Om Shirdi Sai Ram.
Namaste.

Lord Hanuman

Lord Hanuman is worshipped all over India with various names like Anjaneya, Hanumanji, Maruti,Bajrang Bali, Mahavir ,Pavan Kumar. He was born to the Wind God and Anjana Devi. He is one of the seven chiranjeevis(immortal ones). The Sun God Surya is considered as his Guru.The Valmiki Ramayana has a seperate section called Sundara Kandam or Sundar kand, which describes in detail the leelas of Lord Hanuman is his search for Sita , across the sea.

The Sundara Kandam comprises 2885 verses and the word Sundara means beautiful.The esoteric significance of the sundara kandam is important. The ocean represents the ocean of samsara. Lord Rama represents the paramatma and Sita devi represents the jivatma. Hanuman represents the Guru or Divine teacher.

:: Origin of Sri Panchamukha Hanuman ::

The origin of Sri Panchamukha Hanuman can be traced to a story in the Ramayana. During the war between Lord Ram and Ravana, Ravana took the help of Mahiravana who was the king of pathala.

Lord Hanuman in order to protect Lord Ram and Lakshman formed a fortress with his tail. But Mahiravana took the form of Vibeeshana and took Lord Ram and Lakshman to pathala loka.

Hanuman entered pathala loka in search of Rama and Lakshmana.He found out that to kill Mahiravana he had to extinguish 5 lamps at the same time. So he took the Panchamukha form with Hanuman, Hayagriva, Narasimha, Garuda and Varaha faces and extinguished the lamps. Mahiravana was killed immediately.