Image: AshtangaNews.com

There’s a fine line between a leap of faith and a stupidly blind jump. I’ve been doing a lot of leaping and jumping lately, and I’m not sure whether I’m doing it out of faith or stupidity. I know Hanuman, the Monkey God, is known for his giant leap of faith. So I decided to do a little reading about Hanuman to find out if I’m in his good company… or just taking stupid risks.

Hanuman took his great leap to save Rama’s brother, Laksmana, who was wounded in battle. Hanuman took on the impossible task of leaping to another continent (the Himalayas) to get an herb to save him. When he got there, he didn’t know which herb to collect so he picked up the whole damn mountain and brought it back with him. It might have been a little clumsy, but it worked! It was a selfless expression of his devotion and love for Rama.

We each take little leaps every day–making little sacrifices for the ones we love the most and for a whole host of other reasons. We do the best we can. Sometimes we’re so strong we can carry a whole mountain across the ocean … other times we fall flat on our faces and the mountain clobbers us before we even really get going. The real act of faith is getting up and trying again.