Itihāsa / Rāmāyaṇa chronicle / Kiṣkindhā · 32 of 50
32. Hanumān remembers
Kiṣkindhā (किष्किन्धा)
Jāmbavān turns to Hanumān and tells him his own childhood, which is a strange kindness, a elder narrating a man to himself. He is the wind's son. As a child he leapt at the sun, thinking it a fruit, and Indra struck him down, and the gods, ashamed of striking a child, gave him gifts. The forgetting is not one of them. As a child he pestered the sages, and they cursed him to forget his strength until someone reminded him. He does not know what he can do. The telling gives the memory back.
Hanumān grows. The body that was a minister's body becomes a body that can treat the sea as a step. The mountain under him answers. The party, which was preparing to die, watches a companion become the road. The poem's devotion begins in earnest here, not as a doctrine but as a recovery of capacity. Bhakti, in this scene, looks like someone reminding you of a power you were talked out of.
He declares he will go, see her, and return. He will not bring her, unless she asks, because the rescue is Rāma's to complete. The distinction is already his character. Strength, in Hanumān, keeps consulting the person it serves. He takes the leap's permission from the elders, and the Kiṣkindhā-kāṇḍa closes on a body rising, not on a king.
नेपालीमा
जाम्बवानले हनुमानलाई उनकै बाल्यकथा सुनाए। उनी वायुका छोरा हुन्। घामलाई फल ठानेर उफ्रेका थिए। इन्द्रले हानेका थिए। देवताले लज्जित भएर वर दिए। बिर्सने कुरा ती वरमध्ये थिएन। बाल्यकालमा ऋषिहरूलाई दुःख दिएकाले उनीहरूले कसैले सम्झाइदिएसम्म शक्ति बिर्सने श्राप दिएका थिए। कथाले स्मृति फर्कायो। उनी बढे। समुद्र एउटा पाइला जस्तो भयो। भक्ति यहाँ सिद्धान्त होइन। बिर्सिएको शक्तिको सम्झाइ हो। उनले भने, देखेर फर्कन्छु। सीताले नमागेसम्म उनलाई आफैँ लिएर आउँदिनँ। उद्धार रामले पूरा गर्ने कुरा हो।