INSIGHTS into HANUMAN CHALISA  

1.     Mobilisations through different worlds / spheres / realms of existence.

Verse 1: ” ………Hail Monkey Lord, whose light illuminates all the three worlds!”

Hanuman’s main and well-known characteristics of strength, speed, swift response, are also represented in his feature of mobilisation: swift mobilisation/travelling/flying, etc. What it also implies and includes the capacity of moving through realms, multiverses; dimensions; worlds, etc. His capacity of mobilisation through all these spheres of existence, vertically (three
worlds), as well as horizontal: past, present and future; and through parallel universes, is part of Hanuman’s blessings and Grace in your life.

 Yes, besides that traditional and general vision that He can bring the light to all the three worlds (seen vertically, in this case), it also implies that His mobilisation is able to illuminate, for you, some particular things/events/passages/words/images/advice, etc. from any of the three worlds; multiverses; time: past, present or future, etc., which may help you in your individual path, at certain moment. Perhaps in a dream, perhaps while meditating; perhaps during Japas; perhaps a sudden glimpse which appears during the day in a thought, or an image, etc. Such mobilisation and illumination are also the benefits of one who has gained Hanuman’s grace. He can bring glimpses, visions, knowledge, wisdom and gifts from all these plains of existence, which scape our common human perception. Perhaps that is also the reason why right in that very first verse of the Chalisa, in which the devotee asks for not only strength but also wisdom and knowledge, Hanuman is praised as The Ocean of Wisdom.

The Ocean of Wisdom, because as all oceans in this world, they are fed by different streams. So he feeds from different streams of existence, namely: from different worlds, realms, universes and timeframe (past, present, future), (Verse 1, Victory to Hanuman, the Ocean of Wisdom).

Whether you conceive The Son of the Wind as an external deity, a cosmic force or, as some Yoga traditions, as an internal process which activates the pranas and……, etc, etc. Hanuman’s ability to respond to, manifest or illuminate certain things of any of those realms or spheres of existence, which perhaps are not noticeable or perceivable to us, is part of Hanuman’s blessings.

Once a Hanuman’s devotee, throughout a span of one month, started having dreams about him working in places he had not seen before and in professions he had not practised before (in this present context), but in the dream, he was so familiar with the places, skills, careers. In one of those dreams, he lived almost the entire story of himself in a company. From the moment he joined that company as a shy new employee, through the moment the owner had to sell the company to a bigger company and the fact that he had not told anyone in the company. Until seeing himself (in the same dream) as a senior, old employee; having survived all that; talking with other senior colleagues about how, despite all what the company had endured throughout decades, they were still being there, working for a company which purpose was already a different one, etc. An entire story of decades about a working life he never had had was condensed in that dream only, not adding the other similar dreams of that month. Until one day, reading the Chalisa, he realised that what he had been dreaming were parallel universes of himself. The dreams were somehow, throwing him ideas of what to do next in his life, for he was between phases of life at that time.

That is why it is also seen in Verse 2: You are Rama’s messenger ………….., you are the son of Anjani and are called Pavannsut (son of the wind).

Messenger: As a divine messenger, his characteristics of mobility through realms, is something inherently indispensable.

As thus, He does not only bring to one what one needs at certain moment, and from any realm, as in the case of bringing a Lingam to Rama from Kailash (or Kashi, depending on the tradition), but He also delivers messages, as in the case of his visit to Sita, delivering Rama’s message.

Once at an Ashram in Rishikesh I met a practitioner who had been to Hanuman’s birthplace in Hampi with his wife, and it had been a special place for them. He used to do Japas on Hanuman’s mantra (when he was not too tired from the Ashram’s daily routine), sometimes pausing between some Japas, so to enter the silence in between: he then focused his mind on his wife and sent good wishes to her; as if he would be talking to her in person. One, two malas like this. He used to say that sometimes his wife used to feel it in different ways: sometimes he would suddenly come to her mind with love; sometimes she would feel as if he were there; sometimes she would feel as if he were saying something, not precisely what he had said during his Japas, but it was something she needed in that moment. What for him was precisely the intention: to send good wishes and positive feelings, not to send entire messages or telepathic transmissions; simply to send his love and good intentions. And the time-lapse too: he said that it was different each time: sometimes she would feel it the very next day, sometimes two or three days later, etc.

Mobilisation; manifestation from and of different realms/worlds/ of existence, he has access and capabilities to extract and bring virtues, blessings and manifestation from those realms. He was able to retrieve and bring Shiva’s blessings and presence: a Lingam, from Shiva’s abodes itself. Access, retrieval, bringing (mobilisation).

The Lingam:

In general, the Hanuman Chalisa states that the Hanuman’s worship fulfils all wishes and that there is no need to worship any other deity. But besides being the guardian to the door of Rama, it is also very well-known the special connection between Hanuman and Shiva: one of reciprocity without need of service, neither worship nor task entrusting. Hanuman has a direct access to Kailash as to retrieve Lord Shiva’s virtue and favour.  The Hanuman Chalisa itself asserts in the eighth verse: “O son of Kesari, you are Lord Shankara himself…………….”. And thus, the Shiva Purana also recounts a story on how Hanuman is a reincarnation of Lord Shiva himself. And so too, the verse forty-one of the Chalisa emphasizes: “One who recites this Hanuman Chalisa, attains success. Gauri’s consort (Lord Shiva) is witness to it” (some versions say: “Lord Shankara testifies it”).

Through Hanuman’s blessings one can reach Lord Shiva’s grace too.

Here too, whether you conceive Hanuman as a deity, a cosmic force or, as in many yogic tradition, as the awaken flow of the pranas and the Sushumna……, etc. (only a few can integrate these three in one single unit of experience); the special connection of Hanuman with that only-one who does not have a Guru and from who all Mantra proceeds and finds its origin, Lord Shiva: Dakshinamurthy is testified and testified.

Furthermore, even health and life are also manifested and brought by His grace. Not only did he fetch the plant that brought back health and life to Lakshmana, and which still causing some struggles to botanist to classify: the Sanjeevani herb. But also brought the entire realm where the plant dwells: the entire mountain. A massive mobilisation.

2.    Mobilisation, Manifestation through, from, of, different Time-lines

Well-known as a Cheeranjivi, it does not only imply that he has lived throughout the ages, but also the fact that He has the capacity to travel through them too. And to bring from.

Verse 29: Your magnificent glory radiates through all the four ages and is acclaimed in the whole world.

Here, at a more horizontal level (should one wishes to conceive it on that way) the capacity of Hanuman to mobilise/move/travel through spheres of time is inherent in him: the capacity to manifest in and from different time-points in one’s owns life as well as in history.

In here, as well as in Verse 3 (more vertical), a very important hint is given: Light (throw light, etc): to radiate. It is the aim of his light to illuminate chapters, events, happenings, etc. His blessing and great part of his guidance; his protection; his virtue.

There is no need to elaborate on what that contemporary heavy body of knowledge called science calls “time-travelling” (no serious spirit needs the confirmation of science). But here too, whether you conceive Hanuman as you want; as a Cheeranjivi; as a messenger to the divine; as the son of the Wind, mobilisation and manifestation in and from time, is an essential characteristic of Hanuman.

Do not be surprised that Hanuman’s blessings may lead you and mobilise you through passages in the past or even future of not only your life, but also of some happenings of the place, family, (perhaps country), and which are for the growth and as an aid on your path. Perhaps the recurrence of something that is showing you where and when a blockage from the past was imposed upon you; and this present recurrence is the opportunity to see it (his illumination) and thus, to break with it.

As the ocean of wisdom, who nurtures Himself with knowledge of the past, present and future (Cheeranjivi), Hanuman’s complete vision throws lights on the connection of things and events; and sometimes even if one does not perceive the light that clearly illuminates them in our path, it is His strength to continue walking and searching how His light manifest, too.

One should rest assured that the full vision might not be accessible to us now, but the impulse that is still driving us to follow the wind that is blowing is His strength.

3.    Sizes

This is perhaps one of the most important features and blessings one can learn and acquire from Hanuman, as it embodies the perfect balance, equilibrium between strength and knowledge: his Wisdom !

Verse 9: “Assuming a minute form you appeared before Sita; then in formidable form, you burned Lanka”

It is an erroneous popular belief, mostly in these days of ridiculous Hollywood heroes, to conceive Hanuman as a big muscular Being, as if Hanuman as the “abode of incomparable strength” (verse 2) should obligatorily be at all times an immense, big looking figure with some ability to see everything little in comparison to himself.

The incomparable strength represented and graced by Hanuman is manifested hand-in-hand with His other main characteristic of wisdom. This, manifested on his capacity of knowing when to adapt a minute form and when a dreadful big one. Clearly shown in the three tests during his awe-inspiring leap to Lanka. And so with Surasa although the enlarging and growing of himself into an apparently bigger creature was a trick and the ultimate victory was achieved by the belittling of himself. And so repeatedly one can see in Hanuman that wisdom of knowing when one needs to show oneself small, humble and perhaps even completely belittle and when to rise to a bigger size. Not by anger; not by ego; not by …., but by an inner sensation that Hanuman experiences in our personal life wants to rise in a particular moment; it is rising, suddenly we feel that that familiar strength we have felt during our sadhanas, during our devotional time with Hanuman rising inside, as if spontaneous. Then it is when that strength has perceived through subtle feelings (sometimes imperceptible by our senses) that the circumstance deems it to grow.

Once a traveller who was a Hanuman devotee was travelling. He woke up one morning, his flight to another country was the next day. A little bit anxious about the trip, he found a book of Hanuman’s stories his wife had left on the bed, as she was reading them that early morning (it was a Tuesday). He took the booklet; it was opened in the story of Hanuman’s leap. For perhaps the tenth time in his life, he read it again, but this time he felt that something opened while reading it. At the height of Hanuman’s meeting with Sita, he knew that in the place where he was going to travel next day, he had to become in little form, so to reach not only the people he would meet, but also for making his trip safer and a successful one. A sort of cry came to his mind: “fly Hanuman”. And with that cry in his mind, he went later that day with his wife to the Hanuman temple for Darshan. He did not tell his wife about what he had felt while reading the stories. He simply went to the temple and with the conviction that that cry had provided him, went to the Darshan and took his plane next morning. That cry will stay with him during the subsequent trips he had during that period of time. When he flew to the next country, he would close his eyes during his Sadhana and say “Fly Hanuman”, meditating on Hanuman, “Fly Hanuman”…….. And he could feel that blissful stillness in response; guidance, etc. He learnt, through devotion, which form he should adopt in every situation and place he was going and passing through.

Trying to remain or to always give an image of greatness and invincibility, is precisely what starts destroying and deforming oneself, and ultimately produces the fall. Had Hanuman pretended to remain in a big form throughout the entire fly to Lanka amidst the arising events during the fly (as all endeavour in life is), he would have fallen much before reaching it; for life requires the constant enlargement and reduction of oneself.

4.    Connections.

Perhaps a characteristic derived from his capacity of mobilising through time & space: the capacity to create connections / alliances / and to relate people as well as entities and things.  In the Hanuman Chalisa, there are two consecutive verses which highlight this:

Verse 16: You rendered great service by making him meet Rama, which made him the King (of Kishkindha).

Verse 17: The whole world knows that Vibheeshana obeyed your advice and Became King of Lanka.

At least two Kings are made thanks to the grace of Hanuman.

When your heart is sincere and your wish, desire and vibrational state aligns with the cosmic order which preserves “The Whole” in Love and righteousness, Hanuman has that capacity of bringing not only people who also resonate with you and the Whole, but that precise person who is to bring you a great benefit at a given moment.

Vebheeshena was not precisely in the best of the circumstances, but his heart had preserved an intention of justice and righteousness. His judgement had not been corrupted. Then there is a space and a fertile ground for Hanuman’s words and blessings, from wherever they are coming. Because perhaps on this is where lies the most important of the practical issues and insights for us in all these four points: not the access, insights, advice, virtues or transfers from other realm or time-period, but the fact that our heart and entire self should be aligned with the cosmic unity & order through Hanuman’s blessings, and should remained so. At this level of transmission, they are brought for that precise aim; and for serving a higher spiritual purpose in one’s life and for the Whole. The same as with Siddhis, they are not for feeding egocentric attitudes, but for increasing the spiritual vibration and force of you into the Whole and the Whole in you.