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  Chandan is also used a lot. What is its importance?

  Chandan and bhasm are to be considered together. Chandan is used more in the Vaishnava parampara (worship of Vishnu), and bhasm in the Shaiva parampara (worship of Shiva). Chandan sticks have to be moistened with water and rubbed on a rough base to produce the paste. The more you rub the more paste you will extract—you have to work for it. While its fragrance is released immediately, you must wait for a while after applying it for the colour to start showing. You have to trust it will be revealed. This is a symbol of karma. Once you work, you will get the fruit of your labour. Don’t worry about it; it’ll start showing slowly. This concept is associated with the Vaishnava parampara.

  Bhasm is produced by burning sticks. Anything you burn is reduced to bhasm (ashes). You don’t have to work for it. This gives you an idea of death and mortality. Nothing is permanent. Ultimately, you’ll be turned to ash. Shiva, who is a vairagi, smears it all over his body. When he burns Kama (god of pleasure) with his third eye, he reduces him to ash. You’ll never know from the ash whether it is of a king’s or a pauper’s, a sinful person’s or a righteous one’s. At the Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, they use ash from the crematorium in the maha aarti. People these days don’t like that practice so they use ash of cow dung (gobar). But, in the Tantra parampara, they’ll say that ash is ash, regardless of whether it’s from cow dung or a crematorium. Shiva does not differentiate between them since he’s a vairagi.

  According to the Vaishnava parampara, you must have rules to run a household (ghar-grihasti); there will be the caste (varna) system; there’ll be good and bad; you’ll keep something inside and something outside the house. There is a belief in hierarchy. Chandan and bhasm are for anointing (uptan), but both send out different messages.

  In the Shaiva parampara people apply three horizontal lines on their foreheads while the Vaishnavas apply two vertical lines. What do these signify?

  These are pundra or marks. Hinduism is broadly divided into three groups—Shaiva, Vaishnava and Shakta. In the Shakta tradition, haldi and kumkum are used. Parvati puts haldi on her body; she creates Ganesha with it. Kartikeya, her second son, is said to have been born from kumkum. This is related to her fertility, motherhood.

  The Vaishnava tradition is associated with chandan—gopi chandan (made of clay) and regular chandan.

  The Shaiva tradition is associated with bhasm—gobar (dung) and shamshan (from the crematorium), for the vairagis.

  The Vaishnava tradition is associated with action, doing things, living in society. Vishnu takes different avatars, like Rama and Krishna, to accomplish things. To show action, vertical lines are used. As we know from physics, to keep things vertical requires energy. So these vertical lines go upwards, not downwards. There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, why is the head important? All life’s problems arise from there, as do solutions. Therefore, the head is anointed to remind you that you are human because of it. Invention, ego, all of them arise here. After cremating a body, the head or skull is broken because it’s where the atma will depart from the body. In the middle of the lines, a red tilak is applied going upwards (symbol of the material world, or Devi)—almost as if it is being kept in a vertical chandan cup of sorts. Some say this symbolizes Vishnu’s feet. What we associate with the sense organs is red, while the atma is depicted through chandan. So the mark symbolizes the balance of the atma and the sense organs; material world with wisdom. That’s why Vishnu is called the preserver.

  Shiva can destroy all three worlds, so three lines to signify Swarga, Naraka and Bhu-loka. Also, the three bodies in Hinduism—sthul shareer (physical body), sukshma shareer (mental body) and karan shareer (property, made of our karma)—are represented. The lines are horizontal to show death.

  Just as there is atma in the body, there’s meaning in every ritual.

  I’ve seen people apply tika not only on their foreheads but also on their arms, ears, chest, neck. What does this mean?

  Different sampradaya and parampara have different rules. Meanings are different in the north and south, east and west. Broadly, the principle is that all those gods and goddesses we talk about, they exist within us as well. In our arms, throat, ears. So that I can listen to god properly, chandan is applied on the ears. My words (vachan) should be those of god, so it’s applied on the throat. I am praying to the god of the throat, ear, hands. Gods and goddesses sit in every part of our body.

  Again, we are acknowledging our body—annakosh, or flesh. We are not like the vairagis who smear bhasm, rejecting their bodies altogether to enable themselves to go towards the atma. This is the opposite (viprit) of that. The body has value, it is our atma’s chariot. Through this medium, we can experience the world, so we must worship it. Just as we perform god’s aarti, we do the same to our body by bathing, applying chandan, sindoor, cosmetics. This is basically to celebrate our body.

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  Hanuman

  Hanuman is called by various names—Vayuputra, Anjaniputra, Kesarinandan. Why does he have so many names? What is the story of his birth?

  There was a monkey (vanara) called Anjani. Vayu deposits Shiva’s seed in her body, in some stories through her ear. As a result, Hanuman is born. Anjani’s husband is Kesari, so he is called Kesarinandan. Because he is borne by Anjani, he’s also called Anjaniputra. He’s born of Shiva’s seed so he is Shiva’s ansh (of Shiva); and because Vayu brings the seed, his name is also Vayuputra.

  There are several stories about Hanuman’s birth. In one, Shiva and Parvati took the form of monkeys and Hanuman was born to them.

  Is that why many people believe Hanuman to be a form of Shiva?

  There is no such mention in the Valmiki Ramayana. Nearly 500 years ago, Tulsidas, in his Ramayana, associated Hanuman with Shiva. From there many stories originated which connected the two. In some, Hanuman is said to be an avatar of Shiva who is born to help Rama, an avatar of Vishnu. This association could be because Hanuman is a brahmachari. Many Vaishnavas do not like this association. But in the Shaiva parampara, Hanuman is considered Shiva’s roop, avatar, son. Different sampradayas and paramparas have different stories about this.

  Another story says that Rama and Sita took the form of monkeys and Hanuman was born to them. According to yet another, when Dashratha was performing a yagna, a part of the payas (potion) that emerged from the fire—from which his four sons were born—was taken to Anjani by a bird from which Hanuman was born.

  Hanuman was believed to be very naughty as a child. Tell us some of his childhood stories.

  Hanuman was very mischievous and unaware of his own strength. There is a famous story about how he thinks the sun is a ber, a fruit, and flies towards it. Surya, scared that the child will swallow him up, invokes the king of the devas. Indra intervenes and stops Hanuman by throwing his powerful Vajra at him. Vayu catches Hanuman midway as he is falling towards earth, and is angry at how his son has been treated. The gods and goddesses ask for his forgiveness and promise to make Hanuman even more powerful. All of them bless him. Concerned that it would be dangerous for Hanuman to have so much power at such a young age, the rishis make it so that he will not know his own power till the right moment; until then he will have no memory of it.

  Who was Hanuman’s guru?

  The god he was trying to catch as a child—Surya—became his guru. Hanuman is a very curious child and is always bursting with many questions. Exasperated, his mother tells him that all his questions can be answered only by Surya because he sees everything. So he goes to Surya and asks him to be his teacher. Surya says that he does not have time since he travels all day from east to west and is tired at night. To that Hanuman offers to fly in front of Surya’s chariot, facing him, so that the god can teach him. In some stories, Hanuman asks that if he were to plant one foot in the east and another in the west and faced Surya as he made his journey, could he teach him? Surya asks if he’ll be able to withstand the heat of his rays. Hanuman says, one has to undergo hards