| A few days after Lord Rama's coronation, Sita and the three brothers of Rama met and planned to exclude Hanuman from the seva of Rama.... They wanted to divide the responsibility of rendering the various services to Rama only among themselves. The reason they all felt that Hanuman had had enough chances serving their sweet Lord already.... And so, they drew up a list, as exhaustive as they could make it, of the many services from dawn till dusk, down to the smallest detail and assigned each item to one among themselves. They presented the list of items and assignees to the Lord, when Hanuman was present. Rama heard about the new procedure, read the list and gave His approval, with a smile. He told Hanuman that all the tasks had been assigned to others and that he could now take rest. Not believing what he had just heard, Hanuman prayed to Rama that the list be read once before him. And after it was done, Hanuman noticed that the task of 'snapping fingers when one yawns' had been left unassigned. He said that since Rama was an emperor, he should not be allowed to do it himself, as it had to be done only by a servant. Saying so, he pleaded to the Lord to grant him the opportunity to be that servant and Rama agreed. It came to be the greatest piece of fortune for Hanuman, as the task entailed Hanuman's constant attendance on his Master. After all, how could anyone predict when the yawn would come? And since he had to be ready with a snap, as soon as the yawn was on, it meant ... |
