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The hungry and the frightened seek combat and conquest, hence vijay—victory where someone is defeated. The wise seek a different kind of victory, jai—where no one is defeated, where the self is able to conquer its own hunger and fear to acknowledge, appreciate, even accommodate the other. Both jai and vijay seem to mean the same thing, ‘hail’ or ‘victory’, but there is a nuance in the meaning, the preference for internal victory in the case of jai over external victory in the case of vijay. This jai is what we want for Hanuman, and from Hanuman, as we read the Hanuman Chalisa.
In Hindu mythology, there are two kinds of gods: the greater ones who self-created and are hence beyond space and time, immortal and infinite, and the lesser ones who are born to parents and are hence located within space and time, are mortal and finite.
Primary status is given to Shiva and Vishnu who are described as self-created. Vishnu voluntarily takes a mortal form as Ram, thus striding both categories. Hanuman, however, does not fit so neatly into the second category: yes, he takes birth on earth, but he is also described as immortal (Chiranjivi). There are no stories of his death.
Bhima is as strong as Hanuman, but he lacks Hanuman’s humility. While Hanuman is content being a messenger (doot) for Ram, as he is born of a monkey, Bhima feels entitled because he is born of a princess.
Destiny makes Hanuman a monkey, he chooses to serve Ram, not for wealth and power, but for wisdom—the realization of the divine potential.
When Hanuman revealed himself, he showed Bhima his awesome form (virat-swarup), making Bhima realize the insignificance of his physical strength and social position.
king uses his power to serve people and create an ecosystem where people can outgrow hunger and fear.
In Buddhist mythology, vajra refers to thunderbolt and diamond, and is a metaphor of incisive analytical abilities. Vajrapani is a guardian of the Buddha and a fearsome deity who strikes the ignorant down and grants the wise incisive, analytical abilities.
In folklore, he was born wearing an adamantine loincloth made of thunder, or diamond (vajra-kaupina), to reaffirm his celibacy, and his association with orders of ash-smeared, trident-bearing, warrior-hermits.
Hanuman is typically offered items sought by wrestlers and bodybuilders: til (sesame) oil, rai (mustard) oil, and urad (black gram) seeds, which build up muscle mass, and are traditionally considered ‘hot’ ingredients, firing up the body with energy.
Our psychological birth takes place when we accept a guru who reveals to us the secrets of the Vedas. The mark of psychological birth is the sacred thread made of munja grass that hangs over the left shoulder. This thread has three strings representative of the Hindu trinity: Brahma, Vishnu, and Shakti. It also reminds us that while animals have only one body (physical), humans have three (physical, psychological and social).
That Hanuman holds a weapon in his hand establishes him as a warrior (Kshatriya). That he holds Ram’s flag establishes him as a servant (dasa, Shudra). That he has the sacred thread across his chest establishes him as a Brahmin, one who has accessed the Vedas. Thus the highest and the lowest stations of Vedic society (varna) are accommodated in Hanuman, a creature of the forest.
According to Shaivites, Shiva himself descended as Hanuman to destroy Ravana, an errant Shiva-bhakta. According to them, Ravana had offered his ten heads to Shiva and obtained boons that made him very powerful. But as Rudra, Shiva has eleven forms. Ravana’s offering of ten heads satisfied the ten forms of Rudra. The eleventh unhappy Rudra took birth as Hanuman to kill Ravana. Hence Hanuman is also Raudreya.
Later, when it is time to meet Sita in Lanka, he wonders if he should speak in Sanskrit again while introducing himself. But he has seen Ravana speak in Sanskrit, and fears Sita will assume he is an imposter: Ravana’s agent, or Ravana himself, posing as Ram’s messenger. So he speaks to her in the organic language spoken by common folk.
In the Hindu worldview, the world goes through cycles of re-birth and re-death, just like any other living creature. In each of its lifetimes (kalpa), the world has four phases, like all living creatures: childhood, youth, maturity and old age. These are the four yugas, identified as Krita, Treta, Dvapara, and Kali. The Ramayana takes place in Treta Yuga. Since the world has gone through infinite lifetimes, and in each kalpa there has been a Ramayana, everyone in every age knows the story of Ram. Anjana narrates to Hanuman stories of Ram from an earlier kalpa.
In stories, Hanuman observes Ram’s relationship with Lakshman and Sita, and realizes how Ram’s brother and Ram’s wife complete him, and how he completes them. When Hanuman places all three of them in his heart, he is essentially placing in his heart the idea of relationship: that the self is incomplete without the other; that the self exists in an ecosystem of others.
Hanuman is thus no ordinary creature—he is a shape-shifter who knows what shape other people respond to.
In Hinduism, God is constantly playing games (leela) nudging the devotee-child to realize his divine potential. Thus God can expand or contract, encompass infinity (virat-rupa), and change shape and size for the benefit of all living creatures.
Furious, unnerved, the king of Lanka orders his soldiers to set Hanuman’s tail on fire. Hanuman responds by twirling his tail in every direction, setting fire to Ravana’s beautiful palace and the city of Lanka around it, before leaping off the island-kingdom.
In art, Hanuman images can be classified into two types depending on the location of the tail: if it is lowered, it indicates the gentle (saumya) form with which Hanuman approached Sita and Ram; if Hanuman’s tail is raised, it indicates the fierce (rudra) form with which Hanuman stood up to Ravana.
On his way to Lanka, Hanuman encounters three female demons—Simhika, Surasa and Lankini—who protect Lanka from intruders.
While he first contracts and then expands to escape Simhika, Hanuman expands and later contracts to escape Surasa, the mother of serpents. While he uses brute force to kill Simhika, he uses cunning to escape Surasa.
The demon embodies obstacles that come in the way of success. Crushing him marks the crushing of obstacles. That is why Hanuman is called the remover of obstacles (sankat-mochan).
These indicate Hanuman’s association with wisdom (horse), valour (lion), vision (eagle) and tenacity (boar).
As Hanuman rises to the sky, Ravana catches sight of him, and figuring out his mission, summons the magician Kalanemi and orders him to create obstacles so that Hanuman does not find the herb, and even if he does, he does not return before sunrise.
The crocodiles turn out to be apsaras, celestial damsels cursed by Indra to live on earth as reptiles until liberated by a monkey.
The mountain being carried by Hanuman was called Govardhan. He felt bad that he would not see Ram. So Hanuman promised Govardhan that in a future birth, Ram would surely see him. So Ram took birth as Krishna in the Dvapara Yuga, and grew up on the slopes of Govardhan and even lifted him up with his little finger.
Knowledge has to be internalized, transformed into wisdom, not memorized. Brahma is beheaded because he chooses the path of the brahmin (crumpled mind that seeks to dominate others using his knowledge and position) rather than the path of the brahmana (expanded mind that internalizes the Vedas and so feels no urge to dominate).
use Saraswati not to cling to wealth (which is a mark of hunger) or dominate others (which is a mark of fear), but to outgrow his hunger and fear.
Hanuman is therefore considered a force that can change our destiny, influence the power of the grahas, remove their malevolent influence and enable their benevolent influence.
But Surya refused to be Hanuman’s teacher arguing that he was busy travelling all day and at night he had to rest and so had no time to teach. Hanuman then began flying in front of the sun’s chariot, facing the sun, suffering his glaring heat, determined to learn whatever the sun god could share during his daily journey from the east to the west. Impressed by this display of determination, the sun—who is lord of all grahas—taught Hanuman many things, amongst them how to counter the ill effects of dangerous planets, plants and animals. Therefore, one prays to Hanuman in times of crisis.
The concept of ‘value’ exists only amongst humans. For animals, food has value. For humans, an object becomes valuable based on what meaning we attribute to it. Meanings are given randomly. They are cultural: of a set of people, by a set of people, for a set of people, making no sense to outsiders or non-humans.
Just as humans give value to things, we also give value to gestures. Animals recognize only two kinds of gestures—those that threaten their security, and those that assure them of security.
About 500 years ago, Europeans who visited India used the word ‘caste’ for jati, as it reminded them of the clan system in Europe where blood purity mattered greatly.
The doorkeepers of Vaikuntha are called Jaya and Vijaya. The doorkeepers of the sacred groves of the Goddess are called Maya and Laya. Nandi the bull is Shiva’s doorkeeper and vehicle (vahana). Hanuman is Ram’s doorkeeper, messenger, secretary, and strongman.
Ram dropped his ring in a crack in the palace floor and requested Hanuman to fetch it. Hanuman entered the crack in the palace floor in the form of a bee, only to discover it was a tunnel leading to the land of serpents (Naga-loka) where he found a mountain made of Ram’s rings. He wondered what was the secret. To this Vasuki, king of the nagas, said, ‘The world goes through cycles of birth and death just like all living creatures. Just as every life has a youth, so does the world have a Treta Yuga when Ram rules the world. In this yuga, each time, a ring falls from Bhu-loka to Naga-loka, a
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Doctors have always known that many physical ailments such as insomnia, skin rashes, allergies, asthma, hypertension and indigestion are actually psychosomatic—having their origins in the mind—and so calming the restless and frightened mind, by a rhythmic, repetitive activity, like chanting God’s name, arrests unnecessary thoughts and resolves many health issues too.
Offerings to Hanuman include preparations of urad dal, til and butter that are rich in protein and fat, necessary for fighting disease, firing up the metabolism and lubricating the joints.
Hanuman becomes a form through which a devotee in stress can regain hope and strength. The act of praying to him, concentrating on him, gives strength—strength to be patient until fortune arrives, and strength to face misfortune when it arrives. Hinduism turned the act of prayer into simultaneously an external theistic practice (invoking God) and yogic practice (de-crumpling the mind crumpled by stress).
The chariot of desire is not the only force that governs the world. There is also karma, the cycle of actions and reactions. We may or may not get what we desire, but we certainly get what we deserve, based on the reactions of the past, and the actions of the present.
Hanuman lives across the four ages, hence he is also called Chiranjivi, the immortal one.
Embodied, ‘Siddhi’ and ‘Nidhi’ can be seen as Tantrik forms of Saraswati and Lakshmi.
The various siddhis are the ability to reduce one’s size (anima), expand one’s size (mahima), make oneself heavy (garima), make oneself weightless (laghima), acquire anything from any space (prapti), satisfy any desire (prakamya), duplicate oneself (ishtva), and dominate all (vastva).
In Nath folklore, if a yogi acquires power by resisting sex, then the yogini acquires power by seducing the yogi. This makes them antagonists.
Our intelligence is controlled by our ego (aham) and only a guru’s guidance can help us break free from ego, and discover our soul (atma), our true self, that fears no death, is neither hungry nor insecure, and so can empathize with the other (para-jiva).
Happiness in Hinduism is of two types: material and spiritual. In material happiness, our desires are met. In spiritual happiness, we outgrow desire itself.
But according to this verse, simply chanting the Hanuman Chalisa will invoke Hanuman who will grant us spiritual happiness. This outgrowing of desire is liberation.
In Hindu mythology, humans are born in debt and incur more debt by indulging desires. Liberation happens when we repay this debt, and incur no more debts.
Liberation could only follow the fulfilment of worldly obligations. In other words, after retirement!
Perhaps one day, having achieved all that we desire, we will realize how desire never ends, and will see the futility of achievement, and so become witnesses ourselves of the world, and the hunger that motivates people to act and react, die and be reborn.
