It is said that when Lord Shiva composed the Ramayan, it had 100 crore verses, and all the devatas, danavas, and asuras approached and requested Him for this great knowledge. The Lord divided it into three equal parts between them. Now, one shloka, in anushtup chanda with 32 letters, was left. Acceding to the pleas of the three parties, He gave ten letters each to them. But two letters – ‘ra’ and ‘ma’ – were still left. These could neither be divided nor separated. So, these two letters remained with Lord Shiva. Sri Hanuman is considered to be the very embodiment of Ram naam.
There is a touching story about Mother Sita gifting Hanuman a pearl necklace. These were not ordinary pearls. They belonged to Goddess Lakshmi—Adi Parashakti—Herself. Sri Hanuman humbly accepted the gift and then proceeded to break the necklace, bite each pearl, look at it carefully, and throw it angrily to the ground!
Mother Sita scolded him for behaving like a typical monkey, “What are you doing? Do you know how precious these pearls are?”
“No, Mother, they are absolutely worthless!” countered Hanuman. “Not one pearl has Ram’s image or His name on it.”
Visibly upset, Sita asked, “So, is Ram in you?”
Hanuman jumped down and tore open his chest, displaying Ram, Sita and Lakshman seated in his heart. In fact, from every pore of his body, from every cell of his being, Mother Sita heard the chant, ‘Sri Ram, Sri Ram’!
At the very beginning of the Ramayan, Goswami Tulsidas asserts that the epic’s beauty lies in the fact that it has Ram naam, the Lord’s name, in it. The ratna is Ram naam and its embodiment is Hanuman. The presence of Sri Hanuman bestows perfection and beauty; it bestows success, and the most impossible tasks become possible through his grace.
