The Hanuman Chalisa · A Deeper Dive
Hidden words, the secret of the son of the wind, and a few sweet puzzles worth lingering over
This page is optional. The main Hanuman Chalisa is complete in itself. This one is for readers who love to open up the layers, the kind who like to stop in a place or two and say, “oh, now this is interesting.”
A small honesty before you begin
In a few places ahead, modern science will enter the conversation: quantum physics, neuroscience, astronomy. Let one thing be clear. The claim that “the old accounts were really science all along” is false, and we are not making it.
What we are doing is a lighter thing, and a playful one: setting two very different languages face to face and watching. One is the language of the rishis, of metaphor and bhakti poetry. The other is the language of modern science, of equations. Now and then the two seem to point toward the same thing. Take it as a resonance, a gentle rhyme, and move on with a smile.
We will look at each word through three lenses: the literal meaning (what the word says), the spiritual meaning (seen through yoga philosophy), and a light resonance (a match from the modern world, in the manner of an analogy). Let us begin.
1 · अष्ट सिद्धि (the eight siddhis)
What the word says: “Ashta” means eight, and “siddhi” means a power that comes through sadhana. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras (the Vibhuti Pada) name these eight: anima (becoming as subtle as an atom), mahima (boundless vastness), garima (immense heaviness), laghima (lighter than air), prapti (reach to anything at all), prakamya (making a wish come true), ishitva (mastery over the elements), and vashitva (bringing every living being under one’s sway).
Seen through yoga philosophy: These are no magic tricks. In yoga they are states of consciousness. When the seeker’s mind grows completely still and one-pointed, these capacities rise on their own. But pause a moment. Patanjali himself gives a warning (Yoga Sutra 3.37): these siddhis are hurdles on the way to samadhi. The destination lies beyond them. And this is the real message of Hanuman ji. He attained every one of these powers and never once used them for himself. He poured them all into the service of Rama. That is the true siddhi: power wielded without any clinging.
A light resonance: Look at anima and mahima this way. In quantum physics one and the same thing can look like a tiny particle at one moment and a spread-out wave at another. A single entity, at once the most minute and the most vast. Take it as a poetic rhyme. Do not read it as an equivalence.
2 · नव निधि (the nine treasures)
What the word says: “Nava” means nine, and “nidhi” means treasure. In the Puranas these nine treasures are counted as the wealth of Kubera: Padma, Mahapadma, Shankha, Makara, Kachchhapa, Mukunda, Nanda (or Kunda), Nila, and Kharva. Each has its own nature. Some are tied to generosity, some to power, and some, like Kachchhapa, to hoarding and miserliness.
Seen through yoga philosophy: Tulsidas says that Hanuman ji is the “bestower” of them all and keeps none for his own enjoyment. Mother Sita granted this boon because Hanuman had served without ever asking for a thing. And hidden in it is an old law of Lakshmi: wealth stays with the one who shares it.
A light resonance: A delightful fact about the act of giving: the part of the brain that lights up with pleasure when you receive a reward also lights up when you give something away (Harbaugh et al., Science, 2007). Sharing is good in the moral sense, and it feels good from the inside too.
3 · अहिरावण
What the word says: This name does not appear directly in the Chalisa, yet the line “भीम रूप धरि असुर सँहारे” and the hints of the netherworld of Patala turn toward this very story. “Ahi” means serpent, and “Ravana” means the one who roars with a terrible cry. Ahiravana was the king of Patala. Taking the form of Vibhishana, he abducted Rama and Lakshmana. Hanuman ji descended into Patala, faced his own son Makaradhvaja, and taking the five-faced Panchamukhi form, snuffing out five lamps at once, he killed Ahiravana.
Seen through yoga philosophy: There is a beautiful metaphor here. Patala is the unconscious mind, where our deepest fears and samskaras lie hidden. The five lamps are the five senses. And the five-faced form means victory over all five senses at once. The greatest demon of all sits in the dark corner within.
A light resonance: The psychologist Carl Jung’s idea of the “shadow” says exactly this: within the unconscious mind there lives a hidden “shadow self.” Ahiravana is that self. And regular meditation, according to studies, calms the fear center of the brain and strengthens the region of discernment, a slow victory of understanding over fear.
4 · शत बार (a hundred recitations)
What the word says: “Shat” means a hundred. Chaupai 38 says that whoever recites it a hundred times will be freed from bondage and will find a deep joy, and the witness to this is Shiva himself.
Seen through yoga philosophy: “Bandi” means bondage. It is more than a prison cell. It is also the mind’s own bonds: fear, anger, greed, and attachment. And “mahasukha” is what the Upanishads call “आनंद ही ब्रह्म है,” bliss itself is Brahman. Making Shiva the witness makes this promise as firm as a founding law of creation.
A light resonance: A plain fact from science about repetition: “neurons that fire together wire together” (Hebb, 1949). Anything done again and again deepens the pathways of the brain. And a hundred recitations take roughly 8 to 10 hours; in a session that long and that single-toned, the state of the mind truly shifts. Repetition is the oldest, and perhaps the most reliable, method of change.
5 · “जुग सहस्र जोजन पर भानू”
What the word says: Chaupai 18 says the sun sits at a distance of “युग सहस्र योजन,” and the child Hanuman, taking it for a sweet fruit, swallowed it whole. A mathematical puzzle is thought to be hidden here, but let one thing stay clear: scholars themselves disagree on the length of a yojana, so any calculation is only as firm as the value assigned to that yojana. Take it as a delightful coincidence. Do not treat it as hidden proof.
Seen through yoga philosophy: The real point does not lie in the mathematics. A child mistaking the sun for a fruit is the very gist of Advaita Vedanta: when the ego becomes as pure as a child’s, the ultimate truth no longer stays far off and comes within reach of the hand.
A light resonance: Science made its first real estimate of the sun’s distance in 1672 (Cassini, by the method of parallax). This question, how far away the sun is, called out to human beings for centuries. This line of the Chalisa is a glimpse of that same ancient curiosity.
6 · “राम रसायन तुम्हरे पासा”
What the word says: “Rasayana” means the nectar made from rasa, the essence. Chaupai 32 says that the rasayana of Rama’s name rests with Hanuman ji.
Seen through yoga philosophy: This single word touches three traditions. In Ayurveda, rasayana means the science of rejuvenation. In the Nath order, rasayana means inner alchemy, the transformation of gross consciousness into the subtle. And in bhakti, “राम रसायन” means that the name of Rama is itself the thing that changes consciousness. It is a sound-energy that works within, with no outer medicine at all.
A light resonance: Modern research shows that the state of the mind affects the body’s immune system. Meditation has been seen to raise the activity of an enzyme tied to the aging of cells (Jacobs et al., 2011). The state of consciousness reaches all the way to the body’s biological clock. In a sense, this is the modern “rasayana.”
7 · “सूक्ष्म रूप / विकट रूप”
What the word says: Chaupai 9. Taking a subtle, very small form, Hanuman ji met Sita, and taking a fearsome, giant form, he burned Lanka.
Seen through yoga philosophy: There is a hint here of yoga’s three bodies. The subtle form is work in the subtle body, the fine-grained exchange between two souls in the Ashoka grove. The fearsome form is the utmost expansion of the gross body, a display of power in the physical world. The lesson for the seeker is plain: in inner work, be subtle and calm; in outer work, come down in your full expanse.
A light resonance: In physics the same electron sometimes behaves like a point (a particle) and sometimes like a spread-out wave (de Broglie, 1924). Hanuman ji’s shifting of form and this are two different styles of one and the same thing: a single entity, drawn in at one moment and spread wide at another, as the need requires.
8 · “चारों जुग परताप आपका”
What the word says: Chaupai 29. Hanuman ji’s glory is present across all four yugas (Satya, Treta, Dvapara, and Kali).
Seen through yoga philosophy: Hanuman ji is held to be “chiranjivi,” the deathless one, beyond time. To be present across the “चारों जुग” means that his consciousness stays untouched by the rise and fall of the cycle of ages, forever steady and the same.
A light resonance: The earth’s axis turns in a slow circle called precession, one full turn in roughly 25,772 years. This is a verified astronomical event. A great, slow wheel of time, and this line of the Chalisa says there is something that does not waver even as that wheel turns.
9 · “भूत पिशाच निकट नहीं आवै”
What the word says: Chaupai 24. At the mere sound of Hanuman’s name, ghosts and demons do not come near.
Seen through yoga philosophy: A deeper reading is possible here. In Samkhya philosophy, “bhuta” also means “that which has already been,” the past, the samskaras of what is gone. And “pishacha” (pishita-asha) means a fierce craving for material pleasures. So the remembrance of Hanuman keeps both away: the old samskaras of the past and the longing for the future. This is Patanjali’s “yoga is the stilling of the waves of the mind” (Yoga Sutra 1.2), carried over into the language of bhakti.
A light resonance: Dwelling again and again on the past (rumination) and fierce longing (craving): modern psychology holds these two to be the root of anxiety and addiction. And the remedy it suggests, returning to the present, catching hold of an anchor, the remembrance of Hanuman is exactly such an anchor.
10 · “प्रभु मुद्रिका मेलि मुख माहीं”
What the word says: Chaupai 19. Holding Rama’s ring in his mouth, Hanuman ji crossed the ocean.
Seen through yoga philosophy: “Mudrika” means a ring, a circle, with neither beginning nor end, a symbol of the infinite. “Mukha” means the power of speech. To settle the symbol of the infinite into speech is mantra-siddhi, when the divine name no longer stays apart from the breath. “Jaladhi” means the ocean of worldly existence, and “langhana” means to cross over. In kriya yoga this is exactly what happens when pranayama becomes so effortless that every breath turns into a japa of its own.
A light resonance: Research shows that a mantra repeated again and again calms the network of the brain that keeps running the constant chatter of “who am I, what do I want” (Benson et al., 1990). When that chatter stills, the ocean of the ego is crossed in a single moment.
11 · “बल बुद्धि विद्या देहु मोहिं”
What the word says: The prayer of the second doha: grant me bala, buddhi, and vidya, strength, discernment, and knowledge.
Seen through yoga philosophy: These three are not synonyms for one and the same thing. They are three distinct powers: bala (firmness, the strength to act), buddhi (discernment, the capacity to weigh right from wrong), and vidya (the deep knowledge that gives direction). Tulsidas invokes all three together at the very start of the Chalisa.
A light resonance: A famous study on success (Angela Duckworth, “Grit,” 2016) names three separate pillars: perseverance (= bala), clear thinking (= buddhi), and curiosity (= vidya). And a sharp point: talent alone is not enough. Without perseverance, talent scatters, and without vidya, strength and discernment stay directionless. You need all three together, exactly as Tulsidas asks.
12 · “जय जय जय हनुमान गोसाईं”
What the word says: Chaupai 37. Victory to Hanuman the “gosain,” a call for grace like that of a beloved guru.
Seen through yoga philosophy: “Gosain” = go (the senses) + swami = the master of the senses. In the Nath tradition this is the perfected purusha who has mastered all his senses. So Tulsidas is calling out to Hanuman ji in both forms at once, as a deity and as a complete yogi. The Gita’s 2.61 says exactly this: bring all the senses under control and abide there.
A light resonance: In psychology there is a capacity, the ability to check an impulse, to defer an immediate pleasure and hold out for a larger goal (executive function). To be a “gosain” is the utmost state of this very capacity. And the famous “marshmallow test” (Mischel, 1972) showed that the children who could wait often turned out better later in life. To be the master of the senses is a matter of great use even today.
13 · “होय सिद्धि साखी गौरीसा”
What the word says: Chaupai 39. Whoever reads this Chalisa will attain siddhi, and the witness to it is Gaurisa (Shiva).
Seen through yoga philosophy: A sutra of Advaita is hidden here, and it is a beautiful one. Gaurisa means Shiva. And Hanuman ji is held to be a portion of Shiva himself (a Rudra-avatara). So the one who gives the promise, the one who will fulfill it, and the one who witnesses it are all three a single consciousness. Shankaracharya’s famous sutra, “Brahman is real, the world is illusory, and the individual self is not separate from Brahman,” sits complete inside one small doha of devotion.
A light resonance: In physics there is a point: the one who measures, the process of measuring, and the thing being measured, all three cannot be fully separated. The physicist John Wheeler called this a “participatory universe,” one in which the observer takes part. This is “साखी गौरीसा” translated into another language: the seer, the seen, and the act of seeing, all one.
The Son of the Wind · What does “pavan” really mean?
“Pavanaputra Hanuman,” this phrase arrives in the very second chaupai of the Chalisa. The common understanding is that Hanuman ji is the son of the wind god, of the gale and the breeze. But pause a moment. In Vedic and Upanishadic literature the word “pavan” or “vayu” is no small thing.
The three layers of pavan:
One, physical pavan. The air we draw into the breath, the air that stirs the trees and makes the weather.
Two, pavan the deity. One of the chief gods of the Rig Veda, invoked first of all in the yajna. The Maruts are held to be his sons.
Three, pavan as the sutratman. And here lies the real point. The Upanishads call pavan the invisible element that threads the whole of creation onto a single string. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (3.7.2) calls vayu directly the “sutratman,” the thread, the string that is present in all, that joins all, and yet is never itself seen.
It is also the name of a cosmic element, the one that binds all together and yet stays hidden from the eyes.
A light resonance. In 1865 James Clerk Maxwell gave the theory of electromagnetic waves. And here is the delightful part: some properties of these waves sit close to the Upanishadic definition of pavan. They are invisible (most of their range goes unseen by the eye). They carry energy and information (light, radio, wifi, mobile signals, all of it runs on them). And like an invisible thread they hold the world together. This makes an interesting match with the role of the sutratman; again, a resonance, and no proof.
So what is the deeper sense of being “Pavanaputra”? At this level Hanuman ji is more than the “son of the wind.” He becomes the embodied form of that प्राण-energy which holds the whole of creation together, and which appears in him as bhakti, strength, and knowledge. In this deeper sense he is the son of prana, and prana is the very thread that binds the cosmos.
A small distillation
The eight siddhis say there is no fathoming the reach of human consciousness.
The nine treasures say real wealth lives in the giving away, and never in the holding on.
Ahiravana teaches that the greatest enemy hides in the darkness within.
The hundred recitations tell us that repetition is the oldest and most reliable method of change.
And “Pavanaputra” shows that Hanuman ji’s very identity is tied to that cosmic thread which binds all together.
The Hanuman Chalisa is truly a many-layered work. On one layer it is a children’s story: a monkey ate the sun, leaped the ocean, killed demons. On another layer it is the gist of the yoga shastra: mastery of the senses, pranayama, mantra. And on a third layer, a glimpse of a whole cosmos.
This was the true genius of Tulsidas: he wove all these layers into a single work in such a way that an unlettered villager and a learned Vedantin could each find a depth of their own. Stop at whichever layer is calling you today. The other layers are going nowhere.
Come back
This deep dive comes to its close right here. Return to the main Hanuman Chalisa, and perhaps now, knowing these layers, a few of the chaupais will read a little differently.
Keep one question in your pocket: which one of these thirteen words felt closest to you today? Just stay with that single one for a few days. Depth does not open to haste.
The same story, elsewhere
- Hanuman
Character profile: the complete life of Hanuman - Chapter 19 · The Crossing of the Ocean (Mainaka, Surasa, Simhika)
Valmiki Ramayana: the crossing of the ocean - Chapter 22 · The Burning of Lanka and the Return
Valmiki Ramayana: the burning of Lanka - Hanuman: An Avatar of Shiva
Shiva Purana: Hanuman as an avatar of Shiva - Hanuman Chalisa
Tulsidas’s Hanuman Chalisa