Some devotees keep a copy of the Hanuman Chalisa in English in their homes for daily prayer.
Hanuman Chalisa Chaupai 13 in English with Meaning & Analysis
Hanuman Chalisa Chaupai 13 Vishnu’s Avatar
सहस बदन
तम्हरो जस गावैं ।
अस कहि
श्रीपति कंठ लगावैं ॥
Sahas badan
tumharo jasa gaave.
Asa-kahi
Shripati kanth lagaave.
May thousands
sing your praises.
So saying
Shri’s husband (Ram) bugs you.
Hanuman Chalisa Chaupai 13 Meaning in English
With this verse begins the praise of Hanuman. Until now, we have focussed on the origin, the form and the feats of Hanuman. Now, we list all those who admire Hanuman’s glory. Ram tells Hanuman that thousands of beings will praise him. Here, Ram is identified as Shri-pati, lord of the goddess of fortune, meaning Vishnu.
In which case, the thousands who praise Hanuman could refer to Adi-Ananta-Sesha, the cosmic serpent with thousands of hoods on whose coils reclines Vishnu, on the ocean of milk. The linking of Ram to Vishnu means that Ramayana is being acknowledged as a subset of the Vishnu Purana, which in turn is a narrative expression of the Vedas.In the Vedas, Vishnu is a minor deity, a younger brother of Indra, his companion, but he has nothing to do with preserving the world.
He becomes a major deity-the preserver and protector of the earth-later in Puranic literature. In the Vedas, the king is identified with the conquering Indra and the moral Varuna, but in the Puranas, the king is identified with Vishnu, especially in the form of Ram, and Varuna is the god of the sea, father of Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune. Lakshmi chooses Vishnu as her guardian and consort. She manifests next to him as the embodiment of tangible assets (Bhu) and intangible value (Shri).
Sita of the Ramayana, is Lakshmi of the Puranas, who is Shri of the Vedas. The word ‘Shri’ is found in the Rig Veda, the oldest collection of Hindu hymns (mantra), over 4,000 years old, where it refers to affluence and abundance. In the Shri-Sukta, the goddess of fortune is invoked for grain, gold, cows, horses, children, wealth and health. The word ‘Shri’ also happens to be the first word in the Hanuman Chalisa, found in the very first doha, even before the word ‘guru’.
Some people believe that the guru being referred to in the doha is Sita herself, who is seen as Hanuman’s guru in some Shakta traditions. Thus, while Vaishnavas see Hanuman as Vishnu’s servant, and Shaivas see him as a form of Shiva, the Shaktas or Goddess worshippers saw Hanuman as a student of the Goddess, and Ram as the consort and guardian of the Goddess.
The Vishnu Purana informs us that Lakshmi was churned from the ocean of milk, a metaphor for domesticating and cultivating the forest. The division between the forests (aranya) and in the settlement (grama) is first found in the Sama Veda. In the Shiva Purana, the forest is Kali, mother of humanity, and the village is Gauri, daughter of humanity. Brahma is the creator, who turns forest into field, turns nature (prakriti) into culture (sanskriti) where human rules apply.
However, the world created by Brahma is full of conflict and sorrow. His children, the devas and the asuras constantly fight each other. And so Brahma is not worshipped. Instead, prayers are offered to Shiva, the hermit, who rejects wealth and power, and withdraws from society, and returns to the jungle for peace. Shiva, the opponent of Brahma, is therefore described as the destroyer. Brahma’s world brings prosperity but no peace. Shiva’s world brings peace but no prosperity.
Vishnu, the preserver, stands in between Brahma and Shiva. He gets Brahma’s quarrelling children to collaborate and churn Lakshmi out of the ocean of milk. Thus, like Brahma, he engages with society and generates and enjoys wealth, but unlike Brahma or his children, he does not sec himself as the controller of Lakshmi. Instead, like Shiva, he has inner peace not to crave control over the wealth he generates.
He is freely and fairly distributing it with detachment. This makes him Lakshmi’s ideal husband. He protects her, enjoys her, but does not seek to control her. That is why Vishnu is called Lakshmi-vallabha, the beloved of Lakshmi, and Shri-pati, lord of wealth.Vishnu descends on earth and takes various mortal forms, such as Ram, to show humans how to live life, generate, enjoy and distribute wealth without getting addicted to it.
He speaks of dharma, the human ability by which the self (sva-jiva) can make room for the other (para-jiva), thereby creating a society where there is both prosperity and peace. This combination of abundance and happiness constitutes the idea of Shri. Because he makes this happen, Vishnu (hence Ram) is identified as Shri-pati.
Hanuman Chalisa Chaupai 13 Analysis in English
sahasa badana tumharo jasa gavai
asa kahi shripati kantha lagavai ll13ll
The thousand-hooded snake will
always sing your fame
And Rama embraced you again and
again after saying this. (13)
With the death of Samsadan, the immediate danger was taken care of. But unknown to Kesari and Anjana, danger now loomed over their son, Hanuman. Samsadan had a son, Vrikshasura. When he heard about his father’s death, he vowed to take revenge. He waited patiently for the right time and when Hanuman was born, he decided that killing the enemy’s child would be appropriate revenge for the death of his father.
Vrikshasura, as the name suggests, had a boon of taking the form a tree. In the form of a tree, he would be free to kill Hanuman and still be above all suspicion. Additionally, he had the special skill of catching the enemy by his shadow. Using both his boons, he would surely succeed in taking his revenge.
One day Hanuman expanded himself to cover the entire sky. That was a good opportunity for Vrikshasura to catch his shadow. The shadow was huge enough to be within the stationary tree’s grasp. He quickly latched on to it and started pulling it towards him. As he dragged the shadow, Hanuman felt a force pulling him against his wish.
He quickly called out to his father Kesari, who began to pull him back. Hanuman was being pulled from both directions and it was getting difficult for him to bear the pain on both sides of his body. He finally did something to escape this attack. He reduced his size manifold. As soon as he did that, the shadow also shrunk and Vrikshasura had to let go of it. He could not hold on to a shadow that was out of his reach.
Relieved to be his normal self again, Hanuman decided to teach Vrikshasura a lesson. He surveyed the area from where he was getting pulled and recognized the demon tree. But the problem was that the moment he approached the tree, the demon would catch his shadow and devour him. If only he could stop the demon from eating him somehow. Hanuman decided to defeat the demon with his speed. He picked up a big stone and ran towards the demon, giving the demon no chance to react.
Before the demon could even realize what was going on, how Hanuman came so close to him, Hanuman had thrust the stone in his mouth with lightning speed. The stone in his mouth would not allow the demon to devour anything else. But Hanuman had miscalculated the demon’s size. The stone was not enough to stop the tree from devouring Hanuman. The tree, regaining his senses, caught hold of Hanuman’s shadow and in went Hanuman right into his mouth.
Meanwhile, Hanuman’s tail had tied itself around the tree, providing a pause in the demon’s plan of eating him. As the tree tried harder, the tail uprooted the tree further. The more he pulled Hanuman, more he himself got uprooted. Finally, the entire tree toppled over and fell on the ground, releasing Hanuman from his grip. And that was the end of Vrikshasura. His father had died at the hands of Kesari and the son had died by the tail of Kesari’s son.
It is believed that the demon was killed not by Hanuman, but by Hanuman’s tail. So does that make the tail a different entity? Hanuman had observed very early in life that unlike other monkeys, his tail did not obey him. Other monkeys always had their tails under their control. Whereas Hanuman’s tail did exactly what it wanted to do. All his friends made fun of him because he could not even control his own tail. That was the height of uselessness for a monkey, they mocked.
He enquired from his father why his tail was so disobedient. His father gave him valuable advice. He said that a monkey should always respect his tail. Make friends with it. From that day, Hanuman began to worship his tail and also referred to it as his Sakha.
And he was happily surprised and relieved when the tail soon began to respond to his thoughts. Why did Hanuman’s tail behave as it did? Why did it have a mind of its own? That’s because his tail was actually Parvati herself. Not wanting to be left alone, she had come along with her husband Lord Shiva on earth when incarnated as Hanuman.
After killing many dangerous demons, the entire world, including the thousand-hooded Anantashesha sings Hanuman’s glories, sahasa badana tumharo jasa gavai Ravana was jittery. He was afraid that Hanuman’s mighty power would sound his death knell.
Many demons had already lost their lives in trying to kill Hanuman. Every move Ravana made had failed. Now it was Chakrasura’s turn to enter Kesari’s kingdom and attack Hanuman. However, Hanuman’s fearful parents had put Hanuman under house arrest, refusing to let him go out to play.
Their beloved child had already survived many attacks and they did not want to take any more risks. So Hanuman remained confined to his house. Chakrasura, the whirlwind demon, entered the vanara kingdom, creating havoc and destruction. As luck would have it, Kesari was out for an urgent meeting and little Hanuman was alone for some time. Hanuman quietly escaped from the house, inquisitive to see what the demon was up to. As soon as Chakrasura saw Hanuman, he quickly captured him in a whirlwind motion. The more Hanuman tried to escape, the more stuck he got, going deeper and deeper into the storm.
Hanuman’s brain then started to work overtime. He noticed that the whirlwind did not enter any pit when the demon went over it. He also observed that the direction in which the demon moved was clockwise. He instantly had an idea. He began rotating anti-clockwise, which helped him get unstuck and he moved lower and lower till he could jump into a pit. He leapt into a pit as soon as the demon went over it. Finally, Hanuman, the intelligent baby, was free from the demon’s captivity.
Having lost Hanuman, the demon wandered all over, in search of him. Unfortunately for him, he encountered Hanuman’s friend. This friend had a damru (drum) given to him by Hanuman. Hanuman had received this toy from Vriksharaj, the vanara father of Sugriva and Vali. It was a magical one especially made to save Hanuman from any disaster. Hanuman had instructed his friend to play the damru whenever he was in trouble. Sensing trouble from Chakrasura, the vanara child began to play the damru.
The strange sound of the damru was unbearable for Chakrasura. The shrill sound pierced his ears and sabotaged his brain functioning. So much so that he couldn’t even think straight. He yelled at the monkey to stop playing but all in vain. The sound continued and Chakrasura was on the verge of fainting.
Meanwhile, Hanuman also joined his friend and with his added power, the volume of the sound doubled and then tripled. It was so horrific that the entire jungle was reeling under anxiety. Hanuman flew closer to Chakrasura’s ears and played it right outside his ears. Chakrasura could not handle the torture anymore. He simply collapsed in pain. Writhing on the ground, he died slowly and painfully.
Hanuman is so powerful for various reasons. He is an incarnation of Shiva. He is the son of Kesari and Anjana and of the wind god. He has been blessed many times over by all demigods. Rama and Sita have blessed him. He is so powerful that his name is also enough to save one from all possible calamities and to frighten away negative elements. Everyone including the thousand-hooded Anantashesha sings his glories, sahasa badana tumharo jasa gavai.
There are three times that Rama expressed his gratitude to Hanuman by embracing him. First was when Hanuman returned from Lanka after finding Sita’s whereabouts. Rama, who had been so dejected in Sita’s absence, suddenly came alive when Hanuman declared Found Sita I! Hanuman had then fallen at Rama’s feet and Rama had tried to lift him up to embrace him which Hanuman resisted. Rama tried again and again but Hanuman would not budge.
Finally Rama said, “I want you to leave my feet and come closer to my heart. Why are you differentiating between my feet and heart by resisting? Only ordinary people differentiate between good and bad, not a gyani like you.” And the quick-witted Hanuman shot back, “My Lord, if there is no difference between your feet and heart, then let me stay at your feet.”
The second time Rama embraced Hanuman with tears of gratitude flowing from his eyes, was after Lakshmana was revived by Hanuman’s efforts. He said to Hanuman, “Our relationship is forever. You have accepted that I am Brahma and the world knows that you are a Brahmachari, so Brahma and Brahmachari’s relation is forever.” The word Brahmachari means that the one who is endlessly remembering Brahma, who is moving towards Brahma only.
And third time was after the war with Ravana. Pleased with Hanuman’s heroics in the war, Rama wanted to grant him a boon. Hanuman was so thrilled with Rama’s loving embrace that he said he never wanted to leave this body that had been purified by Rama’s touch. And Rama then gave him the boon of being immortal so he could spread the glories of the holy name, asa kahi shrTpati kantha lagavai