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Today is the divine day of Hanumānjī. There are countless bhajans about him. I believe nearly sixty percent of the holy book, the Rāmāyaṇa, mentions the name of Hanumānjī. God Rāma had two sons, Lava and Kuśa, and their story concludes. Who were his grandchildren? Who were his great-grandchildren? Nobody knows; they are forgotten. But the bhakta, like Hanumānjī, is still there. Everyone remembers Hanumānjī, the devotee—not the children and the family, but the bhaktas. All bhaktas who were part of God Rāma's divine play had great, profound meaning. Among them, the hero of the bhaktas was Hanumānjī: mighty Hanumān, powerful Hanumān, the best in every aspect. God had confidence in him—confidence that he would carry on His message and that he would protect His bhaktas. So, all went to Brahmaloka with God Rāma, or Vaikuṇṭha, or whatever you call it. As Hanumānjī was coming, Rāma said, "Hanumān, you will stay here. You will stay in this mṛtyuloka, in this mortal world, and you will protect the bhaktas and creatures." Since that time, Hanumānjī has been traveling around the world. It is not easy; perhaps it took a long, long time. But Rāma felt that Hanumān is a worthy one, so He essentially gave the position of Rāma Himself to Hanumānjī. Thus, he was the successor of Rāma. This blessing He can only give if He sees you as worthy. There were many thousands, even millions, of devotees around Him, including His own two sons, Lava and Kuśa. Yet, they did not receive the spiritual heritage. There is a story. It is said that Buddha had one very faithful, meaningful, and great person as his disciple. Buddha was a Hindu, born a Hindu, the son of a Hindu king. When Buddha attained enlightenment—"enlightenment" in Sanskrit is Buddha, from Bodha; Bodh means knowledge; that knowledge means enlightenment—so this consciousness is referred to as the Buddha. The forgotten Buddha body and everything... the background: Buddha was a very strict and pure vegetarian, a follower of Ahiṃsā. This Buddha, a great master, had many disciples. One was called Aśoka Samrāṭ—Samrāṭ means emperor. You will see on the Indian flag, in the middle, there is a cakra, and this is known as the Aśoka Cakra. That Emperor Aśoka ruled over all of India, which then spread to Turkey, all of Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, including Tibet, parts of China, Bali, and all these islands. It was one continent, called India at that time. The emperor of Rāma's time... you know the islands called Suvarṇadvīpa, Bali Island; these are all meaningful names in the Rāmāyaṇa. It is not only within India that God Rāma is remembered and His life performed as Rāmlīlā, but in many other countries too—Taiwan has beautiful plays and dances of Rāma, and Hanumānjī is in Indonesia. Aśoka was spreading the spirituality of Buddha's teaching. It is not easy to give a master's teaching further, to spread this divine message. It is not a prasāda that you simply hand out. It is not some letters you send to everybody. You must enter into the consciousness of the bhaktas to ensure they realize the message of your Lord. It is not so easy, and many fail—many, many fail because selfishness and ego arise. That is what creates svayaṃbhu masters, self-made masters. So, ego... many of them thought, "I was Rāma's closest one, I was near Rāma." They jumped into Rāma's boat to go to heaven. Hanumānjī was standing there, waiting for the command, waiting for instructions. Among them all, it was Hanumānjī who received this place. Now, King Aśoka, Emperor Aśoka, was going to die any day. He had one daughter—if he had sons, I do not know—but it is said he had only one daughter, named Saṅghamitrā. Aśoka could not die; he was somehow nervous and sad. Perhaps he was praying to God: "Please help me, wait, let me wait a little bit more, a few more breaths. I have not found someone to whom I can give my treasure, the treasure of my kingdom." Saṅghamitrā came and asked her father, "Dear father, what can I do for you? Please be assured I will do all that you wish, so you may go in peace." Without any doubt, Emperor Aśoka had tears in his eyes. A very old man, he said, "My dear daughter, you know there are so many people waiting to get my kingdom, to be the successor as emperor. But none of them is ready to take my spiritual kingdom, the legacy of my master, Buddha. That is one of the great sorrows in my heart: who will bring this message of my master to the world?" She said, "I will do it, Father." He said, "Yes, my daughter, I know you will do it." But she said, "What do you mean by 'but,' Father?" "But, daughter, you are the property of somebody else. You know ladies, girls had to marry and go with their husband. It was very rare for a husband to go with her to her home. Ladies had to follow what the husband says—poor ladies. That is why now, in this modern time, in this democracy, ladies are getting clever; they do not do what he says. Then she says, 'Okay, I will go hurry home, and you stay home'—divorced. It is not easy to get divorced; it is not that easy. There is some joy in it. There must be something which brought you to this point—that beloved one whom you loved and married—now the question of divorce arises. There must be something that only your heart knows; others do not know." Saṅghamitrā said, "Father, I bow before you and make a saṅkalpa: I will not marry; no bamboo, no flute, no noise." He blessed her and said, "My dear daughter, this tyāga, this renunciation, is not so easy." She said, "Father, it is very easy. You will always be in my heart. This is my surrender, my offering to you, my father. I feel worthy to be your daughter, and I feel worthy to carry on the spiritual message of Master Buddha." And then he died. Now she began to preach. People came in big crowds to see her. She moved towards China, these islands, this part of the world, Sri Lanka. But she found that no one was truly following. When her lecture was announced, hundreds and thousands of people came, but nobody took the teaching of Buddha to heart. In what way? People came only to see her, her beauty, because she was a very beautiful woman. So you see, hundreds and thousands of men sitting—they only came to see how beautiful you are and how you talk. The rest they did not care about. "Okay, thank you." She went to her room and said, "Is my physical beauty the obstacle to bringing the message of my master, my father?" She ordered spirit and acid, took a full cup of acid, closed her eyes, and poured it on her face. Her whole face was burned; the skin was burned. She underwent Āyurveda treatment. At that time, there was not much allopathic treatment; Āyurveda was the best, as it still is now. Then people felt her tyāga, her offering, and they followed her wisdom. Rapidly, what they called Buddhism—they said Hinduism, so they called it Buddhism—this message of the Buddha spread. That is called an offering; that is called renunciation. That is called jñāna and vairāgya. That is called the inner feeling to bring the message of the Master. That person becomes the successor who inherits the spirituality of the master. All others may get something, but only a few will have the rights. You cannot say now who will be that one. It is not good to decide ahead. If you are a clever master who is listening on television also, do not appoint your successor now. Otherwise, your successor will very soon become dominant and say, "You, Master, okay, but you go to your room; you have nothing to say." That's it. Many, many masters are sorry that they announced or posted a successor. So take time. At the last minute, it may change. You never know how a human is changing, how human thoughts can change. You know, out of twelve disciples, Jesus felt that one must be there, someone who was believed a traitor. No one could imagine it. And that one was before a great devotee, doing everything perhaps that Jesus wanted, but he changed. So, it changes in everyone, something. It is not easy to receive that blessing. Thus, Rāma's spiritual heritage was inherited by Hanumānjī. And Hanumānjī has that kind of power. Hanumānjī is the symbol of protection. Especially, no ghost, no bad spirit, no negative energy can come near Hanumānjī. The ghosts, negative spirits, negative energies—they are scared of Hanumānjī from a far distance. Only Hanumānjī said, "Oh, they are running." That power is the spiritual power of Hanumānjī. So Tulsīdāsjī wrote the beautiful Hanumān Chālīsā. People should read it every day with devotion; they should read it. Chālīsā means forty: the forty lines, that is all. The forty ślokas describe the power of Hanumānjī. So, on this very auspicious day, I bless you all in the name of our spiritual lineage, God Rāma, Hanumānjī, and everyone. This is a spiritual day, a special day.