest praise. Prior to the departure of the monkey host, Shri Rama gave Hanuman His ring. The ring was inscribed with Rama’s name, and it was to serve as a token of identification for Sita. Sita had never met Hanuman up to that point, so the ring would signal to her that Hanuman was a friend of Rama. Hanuman then kindly bowed his head to the Lord and went off on his search along with the other monkeys.
When a conditioned living entity becomes free from the effects of material nature, their body and mind fuse into an entity that is completely spiritual. The natural knowledge, spiritual strength and bliss that belong to the soul shine through all corners of the body. Shri Hanuman, an eternally liberated soul, has nothing to do with material nature or illusion. Lord Rama, knowing this, asked Hanuman to use all of his spiritual strengths for the highest cause. Rama’s faith and words of wisdom speak to the greatness of Hanuman and the mindset required for achieving liberation. We may not be as strong as Shri Hanuman, but by remembering his example and exerting ourselves fully for the right cause, we can similarly be in the good graces of the Lord.
There are certainly many other types of yoga, but they all culminate with bhakti. Loving devotion to the Lord is the highest practice in both the spiritual and material worlds. In fact, any place that bhakti-yoga is performed properly can be considered the spiritual world. By following the example of Hanuman and other great Vaishnavas, we can turn our present miserable condition into a positive one. Goswami Tulsidas immortalized Hanumanji in his famous poem, the Hanuman Chalisa. If we remember all the great servants of the Lord and ask them for their help, success in our yoga practice will be guaranteed. Wherever we are and whatever situation we find ourselves in, we can always remember the Lord, His pastimes, His associates and His names by chanting “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”. The love the Lord feels for His devotees, especially Hanuman, unlocks the mystery of life, our reason for living. Hanuman lives every day to the fullest by thinking of Sita and Rama, and by always thinking of Hanuman, we can do no wrong.
“O Rama, You should know that just as fish cannot survive when taken out of water, neither Sita nor I can live without You for even a moment.” (Lakshmana speaking to Lord Rama, 
God has incarnated hundreds of thousands of times; actually too many times to even count. From the authoritative scriptures such as the Puranas and 
Being God conscious is actually the constitutional position of the spirit soul but, through contact with material nature and God’s illusory energy known as maya, the living entities become bewildered into thinking only of material sense gratification and forgetting about God altogether. Material life means always making plans. “I will eat this type of food from now and that will make me happy. I will avoid this particular activity because I am getting very bored of it. I will buy such and such technological device and that will make life so much easier.” These are some of the plans we make, but none of them ever pan out. We are always left wanting more. It’s not our fault since that is how nature is supposed to act. Maya is always throwing things in our way, foiling our every plan because that’s actually what we want. Maya says, “Okay, you want to make new plans? Fine. I will keep throwing obstacles in your way so that you can do just that. After all, isn’t that what you want?” If we could be truly happy in this material world, we would never need to make any plans or adjustments.
Just as fish struggle when taken out of water, we living entities struggle in this material world without God. That is the essence of what Lakshmana is saying. “Don’t leave us in the kingdom without You. We can never be happy in Your absence.” Lord Rama eventually acquiesced, allowing Lakshmana and Sita Devi to accompany Him during His exile period. While travelling in the woods together, Sita and Lakshmana were as happy as they had ever been. This is because they were executing 
“The individual soul in the body of a baby cannot show the full power and potency of a grown man, but the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna, even when lying on the lap of His mother as a baby, could exhibit His full potency and power by killing Putana and other demons who tried to attack Him. Therefore the spiritual potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is said to be eka-rasa, or without change.” (Shrila Prabhupada, 
Can God come to earth? Can He have a childhood? These questions only exist due to the differences in qualities between individuals and the Supreme Lord. Individuals are known as atmas, or souls, whereas the Supreme Person is known as Paramatma. The prefix “para” is added to denote superiority, an absence of fallibility without even a trace of a penchant towards illusion. The individual soul is more technically known as jivatma since it has the tendency to fall down into a realm where it must assume temporary bodies. The guaranteed nature of death is attributable directly to birth; without birth there cannot be death. The jivatma, which is constitutionally spirit, has no involvement with birth or death, but since it falls down into a temporary world, it must be given a set of clothes to wear. Since the realm itself is temporary, so must be the clothes that are worn. Since death is guaranteed for anyone who takes birth, there must be a visible change to the qualities of the outfit assumed by the entity taking birth. These changes are driven by the forces of time, which make use of its two most powerful tools: old age and disease. When we combine the four factors together, we see that life in the temporary world involves birth, old age, disease and death.
So how do we know that the people who claim to be God are wrong? To the sober man, the differences between God and man are obvious, but to help us break down the faulty logic in an authorized way, one that goes beyond simple sentiment and common sense, a brief compare and contrast is required. We know from our birth that our individual soul was forced to accept an outer covering. We know that this event was forced because we have no memory of ever having decided to take birth in the particular womb that we did; nor did we have any say as to what type of body we would receive and which country we would appear in. Simply from the fact that we can’t remember these critical events, the presence of fallibility is understood. The Vedas will accurately point out that these defects are products of the outer covering and not the soul itself. Nevertheless, if the soul is so powerful, why does it lack control over the most important moment in each life: birth? Our parents and grandparents protected us during the first few years of our life, but we have no memory of these incidents. We don’t remember learning how to crawl, walk, or talk, yet this education most certainly took place.
Vedic information gives much detail about the nature of the soul, an entity that is highly powerful and a constant torchlight of knowledge. Flashlights and lamps need some sort of energy source to remain lit, but the soul is self-illuminating. This property is present in every single soul, regardless of the particular body type. This brings us to the most striking area of distinction between God and man. The soul, though always glowing with the light of transcendental knowledge and love, can have its properties masked by the temporary body it assumes. The best illustration of this masking effect is seen with the human infant. The small child, though possessing a high potential for intelligence, is incapable of doing anything tangible. At most it can cry as a form of communication, drink milk that it is offered, and produce waste. With these limited functions, the infant is completely dependent on the elders to protect and take care of it. The infant could not survive without the aid of others. Yet we know from the properties of the soul that the infant is very powerful. It has the torchlight of knowledge, but due to its temporary form of body, its natural potencies become temporarily masked.
The Supreme Lord is not dehinam, so such defects are absent in His sportive exploits. Like the individual souls, the Paramatma is extremely powerful and never subject to illusion. Yet the difference is that God’s powers can be exhibited in any form. None of His abilities are ever masked by any outward dress because the Supreme Lord can never associate with a temporary nature. As the controller and creator of the material world, God has no way of succumbing to its effects. For the original Divine Being, there is never a difference between body and spirit. Even if He appears on earth in a temporary body, the outer covering remains completely spiritual. Our abilities are limited by the outward dress that we assume, but since God’s outward dress is always spiritual, it has no effect on His potencies.
As mentioned before, the infant is incapable of doing anything on its own. When Krishna came to earth some five thousand years ago, He also assumed the outward form of an infant right after birth. His years in this form were spent in the farm community of 
Due to her exquisite beauty and the kind-hearted nature of the residents of Vrindavana, who were all drowned in an ocean of bliss due to direct association with Krishna, no one objected to Putana’s coming right into Krishna’s room and taking Him on her lap. No one knew who this woman was, but since she was so nicely dressed and in the form of a beautiful woman, they all assumed that she was a member of the community or closely related to Krishna. Putana had prepared beforehand by smearing poison on her breast. Taking Krishna in her lap, she began to feed Him her milk. 
In the spiritual land, there is always oneness in the relationship between God and His exalted associates. Each side forever remains respectful to their role, with God acting as the reservoir of pleasure, and the individuals serving as the source of that pleasure. Though the roles are different, there is an equality shared by both parties, as they are equally as responsible for the blissful nature of the exchanges. As individuals, our duty is to remain firmly established in the role of transcendental loving servitor, without change. Irrespective of the type of body we assume, 
“Then taking with him the leading monkeys of great strength, that monkey, the brave son of the wind-god, looked like the moon of pure orb in the sky after the parting of the clouds, brightened by a cluster of stars. (
Shri Hanuman is one of the most celebrated divine figures in the world. Though he has the outward appearance of a Vanara, which is a monkey-like human, he possesses not a single defect. The Vanara form of body is certainly not perfect, and neither is the human form. Any material body has limitations, so what really counts is what one makes of their current condition. There is the famous saying that if life gives you lemons, make lemonade. From the material point of view, Hanuman certainly was handed a lemon of a body. A monkey is known for its insatiable appetite for 
While residing there, Sugriva was once visited by 
Though this issue is insignificant in the bigger picture, the Vedas don’t gloss over it. Rather, Vedic tenets call for taxes to be set at a certain amount; a fixed measure that is rarely to be raised. The typical tax rate listed is one sixth of a producer’s income. This number wasn’t just hatched up on a whim or imposed as a way to benefit a certain class of men. Rather, there is logical reasoning behind it. The purpose of a government is to spend money on necessary expenditures, the primary of which involve protecting the innocent. If the government doesn’t protect innocent life and property, who will? In order to spend money, the government needs a source of income, i.e. taxes. But if you tax a person or business too much, they will lose their incentive to produce. For example, if we were to raise the tax rate to one hundred percent for a given year, the amount of tax revenue collected would actually be zero. The intended result would be a huge windfall in tax dollars, but since the money is essentially being confiscated, there would be absolutely no production. The Mahabharata uses the analogy of milking a 
Rama had a different demeanor, one that was appealing to the people of the time. Yet His life was not without mishap and misfortune. God can never suffer in any way, but during His time on earth, the divine power known as Yogamaya comes and gives Him a helping hand. This energy is supremely powerful and works under the direct supervision of the Lord. Yogamaya gives the appearance of inflicting ordinary suffering and calamity, but since her effects relate to the Supreme Lord and the 
After regaining sight of the task at hand, Sugriva dispatched his enormous army of monkeys around the world to find Sita. Hanuman was his chief minister, so Sugriva knew that if anyone would be able to find Sita, it would be Hanuman. After Sugriva extolled the heroic monkey’s virtues, Shri Rama did the same and then gave him His ring to give to Sita. In the above referenced passage from the Ramayana, Hanuman and the Vanaras are embarking on their journey. Hanuman is described as being exquisitely beautiful, like the bright moon in the cloudless sky accompanied by multitudes of stars.
Chanting certainly seems like a simple, child-like process. The effects, however, are anything but inferior. As a result of regularly saying the Lord’s names with love and dedication, our natural proclivity towards service to the Supreme Spirit will eventually come out. The cloud of ignorance currently shields our natural inner-beauty. Through chanting and devotional service in general, the clouds of nescience can part. When they do, the Supreme Lord will appreciate us in the same way that He was endeared to the Vanaras and Hanuman for their selfless dedication, bravery, sincerity and singularity of purpose.
“At the present moment the human society teaches one to love his country or family or his personal self, but there is no information where to repose the loving propensity so that everyone can become happy. That missing point is Krishna, and the process of devotional service teaches us how to stimulate our original love for Krishna and how to be situated in that position where we can enjoy our blissful life.” (Shrila 
True freedom is a state of mind, not an exercise of outward features. The Vedas, the ancient scriptures of India, accurately point out that the identity of the individual, regardless of its particular body type, comes from the spirit soul residing within. Even the animals are identified with their soul and not their outer dress. The purpose of the creation is to allow for the wayward souls, autonomous spiritual entities with limited powers, to imitate the workings and functions of the Supreme Object of Pleasure. God is not a manmade concoction, nor is He an order-supplier working at the will of His children. He is much more than any fictional character or gift-giver; He is the ultimate reservoir of pleasure. Though God is the original enjoyer of everything, He doesn’t exercise this ability alone. Instead, He joyously engages in sportive activities with those who choose to associate with Him. When the desire for the Divine’s association dwindles, the living entities are allowed to pretend to play God on a temporary playing field. Not surprisingly, the result of the game driven by ignorance will always be pain and suffering, due simply to the fact that the greatest enjoyer, and thus the greatest source of pleasure, has nothing to do with the playing field.
Though Krishna allowed the wayward souls to descend to the temporary playing field, He is not so unkind as to leave them there permanently unattended. Rather, the doors to the imperishable heavenly realm are always open, provided that one wants to return. In this way, real freedom can be found in a second. The process to secure 
When the hearing practice is applied to spiritual discourses, the results are outstanding. If we hear lectures about the Bhagavad-gita, 
Fortunately for us, the exalted Vaishnava saints of the past have documented much of their verbal instruction. Krishna’s liberated associates have no need to perform any activity in this world, but due to their causeless mercy on the fallen souls, the Vaishnavas take to kindly instructing others. By consulting their written instructions found in books like the Bhagavad-gita, Shrimad Bhagavatam and commentaries on the same, we can have our thoughts stimulated into natural emotions of pure love for God, or bhava. Reading is another type of hearing, for it is an isolated form of aural reception wherein the inner voice serves as the via-medium for the information transfer. Hearing through reading is greatly effective, as even the outside distractions of the world are removed, allowing the reader to focus specifically on the teachings presented. When the instruction comes from the proper source, i.e. a lover of Krishna, the results will always be favorable.
“Thereupon taking the ring and placing it on his head, with folded hands, that foremost and best of monkeys, praised Rama's lotus feet and then departed.” (Valmiki Ramayana, Kishkindha Kand, 44.15)
The obvious benefit to performing a task correctly is the realization of the desired result. For example, if we put in long hours at the library and study very rigorously, the likely result is that we will perform well on exams and thus earn a high mark in the class. If we put great effort into building a home, the resulting fruit will be an aesthetically pleasing and peaceful dwelling. Regardless of the complexity or simplicity of the task, the importance of first invoking the names of God and surrendering ourselves fully to Him does not diminish. Goswami 
Those who think of the Supreme Lord at the time of quitting the body no longer have to suffer through birth and death, a reward which also marks the end of fruitive activity. Without the need to associate with karma, one no longer has to work hard for fruits that are unseen and flickering in nature. In the spiritual world, the soul assumes a spiritual body and thus engages full-time in service to the Lord. Transcendental service is not categorized as karma because there are no perishable results that come from it. Moreover, service to the Supreme Spirit is the natural engagement of the liberated soul. Surrender brings about true bliss because it is our constitutional position to be completely dedicated to the one person who will not let us down.
The Supreme Soul is so powerful that He can act as the complementary lover to every single soul in existence. The qualitative makeup between the individual soul and the Supreme Soul is the same, but one entity is superior and the other is inferior. One is meant to serve, while the other is meant to be served. This is the natural order of things. When the server thinks itself to be the served, or if the server decides to offer its service to another server, the resulting condition is unpalatable and not ideal. True bliss and harmony come when the individual soul takes to its dharma, or natural characteristic, by serving the Supreme Lord.
Since Hanuman possessed amazing strength, courage and firmness of resolution, success in the venture was guaranteed. Rama was actually overjoyed simply by thinking of Hanuman going to search for Sita, for the Lord knew that success was to come very quickly. Yet as endowed with divine prowess as Hanuman was, he still made sure to offer obeisances to Rama and invoke His good name prior to starting his task. Through his behavior, Hanuman showed that he was always God conscious, not letting a second go by without remembering the lotus feet of his dear Lord.