ARJUNA & HANUMAN
(Source Courtesy to sriramakrishnanmath)
Arjuna once got a very big gnawing doubt. If Rama was really a good archer, why did not build a bridge of arrows? Why did he have to struggle so long with a monkey army for the bridge? He very much wanted to meet Hanuman and get the answer to this question.
While he was on a pilgrimage in South India he prayed a lot to meet Hanuman and once he finally did meet him in an old temple where RamNam was being sung.
Hanuman was sitting in a corner quietly meditating on Ram.He asked him, "If Rama was truly a great archer as he claimed why did he not think of building a bridge with arrows?
Hanuman laughed and said, "How could he? How can a bridge of arrows hold the weight of us monkeys?" Arjuna said, "It should be possible. I can build such a bridge now if you want"
Hanuman and Arjuna entered into a bet. Arjuna will build a bridge of arrows and if Hanuman is able to walk on it, Hanuman will enter fire else Arjuna will.
Accordingly, Arjuna got ready to build the bridge. Hanuman sat in a corner repeating RamNam. When the bridge was built, Hanuman still uttering Ram's name, kept his tail on it. The bridge broke into pieces.
Seeing this, Arjuna became despondent. As per the bet, he had to enter fire. He was not worried about dying. He felt terrible that his entire archery knowledge was a waste.
Hanuman tried to dissuade Arjuna from carrying out the bet. But Arjuna was adamant. He lit a fire and was about to jump into it when an old brahmin came along. Seeing a man ready to jump into fire he asked what the matter was.
Both Hanuman and Arjuna repeated the entire story. The brahmin said, "For any bet you need a witness. Now who is your witness? Both Hanuman and Arjuna said that there was none. The brahmin said, "This is not a valid bet as you do not have any witnesses. Can you repeat your bet? I will be the witness this time. Whoever fails will jump into fire".
Now, Hanuman was fully aware that he could bring down the bridge. Arjuna knew that doing it the second time was not going to change the results. Still feeling very despondent, he prayed constantly to Krishna and built his bridge.
Hanuman knew that he could bring down any bridge and he had just done so. As soon as Arjuna completed the bridge Hanuman hit his tail, supremely confident that the bridge would crumble to pieces.
Lo! Nothing happened. He put one foot, again the bridge stood. He started walking on it. The bridge continued to stand.
Hanuman now got angry, He started pacing up and down furiously still the bridge was very much in tact.
He came down to accept defeat. But he felt that something was wrong. He came up to the brahmin and asked, "Who are you?"
Now Krishna revealed his form. He said, first time Arjuna had the feeling that he was building the bridge whereas Hanuman thought all the time of Rama. So Rama's power cannot fail and he won.
Second time, humbled by his defeat, Arjuna uttered Krishna's name for every arrow and so Krishna's name cannot fail. Meanwhile Hanuman was sure that he would win the next time and so he thought he was bringing down the bridge which why the bridge stood the test.
Neither of you failed. The Lord's power won that is all said
Krishna reconciled them both.........
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in this story.....arjun & hanuman represent our own ego or over confidence whcih we could eliminate only by making a walk on the bridge of truth and realisation of the ultimate goal of life...........
in the presence of the almighty......
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Whatever you think, that you will be.
If you think yourselves weak, weak you will be,
if you think yourselves strong, strong you will be
---- Swami Vivekananda ----
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God is .......
Love is ......
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