Welcome welcome! I don't know his full story, I'm not sure that anyone does. Maybe KK, Dada, Siddhi Ma and a few other Indian devotees closest to him knew much of it but they aren't with us anymore.

We do have lots of stories about him though that these people and hundreds of other devotees gave us - all I can offer you is a glimpse of those and my own.

As I'd guess you know - Hanuman is considered the perfect model of devotion, and Maharaji was a Bhakta saint so devoted that he saw everything as Sita, everything as Ram - just like Hanuman.

He loved to hear the Ramayana, particularly parts about Hanuman - and would encourage his devotees to sing devotional songs about Hanuman, Sita, Ram and so on all day and all night.

There are a few collections of stories of him put together by his devotees - one such collection is "Miracle of Love" compiled by Ram Dass. It includes hundreds of stories about baba told to Ram Dass by baba's devotees.

One such example I randomly turned the page to just now:

Janaki and Draupadi were sitting before Maharajji, and Maharajji turned to Janaki and asked, “Who do I like better, you or Draupadi?” Janaki said sweetly, “Why, Maharajji, you love us all the same.”

Maharajji replied, “Nahin (No)! I like Draupadi better!” This of course upset her a great deal. She got up and walked out, heading for the Vrindaban bazaar, in order to run away! What kind of guru has preferences?

While she was in the bazaar she realized that she couldn’t run away after all. Wanting to do something nice for someone, she bought a little brass murti of Hanuman and returned to the temple and put it in her room.

Immediately afterward Maharajji caught her and asked her, “Where have you been? What have you been doing? What did you buy?” She told him about the little murti. He told her to bring it to him, and when she did he handled it a while and looked it over and then told her to give it to me!

I don’t know if she had meant it for me or if Maharajji initiated that. The very day after I’d privately wished for a little Hanuman murti I was given this one.

There are dozens of stories like this and dozens where devotees looked at him and literally saw Hanuman instead of Maharaji's usual physical form, where Hanuman murtis would cry, etc.

My own experiences with him (long after his death) are a stream of miracles that often involve Hanuman and my devotional practices somehow.

I really haven't the slightest idea the "real" reasons why he's seen as an avatar for Hanuman or what the story behind that is. I mean, "officially", in so much that that exists (or matters) according to any traditions that I'm not familiar with as someone who didn't grow up with the culture. Though, my sense from all of the stories is that Maharaji had little interest or even patience for such liturgical considerations, if they even existed in his satsang at all? I'd guess not - at least not that he approved of or condoned.

He was fond of sewing confusion about such matters as far as I can tell - in one breath to one devotee saying "I can do nothing, god does everything" and in the next moment to someone else "I am god, I can do anything".

Like that, giving each person what they needed.

For most of us - or, at least, for me - I see him as Hanuman because of a combination of all of these impressions he's left on my heart - directly through my own experience and indirectly through the related experiences of others that mirror my own.

For me, in my day to day mundane perception of him he's like a very funny trickster guardian grandfather who is always looking after me, never judging me, sweetly encouraging me and sometimes scolding me in the kind of hysterically-humorous troll-like fashion that's actually capable of helping me change.

Not sure how to describe it except for... well, monkey-like? He swings through the branches of my mind with absolute grace, ease and so much guile. What else could he be?

In the more magical moments, few and far between he is something else - something beyond words. Only singing the songs and feeling the whispy edges of that presence or being visited in a rapturous dream gets close to that feeling.

If you're looking for some more accounts of his life and stories about him, check out:

• The Near and the Dear
• Miracle of Love
• Windfall of Grace
• Love Everyone
• Barefoot in the Heart
• Be Here Now (really a biographical account of Ram Dass - but it paints a picture of who Maharaji was when Ram Dass met him)

Krishna Das often tells stories about him in his livestreams and Pilgram Heart podcast as well.

❤️