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| CHILD HANUMAN |
Shri Hanuman was born of Anjani and Maruti with the blessing of 'Vayu', the wind god. Because of this he is also known as Anjaneya and Marutinandan. According to the Dravidian system, his birth was in the Dhanu month on Amavasya at the time of the Mool Nakshatra star.
However the Aryans believe him to be born at 4 o'clock in the morning on the 8th of the Lunar month Chaitra on a Tuesday, considered to an auspicious day. From his birth onwards, he exhibited extraordinary physical strength and worked many miracles. There are various instances in the scriptures about his childhood.
Once as a child, looking at the sun Anjaneya thought it was a fruit. He flew up to eat it, and swallowed the sun. The universe plunged into darkness. Angered by his action, Lord Indra attacked Anjaneya with his 'Vajrayudha' (dangerous weapon). Anjaneya was hurt on his chin (known as 'Hanu' in sanskrit).
This is how he got the name Hanuman, which is his most commonly used name. Seeing his son hurt, the wind god Pavan was very upset and threatened to withdraw 'Pranvayu' (life giving air - oxygen) from the Universe. Terrified by this threat the gods came to appease 'Vayu'. They each conferred a boon upon the little Hanumanta. He was blessed with courage, superhuman strength and valour. Another fable related to Hanumantha's childhood relates to his strength.
As a child, Hanumantha was mischievous and this resulted in a Rishi putting a curse on him. The curse was that even though Hanumanji had superhuman strength, he would not remember this until another individual reminded him of it. It was hence that when the time for crossing Lanka arose, only when Hanumanji was reminded of his ability to fly across the ocean that he remembered the same.
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