Sweets for Hanumanji

On April 17th (2018) evening we reached Kaziranga forest guest house and while we were taking our luggage to our room, a calf came and stood near the car. 

I remembered that there were some plantains with us and I wanted to give one to the calf. But by the time I brought it out, the calf had walked away. I felt a little disappointed.

On 23rd of April we were in Guwahati and visited Basistha temple, which is a Shiva temple constructed by Ahom king Rajeshwar Singha in 1764 along with the gift of 835 bighas of land for the ashram. 

According to the legend, the ashram was founded by the great saint Basistha (Vasishta). There is a waterfall here, and the cave in which sage Vasishta is believed to have meditated is located 5 km inside the ashram.

                                             Cave where  Sage Vasishta meditated 

Hanumanji demanding sweet

When we reached the temple and as I got out of the car, a calf came towards me. As I took out a plantain from the car to give to the calf, I felt somebody pulling my dress with nails. It was a monkey and I got shocked, put the plantain inside the car and closed the door. By then the calf moved to the other side of the car and I told my husband to open the other door, take out the plantain and give to the calf, which he did.

A man nearby was watching this and told me, 'Give a plantain to the monkey, it is expecting one too.' I was considering it, when I saw some more monkeys approaching. I knew I couldn't give to all of them, so dropped the idea and went to the temple. But I felt a bit bad because I chant Hanuman chalisa daily and I didn't give plantain to the monkey when it asked for it.

On the next day we went to the Kamakhya temple. 

                                                                                     Kamakhya temple

                                                                              Bhairavi temple

When I came out after darshan in the main temple and was in front of the Bhairavi temple, suddenly a monkey appeared out of nowhere and snatched the plastic bag of prasad, with coconut, a packet of sweets, and a box of kumkum (that was precious for me) and ran off. It climbed a parapet, opened the bag, took out the packet of sweets and dropped the remaining to the ground. I reached the spot immediately and picked up my valuables. I was happy at this symbolic sweet offering to Hanumanji.

Similar incidence with my daughter

In 2013, at the Pashupatinath temple in Nepal, she sat along with her friends in front of the Bhairava temple to meditate. Due to lack of space, she kept the rudrakshas and the prasadam behind her. Sometime later, a monkey came, grabbed the pack of rudrakshas and ran away. My daughter was sad to lose the Rudraksh.

A stranger helped out, as they watched the monkey sit at an elevation, and asked for the prasadam, which he threw up at the monkey. As the monkey reached out for the sweets, it dropped the packet of rudraksha. She ran and picked it up, heaving a sigh of relief.

Bhairav and Bhairavi.

It is interesting to note where the two incidents happened, the first one in front of Bhairav temple, and the second one in front of Bhairavi temple. In both cases, the monkeys took away things from us while we were on the left side facing the temple and got it back from the right side.

Hanumanji blessed the kumkum for me and the rudraksha for my daughter!