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, 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 that Hanuman could not be away even for a
minute nor could he relax for a moment. His love and sincerity to be of
service to his Lord Rama had gotten him the best out of an otherwise
disappointing announcement.
True indeed it is that when we have sincere love for God, everything else falls
automatically into plac
