Hanuman remembers his strength: why some children need to be reminded who they are

The short answer: When the search party for Sita reaches the ocean and no one can make the leap to Lanka, the old bear Jambavan turns to Hanuman, who is sitting silent and apart. He reminds Hanuman of his birth as the son of the Wind God and of the strength he showed as a child. As Jambavan finishes, Hanuman rises and grows to an enormous size, ready to leap. For parents, it is a picture of a child whose ability is real but not yet believed.

What happens in the story?

In the Kishkindha Kanda, the monkey army searching for Sita reaches the southern shore and learns that she is held in Lanka, across the sea. One by one, the leaders say how far they can jump. None of them can reach the island and come back. The old Jambavan says he once could, but his strength is gone.

Then he looks at the one warrior who has said nothing (Griffith's translation, Kishkindha Kanda, canto 66):

"Why still, and silent, and apart,
O hero of the dauntless heart?"

What does Jambavan remind Hanuman of?

He tells Hanuman his own story. His mother Anjana was a heavenly being born on earth, and his father is Vayu, the Wind God. As a newborn, Hanuman saw the rising sun, thought it was a fruit and leapt into the sky to seize it, until Indra's thunderbolt struck him down and injured his jaw, the hanu that gives him his name. When the grieving Wind God stilled the breath of the worlds, the gods gave the child boons of protection. Jambavan ends by telling him plainly that he alone can do what the moment needs.

And then, at the very end of the canto:

"He spoke: the younger chieftain heard,
His soul to vigorous effort stirred,
And stood before their joyous eyes
Dilated in gigantic size."

In the next canto, Hanuman speaks of his own power with complete confidence, and soon he makes the leap to Lanka.

Why had Hanuman forgotten his strength?

The Kishkindha Kanda shows the forgetting but does not explain it. The explanation comes in the Uttara Kanda (sarga 36 in the usual numbering), where we learn that as a child Hanuman's mischief so troubled a group of sages that they laid a curse on him: he would forget his powers until someone reminded him of them. So the reminder is not flattery. It is the key that the story itself requires.

What can a parent take from this?

Some strengths are invisible to the child who has them. Hanuman was not lazy or afraid. He was silent because he genuinely did not know what he could do. Many teenagers are the same. The child who quietly fixes every gadget in the house may not think of it as a talent. The child who is always the one friends call when upset may not know that is a skill with a career attached.

The reminder must be specific and true. Jambavan does not say "you can do anything". He tells Hanuman exactly who he is and what he has already done. That is the difference between empty praise and real encouragement. Children believe evidence.

The reminder often comes from outside the family. Jambavan is an elder of the group, not Hanuman's parent. Teachers, coaches, grandparents and mentors can say things a child will not hear from us. Part of a parent's job is to put the right Jambavans in a child's life.

This is the spirit in which we built the DharmaCode report: not to label a child, but to describe in plain words the strengths a parent has already seen, so that the child can hear them clearly.

Frequently asked questions

Who reminded Hanuman of his powers?
Jambavan, the aged king of the bears, in the Kishkindha Kanda of the Ramayana, just before the leap to Lanka.

Why is Hanuman called Hanuman?
According to the story Jambavan tells, the infant Hanuman was struck by Indra's thunderbolt and injured his jaw, or hanu, and he was named for that injury.

Where is this story in the Ramayana?
In the Kishkindha Kanda, canto 66 of Ralph T. H. Griffith's translation. The curse that made Hanuman forget his powers is described in the Uttara Kanda.