The Hanuman Chalisa Lyrics in English is a symbol of devotion and faith in Lord Hanuman’s grace.
Hanuman Chalisa Chaupai 24 in English with Meaning & Analysis
Hanuman Chalisa Chaupai 24 Frightens Away Ghosts
भत पिसाच
निकट नहिं आवै ।
महाबीर
जब नाम सुनावै ॥
Bhoot pisaach
nikat nahin aavai.
Mahabir
jab naam sunavae.
Ghosts and ghouls
don’t come near.
Hanuman’s name
when they hear
Hanuman Chalisa Chaupai 24 Meaning in English
This is undoubtedly the most popular verse of the Hanuman Chalisa, chanted when one is frightened and restless. It is said to drive away ghosts and spirits, or at least give one the strength to face what we believe to be ghosts and spirits. Until the rise of modern psychology and medicine, around the world, mental disorders were seen as the work of ghosts and spirits.
And so, this hymn has as much to do with the paranormal as it has to do psychiatry. Those who believe in ghosts believe that this hymn drives ghosts away. Those who sec ghosts as merely external manifestations of internal fears believe this hymn helps strengthen the mind to overcome internal fears. k is not by accident that the word for ghost, ‘bhoot also means the past.
The idea of ghosts is different in different cultures. In Greek mythology, a ghost is believed to be the aspect of a living person that outlives death, Ghosts need to travel from the land of the living to the land of the dead, across the River Styx.
Those who are unable to make the journey make life miserable for the living with their mourning, wailing and rage at their unfulfilled desires. In Christian mythology, the word soul is used instead of ghost. After death, souls wait in purgatory for Final Judgement. Then, depending on the deeds of their life, God takes them to Heaven or casts them in Hell, Some escape purgatory and haunt earth and have to be driven away using God’s name.
In Hindu mythology, the River Vaitarni separates the land of the living from the land of the dead and souls move both ways continuously, as Hindus believe in multiple lives. The beings in the land of che dead are called pitrs, or ancestors. The dead who are trapped in the land of the living turn into pretas, or ghosts, colloquially known as bhoot. They torment the living.
They hunger for a proper death ritual and rebirth. Some pretas refuse to become pitr as they have unfulfilled wishes that they need the living to assure them will be fulfilled. Other pretas refuse to become pitras they are consumed by a sense of injustice, having died in a violent death, for instance, and so they yearn for justice.
Many pretas are simply those who died while travelling and whose relatives do not know of their death and so have not conducted suitable rites for their passage across the Vaitarni. Pisachas, or vetals, arc different from bhoot and pret.
They are one of the many sets of children fathered by Kashyapa, son of Brahma, such as the deva, asura, rakshasa, yaksha, naga, garuda, gandharva, apsara, and kinnar. They prefer night to day. They hang from solitary trees and prefer crematoriums. They speak a secret language called Paisachi. They enchant travellers in the forest and eat them alive, enjoying their flesh and their fear. They can have sex with a living creature that is asleep and such a person wakes up mad; this is why sex with a sleeping person is described as Paisachi maithuna.
Images of Shiva and Hanuman are kept in Hindu crematoriums to protect the living from pretas and pisachas. In folklore, Hanuman’s father, either Kesari or Vayu, had another wife who was a cat and she gave birth to Preta-raja, lord of ghosts, who some identify with Yama.
As a half-brother of Preta-raja, Hanuman is invoked to get rid of negative and malevolent forces that can afflict people tormented by ghosts and ghouls. One temple where this idea of exorcism is the central theme is the Mehendipur temple of Balaji Hanuman in Rajasthan.
There are also folktales that describe wandering preta or pisacha being captured by a sorcerer and made to do his bidding. So even the pretas and pisachas who encountered Hanuman’s power during his adventures in Patala, worship Patali Hanuman to protect them from such sorcerers. Hanuman, thus, protects the living from the dead and the dead from such sorcerers.
In Tantrik lore, Chamunda is seen in crematoriums riding pretas with an entourage of pisachas. She is worshipped in this form at Betal-Deul in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. This ghastly site can drive people insane unless they seek the protection of Shiva and Hanuman.
This verse refers to chanting the name of Hanuman as protection from these external, malevolent forces. Chanting the name of the divine (naam-jap) became a very popular means to invoke the divine in the Bhakti period. In Vedic times, in order to invoke the gods Brahmins had to know Sanskrit hymns, their complex pronunciations and meaning, and chant them at appropriate times, with appropriate gestures and rituals.
But with time, and the rise of Bhakti, people rejected the complex ways of priests and came to believe that faith alone could invoke the divine. Faith was expressed by simply concentrating on the deity. And this was facilitated by chanting their name, or a set of names, or a sound (bija mantra) that represented the deity.
Many people believe in the concept of aura or energy fields that surround all things. Everyone has an inherent aura but it depletes over time. It can be replenished from outside as well as inside. Humans especially can invoke it from within through prayer and faith. Many are unable to regenerate their own auras and so need the help of external instruments, such as talismans, crystals, gemstones, beads and coloured cloth.
Then there are humans who feed on other people’s auras like predators feed on prey. To create a force field around oneself from such predators, to combat the drain of energy created by social trauma, psychological afflictions and paranormal phenomena, and to restore health and harmony, one can invoke positive energies simply by chanting Hanuman’s name.
Hanuman Chalisa Chaupai 24 Analysis in English
bhuta pishacha nikata nahi avai
mahablra jaba nama sunavai ll24 ll
Ghosts and demons dare not come near,
When one chants your name Mahavir. (24)
When offering oblations to the sun one evening, Hanuman heard an intense chanting of mantras from a distance. He completed his worship and followed the sound. What he saw surprised him. Four divine-looking people were worshipping the earth with special mantras. He realized that these were the gods in charge of dharma, artha, kama, and moksha.
And that they were invoking mother earth to accept them within her. Why would they do such a thing? Then Hanuman saw that the earth had actually split open and they were about to enter into the earth’s womb. Immediately Hanuman knew that this would be a disaster if these four went missing from earth.
Without the boundary of these four to regulate human life, only animalistic civilisation could remain. These four were in fact the very source of strength for the demigods. He stopped them just in the nick of time, before they could jump off into the crater. When asked for an explanation, they expressed that there was no point in them staying on the earth planet.
They didn’t want to be misused by a new demon named Trayambakasura, who had recently acquired great strengths and was systematically taking over all affairs of the universe. They explained to Hanuman that this demon had such a herculean body that he was overshadowing even the demigods in the heaven. When the demigods cannot protect themselves against his atrocities, then who could they rely on?
Trayambakasura was the great-great- grandson of Mahisasura. He was the only person in the universe who had managed to please the holy trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh and received a boon from all three simultaneously. As every demon tries, he also initially tried asking for etemality. But when they flatly refused, he resorted to asking them a boon each. First he asked Lord Brahma for creative abilities like Brahma’s. Lord Brahma approved the request. Then he asked Lord Shiva to grant him the boon that he would never be killed by any weapon or carrier of weapons. Lord Shiva granted it.
Then he turned to Lord Vishnu, the maintainer of the whole universe. Since Lord Vishnu is the Paramatma within everyone’s heart, Trayambakasura asked him for vision to see both the visible and invisible things.
Vishnu gave him the ability to see anyone hidden anywhere. Soon Trayambakasura declared war against the gods in the heavens, and these four Purusharthas personified fled. Trayambakasura ordered his minister to capture them and get them back. Unfortunately for him, Hanuman came in between.
Using his mace, Hanuman hit the minister and flung him far away. Then Hanuman hid the four Purusharthas in four trees. He hid dharma inside a banyan tree. Artha inside a golden leaf tree. Kama inside a kadamba tree and Moksha inside a peepal tree.
Hanuman then called Jambavan to protect these four Purusharthas camping inside the trees, and then left to deal with the Trayambakasura demon.In the heavens, an interesting type of combat was happening. This was perhaps the most unique war scenario ever in the history of civilization.
Trayambakasura, with his creative abilities, had created duplicates of each demigod. Since Lord Brahma had blessed him with his own creative abilities, he was able to replicate an exact clone of each god with the same strength and abilities.
The only hitch was that although the duplicates possessed the exact strength as the originals, their intelligence did not quite match up to theirs. Indra’s clone was fighting with Indra. Agni’s clone was fighting with Agni. There was complete mayhem all around. The original demigods ran to seek shelter of Vishnu, Shiva, and Brahma. But when they reached them, they were shocked to see clones of the three as well.
The beaten-up minister of Trayambakasura returned with a bruised face. He told his master of his inability to capture the four Purusharthas personified due to the presence of a vanara child who had beaten him black and blue and then hidden the Purusharthas. Trayambakasura needed to annihilate the four of them urgently since they were the source of strength of the demigods.
Once they were done with, it would be easier to finish off the gods too. Using his Vishnu-given power, Trayambakasura discovered that the four had been stowed away in Aranyavan by Hanuman. When he reached there, Hanuman came and stood between them. Without batting an eyelid, Trayambakasura created a duplicate of Hanuman to fight with him. The only difference was that the duplicate was of a blackish complexion (shyam vama). But he had the same strength.
A fantastic fight began between the two Hanumans creating wild tremors. Trying to bring the matter under control, the three principle deities appeared and explained to the shyam vama Hanuman that although he had been created by an asuric force, he should still behave like the real Hanuman.
Though he did not have the intelligence of the real Hanuman, the duplicate one comprehended and readily cooperated. The real Hanuman explained to his clone that since the asuric forces had created him, he had to cease to exist. But at the same time, because he was so cooperative, they would ensure that he is respected by everyone.
The real Hanuman then created another clone of himself, which was exactly like the shyam vama Hanuman created by Trayambakasura. Then the two shyam vama Hanumans merged into one and immediately took on a deity form. The three principle gods blessed the shyam vama Hanuman with the boon that he would be worshipped in this form. When souls troubled by ghosts, pisaach, and evil forces worship shyam vama Hanuman, they will immediately be relieved of all such troubles.
Thus shyam vama Hanuman continues to reside on earth in a deity form, bhuta pishacha nikata nahi avai / mahabira jaba nama sunavai Once that was taken care of, Hanuman returned to the demigods who were still in fear of the demon. He requested Surabhi cow to allow the demigods to reside in her body as the demon Trayambakasura was determined to kill them all and would find them from anywhere else they hide. She gracefully agreed and all the demigods took different positions in her body.
Finally Hanuman requested Jambavan to get the four Pumsharthas there too. Precisely at that time, Trayambakasura reached there and challenged Jambavan. A long fight ensued and ended with Jambavan using the Brahmapasha to tie up the demon. While the demon was struggling to free himself from bondage, Jambavan took the four Pumsharthas to the place where Hanuman and Surabhi were waiting. The four of them gratefully entered into the four legs of the cow.
Next, Hanuman hid Surabhi in Matanga Rishi’s ashram. Yet again, Trayambakasura understood the trick and kidnapped the cow, taking her to Patalaloka. His plan was to perform a Gomedha yagya, which would culminate in the cow being sacrificed and thus killed.
But Hanuman made an appearance just before the sacrifice was completed and created a whirlwind effect, blowing away everything and destroying the whole sacrificial arena. Trayambakasura was livid at Hanuman and rushed to kill him. But before he could fight with Hanuman, Surabhi came in between them. Suddenly it dawned on Hanuman that the only way this demon would die was through Surabhi, without any weapons.
No matter how much anyone else tried, it would not work. Surabhi being innocent and weapon-less was the ideal candidate to kill him. Using her horns, which were not weapons technically, the cow continuously attacked the demon till his life ebbed away.
The demigods then appeared out of Surabhi and declared that since she protected them like a mother, she would eternally be worshipped as a mother all over the world. They also blessed Hanuman profusely for not giving up till the end and thus saving the world. Neither evil spirits nor demons could harm any devotee of Hanuman.