Challenges faced on the path of Bhakti | Gauranga Prabhu

Theme from Ramayana, Sundar Kanda. where Hanuman is jumping across the ocean to Lanka to search for Sita Devi.

Ram and Luxman where in the forest in Nasik and Ravan came and kidnapped Sita Devi

The Acharya’s give commentary that when the spirit soul desires to enjoy independently from Krishna, then he is immediately captured and put into a conditioned state.

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So Sita Devi was serving Lord Ramachandra and then Marich came in the form of a Golden dear whom was so attractive. Lord Ram went searching for that golden dear, and that was the moment when Ravan came.

Analogy:
Ravana is compared to the Conditioned Mind

To make a Philosophical point, this entire pastime is compared to how the soul is trapped by the influence of the conditioned mind and held captive in the body which is like Lanka.

So the soul is put into a material body, and the soul is suffering in separation from the Supreme Lord. The soul should also be aware that the Supreme Lord Ram is also suffering in separation from the soul. And therefore He makes arrangements to redeem and deliver the soul from this entrapment. And the arrangement He makes is He sends His chosen representative to travel across the ocean and somehow get he message across to the soul. And then this representative of the Supreme Lord is the Guru or the Acharya.

And therefore in the Sundar Kand of Ramayan, Hanumanji represents the Acharya or the perfect behaviour of a great soul whose a representative of the Supreme Lord, who is on a mission, carrying the message of the Lord to the soul and to investigate what is the condition of the soul and how eager the soul is to reunite with the Supreme Lord.

In this way the Supreme Lord has great Love for the Soul, the soul is suffering in separation from the Lord. So the representative of the Lord, delivers the Lords message to the soul, and takes the souls message back to the Lord and in this way acts as the perfect medium between the two.

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And in the course of doing this He teaches us various lessons of what ideal behaviour and character, in the practice of devotional service (Bhakti) should be like.

The huge monkey army numbers is described using a new method of counting by Valmiki

Lord Ramachandra’s army had 100 crore Maha Ogha monkeys

In Hindi they say that whatever you do, the monkey cannot stop from jumping.

So many people claim to be God. So if they really claim to be God they should be given 5 monkeys to handle.

Out of these Monkeys, the Lord selected a single monkey, Hanuman, who was the only one capable of jumping across the 100 yojan ocean to Lanka.

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Hanumanji’s jump was so strong that it produced volcanic eruptions, and the force of his travel made the waves of the ocean lash up to the sky. Hanuman is assisted by his father, Vayu on this journey. As he travels, the first obstacle on his journey comes forth, that is a beautiful golden mountain, whose name is Mainaka.