Pilgrims visiting Hanuman temples often offer the recitation of Hanuman Chalisa with Meaning as a form of worship.
Hanuman Chalisa Chaupai 18 in English with Meaning & Analysis
Hanuman Chalisa Chaupai 18 Sun as Fruit
जुग सहस्त्र
जोजन पर भानू ।
लील्यो ताहि
मधुर फल जानू ॥
Jug sahastra
jojan par Bhanu.
Leelyo tahi
madhur phal janu.
The distant
faraway sun.
You mistook
for a tasty fruit.
Hanuman Chalisa Chaupai 18 Meaning in English
The Hanuman Chalisa is not linear. So the story of Hanuman’s life does not appear sequentially. One moves back and forth. And so, after speaking of how Hanuman helped Ram, Sugriv and Vibhishan, this verse goes back in time to Hanuman’s childhood when he mistook the rising sun for a fruit and jumped into the skies to grab it.
This fantastic tale reveals how Hanuman is able to contract space and time. He is able to travel a huge distance as if he is jumping across the branch of a tree. And he is able to consume the vast fiery ball that is the sun as if it is a fruit. Some people have taken the phrase ‘jug sahastra jojan’ to refer to the distance between the earth and the sun, proof therefore that ancient India knew how to calculate distances in space
using observation. They have taken jug or yuga to mean 1,200 , sahastra to mean 1,000 and jojan or yojan to refer to 8 miles (approximately 13km ). So the line, they suggest, means roughly 150,000,000 km, in other words, the distance of earth from the sun. However, yuga refers to traditional time measurement (an era), and jojan refers to a traditional distance measurement.
When you multiply the two you get speed, not distance. Such interpretations, however appealing, are misleading. It simply refers to Hanuman’s ability to bend space and time, to not only reach the sun but also consume it by increasing his relative size. Hanuman does this as a child, without any training, without any knowledge of his own strength.
This is when the gods panic and Indra, god of the sky, hurls his thunderbolt at Hanuman, causing him to come crashing down to earth, disfiguring his jaw, giving him his name-Hanuman. But Vayu gets annoyed at the way Indra treats his son and hides in a cave with his son, until the gods beg Vayu’s forgiveness and ask him to leave the cave and enable all creatures to breathe once again. In exchange, Indra and all the gods bless Hanuman with many powers.
In some stories, during his journey to the sun, Hanuman assumes all the other celestial bodies (grahas) and the constellations (nakshatras) to be toys and tosses them around. Hindus believe that the location of the grahas, relative to each other and relative to the nakshatras, provides the map of human destiny.
The purpose of astrology (Jyotish) is to appreciate this cosmic pattern. Hanuman has the power to change the location of these celestial bodies, hence the power to change human destiny. The sun impacts our radiance, the moon impacts our emotions, Mars our aggression, Mercury our intelligence, Jupiter
our rationality, Venus our creativity, Saturn our patience, Rahu our clarity and Ketu our calm. People pray to Hanuman on Tuesday and Saturday so that he ensures the grahas exert positive, not negative, influence. The verse tells us how for Hanuman the flaming ball of the sun is equivalent to a juicy fruit. We also know how he held the sun in his armpit, and some say his mouth, while finding Sanjivani. 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.
The sun god is also Hanuman’s guru. Hanuman wanted to learn everything that there was in the world. He was advised to go to Surya, who sees all things. 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.
In the Ramayana, Ravana is a great astrologer who wrote the Ravana-samhita, a treatise on astrology. But he did this to figure out a way to manipulate the stars and planets to grant him fortune. Hanuman does not seek fortune. And he uses his strength to limit the malevolent influence of celestial bodies, and to give humans the strength to cope with the malevolent influence of celestial bodies. For Ravana, the sun has to be controlled. For Hanuman, the sun is a toy who entertains, and a teacher who enlightens.
Hanuman Chalisa Chaupai 18 Analysis in English
juga sahasra jojana para bhanu
lilyo tahi madhuraphalajanu ||18||
Though the sun is thousands of miles away,
You swallowed it, thinking it a tasty fruit. (18)
juga sahasra jojana para bhanii refers to the distance between the earth and the sun.
1 Yuga is 12000 years
1 Sahasra is 1000 years
1 Yojan is 8 miles
Yuga x Sahasra x Yojan = par Bhanu (to the Sun)
12000 x 1000 x 8 = 96000000 miles
1 mile is 1.6 km
So, 96000000 x 1.6 = 153600000 km
This is the exact round figure distance of earth from Sun when the earth is farthest. When Hanuman was an infant, his parents conducted the first grain ceremony. The moment Hanuman ate the first few grains, his appetite got activated. His mother fed him all possible fruits, but nothing could satisfy his hunger. Finally not wanting to trouble her, Hanuman stopped demanding.
But the hunger pangs did not subside, causing a lot of distress to him. One day, as he was tossing and turning in hunger, Narada Muni appeared to him and offered him some fruits. Even that wasn’t enough to satisfy the intense fire in his stomach. Finally, Narada Muni pointed out to the sun.
Mistaking the sun to be a big fruit, Hanuman jumped towards it in one leap, lllyo tahi madhura phala janu Knowledge can be gained only if you possess the eagerness to gain it. Hanuman was a reservoir of so much knowledge that it even impressed Rama because he had that eagerness for it. Hunger for knowledge is akin to hunger for food. When you are really hungry, you desperately search for food that will satisfy your hunger. Hanuman was an extremely hungry child.
But his hunger was not like the hunger of regular babies. His was an intellectual hunger. The hunger for understanding the deeper truths of life. While the story of baby Hanuman jumping to gobble up the sun is often seen as the hunger of the belly, great acharyas consider that to be the hunger of the heart to gain knowledge. The sun represents light of knowledge. When Hanuman jumped towards the sun and swallowed it up, symbolically it represented his eagerness to gain infinite knowledge.
At one point during the war, a catastrophe struck Rama’s army when Ravana struck Lakshmana with the Shela weapon, which was created by Mayadanava. Ravana had planned the attack well. He shot the weapon much after sun set knowing full well that the effect of the weapon was connected to the movement of the sun. Mayadanava had made such a weapon that would work its poison into a person as soon as the sun set and it would completely destroy a person at sunrise.
So, essentially Rama’s army had only the time between sunset and sun rise to revive Lakshmana by bringing an antidote to the poison. While everyone in the army was crying, Jambavan was busy looking for Hanuman who was engaged in a brutal fight on the other end of the battlefield.
He knew that as usual the only person who could save the day was Hanuman. Giving him a proper brief of the whole matter, Jambavan instructed Hanuman to immediately depart to fetch the herbs that were required as an antidote to the poison.
By the time Hanuman left it was close to midnight. As he began his ascent, he saw something else rising parallel to him almost simultaneously. He was shocked to see that it was the sun, rising at midnight! Only a few hours back the sun had set, so how could it rise so early? The moon was as confused as Hanuman. It was his stipulated time to rule the skies. How did the sun come back, out of turn? In the middle of that crazy confusion, Hanuman heard a shrill laughter.
He turned around in mid-air and discovered the source of that laughter to be Ravana. As soon as he saw that naughty look on his face, he deciphered that Lankeshwar Ravana was the cause behind the unnatural phenomenon. Of course he had the power, ability, and insensitivity to change the course of nature according to his whims. Hanuman realized that there was no point in trying to do anything with Ravana since time was of essence now. There was no time to waste in arguments or fights since Lakshmana’s life was at stake.
Rather than rushing towards the mountains to bring back the life-saving herbs, Hanuman soared towards the sun in an attempt to prevent it from rising so early. He had treaded this path many times before. Once as a baby hungry for food, once as a young child hungry for knowledge, and now as a dynamic youth hungry for service. Though his prime service at this point was to get the herbs back, the secondary condition was to get it on time before sunrise.
He decided to first take care of the secondary condition and thus ensure his primary service got completed on time. Reaching the sun god Surya who was seated on his sun chariot, Hanuman landed with a thud. He needed to have a private chat with the Sun god who had also been his teacher. Obviously with the charioteer Aruna being around there was no question of privacy.
Thus Hanuman kicked out Aruna from the chariot and took charge of it, bringing it to a screeching halt. Surya was now completely dumbfounded. What did this monkey want from him now? He was never sure what mood Hanuman approached him in.
Sometimes he was aggressive and sometimes so humble. In that state of confusion, he asked Hanuman why was he behaving so violently. Hanuman glared at him. Surya immediately understood what that meant. He confessed to Hanuman that he was dead scared of Ravana’s wrath.
But Hanuman’s question was how could that make him do something that would cause harm to Rama? Fear shouldn’t make us change our loyalty. Hanuman reminded Surya that Rama was his ultimate master and that he derived all his strength from the Supreme Lord. While Surya seemed to agree to Hanuman’s points, his eyes kept darting towards Ravana’s palace where Ravana was stationed on the balcony monitoring the sun’s rise.
Hanuman realized that there was no point in discussing with someone who was overcome with fear. Fear makes one do foolish things. He said something that immediately seemed to draw Surya’s attention. He told Surya that he had a brilliant idea that could help both of them simultaneously. He could win Ravana’s trust as well as Rama’s favour with this brilliant idea. To get Surya to trust him even more, Hanuman used a brilliant emotional connect.
He told Surya that since he was called Bhanu and he, Hanuman, was called Hanu, therefore, since their names were similar, they could do something nice together. Now that Surya was open to listening to his idea, Hanuman called him closer to whisper the idea into his ears, lest someone heard it and conveyed to Ravana. The innocent Surya bent closer and offered his ears to Hanuman. Hanuman informally put his arm across Surya’s neck as if bringing him closer and suddenly grasped the neck firmly with his arm, locking the sun god in the grip of his armpit.
Shocked by the sudden turn of events, Surya tried to pry himself out of Hanuman’s grip but in vain. The more he struggled, the more Hanuman tightened his grip. Now Surya realized that his fate was sealed. He stopped struggling and Hanuman took a leap from the chariot with the sun god in his armpit. No more was sunrise a concern because the sun god himself was under his control. When Hanuman began to fly with the sun under his armpit, everyone below in Lanka was amazed.
Ravana was totally taken aback. How could a monkey control the sun like that? As Hanuman flew, his armpits glowed effulgently with the sun god trapped in there. Without any further obstacles, he reached the mountains, home to the particular herbs and plucked them in a large quantity and brought them back to Lanka.
While Jambavan and Shushena busied themselves reviving Lakshmana, Hanuman flew back to the stationary sun chariot to release the captive sun god. As soon as he released the sun god, he begged forgiveness from him for his audacity. Though it was extremely embarrassing for the sun god, he did not take offense knowing that Hanuman’s intention was right though his action may have been wrong.
Not that he had been happy serving Ravana. But he had no option other than obeying, sponsored by his fear. Thus, in one way Hanuman prevented him from serving Ravana and saved him from making a ghastly mistake. Surya concluded that the embarrassment of being under Hanuman’s armpit was better than the embarrassment of rising at the wrong time on the orders of Ravana. This was the third time Hanuman did juga sahasra jojana para bhanu.