OM!

Hanuman Chalisa of Tulasidas is an Exceptional song. Its has become one of the most common daily prayers. As such Hanuman represents a repository of immense strength. A prayer to Hanuman is a way to invoke that Strength within ourselves. When I speak of invoking that strength within , this strength is not the strength to give a blow ... but to remain cheerful in all circumstances and in all situations. The strength to face the situations of life boldly. Swami Vivekananda says "Stand up, be bold, be strong!" and thats that kind of strength or resolve that we need to invoke within. As we study this simple, yet powerful text, we shall clearly see how we can really invoke this strength within and live it up.

Swami Tejomayananda ji has written a very nice commentary on this text. This is a meditative study of Swami Tejomayananda ji's explanation on Hanuman Chalisa.

What ever understanding I gain from my guru Swami Tattvavidananda sarswati ji [by listening to his teachings on Gita and Upanishads], I will freely use it without mentioning his name everywhere, because his blessings are infinite and there may be my own mistakes that pop up here and there for which, obviously, I alone am to be found fault with. The idea is to bring in the understanding of vedanta and see how we can use this simple prayer to make ourselves better. Wherever needed we will also explore how we can really transform our lives and how such prayers can aid us in doing so.

Face The Situations of Life:

Its very important to Face the situations of life with openness and boldness. We should not entertain any kind of meekness. And in order for us to be able to do so, we need to first of all know ourselves as we are. If we look at ourselves as puny people who are always at some or the other danger then life is obviously going to be miserable. If on the other hand I look at myself as a fulfilled person who remains fulfilled no matter what happens in life, I remain a satisfied and happy person. Its just a matter of the correct outlook towards life. What really matters is how do I look at myself and how I look at myself makes the world for me!

In this endeavour we need to have the grit and the strength to face the situations in life and never run away from them. We need an attitude that I will face what ever situation arises in my life bravely ... that is when we have invoked Sri Hanuman within. Because thats the attitude that Hanuman represents. We often see people seeking the aid of astrology and saying "My starts are not in auspecious position" etc. And they keep fearing what might happen in future. There is no harm in going to an astrologer. But the problem is in the meekness that they entertain. Even as we pray to Hanuman and seek his grace, the first and the foremost attitude should be "I Will face what ever situations arise in my life and not give in to meekness". Meekness is not religion. One needs Strength of mind, strength to go through the toughtest of the situations in life with a smile.


Bhakti is Not Just an Emotion:

Friends, Hanuman chalisa is all about Bhakti, pure Love of God. But Love of God is really not an emotion. Somehow novices generally take love of God to be an emotion. All emotions are transitory, they come and they go. During the emotion one feels as if one is totally free and may cry, jump etc but eventually that passes away. What does not pass away is not an emotion. The common misconception is that Jnana is "Dry", Bhakti is full of "Rasa/Essence". This is an idea that people gather due to lack of both Jnana and Bhakti. True Jnana is Bhakti, there is no difference between the two. One cannot say Ramana was a jnani while Ramakrishna was a Bhakta. Ramana was what Ramakrishna was, no difference what so ever. The confusion is only due to different lifestyles. Ramana was always seated at one place, totally aloof while Ramakrishna was singing and dancing in the praise of God. If we read Aksharamanimalai of Sri Ramana, we will understand his expression of Bhakti and if we see Ramakrishna immersed in Self, we see the True essence of jnana. The point is that Bhakti is not really about being emotional or speaking emotionally about God.

Vivekam is a fundamental quality of mind thats required. Without vivekam one can neither be a jnani nor a bhakta. Thats why Vivekam is a fundamental quality. Vivekam necessarily involves dropping off all thats mithya, all the superimpositions have to be seen as superimpositions. When the superimpositions and wrong identifications are dropped, one stands automatically resolved in the embrace of God and that dissolution is Bhakti. Bhakti is when I know that long before I asked for God has already consumed me ; swallowed me! Sri Krishna is said to have shown the whole universe in his mouth to Mother Yashoda. So where are we ? We are already consumed, whether we know it or not.

Surrender is NOT "giving everything to God". Because, if i have to give a to God, I should possess that thing! There is really nothing thats mine! Infact there is no "me" also. This recognition itself is the highest Bhakti, because here there is no possibility of arrogating that i have offered everything to God. One has to simply recognize that one is already swallowed by God and there is no one to really "Reach" God.

However I do not advocate "No Sadhana Theory". Sadhana is a must, because we do not see this "God at all"! We do not see does not mean that God will appear with a flute or cross. What I mean is, that we do not need a new and exotic experience, because if what Scriptures state is to be believed, we are already in the embrace of God. So what we need is not a new experience, but some way to recognize the presence of God thats here and now. That "Eye" or that "Vision" which allows us to see God in every experience [and by "See" I do not mean God will appear in physical form, even though he may appear] is what a sadhaka has to "develop". This requires a pure mind and pure mind means: Viveka and Vairagya are well developed. This Viveka requires the ability to differentiate and some times that requires logic [but not kutarkam or wrong reasoning]. And it also requires some amount of dispassion born of basic experiences of life. One has to build upon these and see the Truth eventually.

Getting Emotional might create a temporary high which will not last, because its temporary high only -- thats what is an emotion. if it is not a temporayr high , its not an emotion at all! So what we need is not an emotion, not a vague idea, but clarity and total resolution of ego in the Self. Can teaching help in this ? Yes, if the student is prepared and if the student is not prepared enough , teaching with sadhana is essential.

Prayer is a wonderful sadhana thats available to one and all. Through the prayer the attempt is to recognize our true nature and dissolve the ego once and for all. Prayer is not a temporary dissolution. For half an hour the person has totally forgotten himself and then when he is back to business the ego returns. That type of devotion will not work. A more deeper devotion where it wont change or wont vanish is required. That kind of devotion can only be born of understanding. This is an attempt to meditate on the meaning of this text so that we may be able to remain in the presence of the Lord.

The Whole:

When we speak of Hanuman or Anjaneya, its not the name of one diety. Though the story is of a particular diety, the prayer we offer to Hanuman is really to the Ishvara or God or Paramatman -- through the diety. The deity becomes a means to worship the ultimate Truth. When a doctor wants to test our blood, what do we do ? We give them a sample of our blood. The sample is tested by the laboratories. The laboratories do not drain out the whole blood from our system. We just need a sample. Similarly Everything that is seen , unseen ; everything that moves and does not move ; everything is God alone! If a snake is imagined on a rope, which part of the snake is rope ? The truth of any portion of the snake is only the rope. One can see God in any portion of the snake, the Truth of that very portion will be Rope alone. And as such the snake itself is only imaginay and truely not there at all. When we worship The Lord, any form can be taken up for meditation. The Idea is , though those forms we should be able to see the Truth and then the forms themselves become less important -- the Truth is the ultimate reality.
Thats why in our scriptures we have prayers addressed to Ganapathi, Vishnu, Vayuh, Surya [Sun] etc. In all those prayers , the ultimate reality is praised through those pratikas [or limited adjuncts].

How Do Prayers Get Answered ?
This body & mind equipment is really an adjunct or an upadi. To explain what an upadi is, imagine a column of water in a glass tube. Let the glass tube be coloured red, blue, green etc at different places. And what we see is the water appears red, blue , green at those places. Really speaking water is colorless and yet when present "near" the colored portions of the glass tube, it appears as if it has taken a color. That is an upadhi. when near an upadhi, brahman appears to have taken some attributes of the upadhi while in reality Brahman is changeless and attributeless. God is Brahman with one upadhi and we are with a limited upadhi of our own. In truth both God and me are just one Brahman. Upadhis change and upadhis are mithya, unreal. Thats why Bhagavan Ramana says "isha jiva yor veshadi bidhah svasvabhavatah vastu kevalam" ... between isah and jiva there is only a difference in the vesha [the form] their true nature is the same.

Now, God is said to have maya under his control and using that maya he created this world. How did he create through maya ? By imagining, through Thought. So What ever we see here is really like a dream of God. Suppose I am dreaming and then , I see two people myself and my friend. How many people are there in reality ? One.
Then, is the dream me that One or the dream friend that One ?
Both and neither . What does that mean ? both the dream Me and Dream Friend are really mithya, non-existent as form. But as Consciousness, both connect to the Same One Consciousness. Both are like two waves in the same ocean of consciousness ... and as the "form" of a wave, they appear distinct - as the ocean itself, there are one.

A more important point to understand is, the dream me and the dream friend seem to have two different minds . There is really one Mind : both of them are a part of it. When I pray, its like seeking guidance and energy from the one Whole Mind, in whose dream all of us are. My mind is a part of the Whole Mind. As even, everything here is a part of the whole mind. Really there are no two minds at all ! There is only one Mind whose projection is all this. Thats precisely the reason why prayers get answered. Because a prayer in my mind creates a ripple in the Whole Mind. Thats how the prayer manifests in reality. If the prayer is meek, it fails to create a ripple in the Whole Mind , no results manifest.


When individuality is totally absent, the mind is one with the Whole.


We therefore study Hanuman chalisa and Hanuman represents the Whole Mind. We can as such take any form , but the form and the story of Hanuman really aid us meditate on the Ultimate Truth and also dissolve our limited individuality. Hence Hanuman chalisa is a wonderful prayer.


Hanuman stands for enormous strength and sincerity of purpose. We need such strength and dedication in all our endeavours, be it spiritual or worldly. When we speak of strength its not just about the strength to hit someone. Thats not strength at all. Much greater strength is in absorbing someone else's insult without a ripple in mind ! So the strength that we talk of with reference to Hanuman is not just physical strength but the strength to remain totally independent of everything. No meekness , no dependence on anything, no attachment what so ever. Thats the kind of strength Hanuman represents. And thats the strength we call God.


And then Hanuman's search for Sita Matha is a perfect example of sincere , dedicated and consistent effort. Hanuman does not get diverted by anything along the way and he does not fear any hurdle. Faces them all with boldness, openess and straight. Thats the kind of attitude we need in facing spiritual hurdles as well.


shriiguru caraN sarojaraja nijamanamukura sudhaara |
baraNau raghubara bimala yasha jo daayaka phalacaara ||


श्रीगुरु चरण् सरोजरज निजमनमुकुर सुधार
बरणौ रघुबर् बिमल यश जो दायक फलचार


Having cleansed the mirror of my mind with the dust of the lotus feet of Sri Gurudev, I now proceed to describe the spotless glory of Sri Rama, the most excellent of Raghu's, which bestows the four fruits.

Who Is A Guru ?

Guru is someone who aids us see ourselves. He is the one who removes the ignorance in our hearts and aids us recognize our true nature. If I have to know some physical object, I have to have its name , its form and then I will associate the name with its form. And then gather more attributes and properties about that object. And in relative sense I have known it. For example if someone asks “Do you know a rose ? “ and I say “No!”, he then brings one rose and shows it to me and says “This is a rose!”. Now I know it. The name is properly associated with the form and some properties like its colour , smell etc are gathered. That’s what is learning in the relative sense.
But how do I know about Myself ? When I try to know about the physical object knowing the name, form etc works fine. But this Self is a little bit different. It’s not reachable my senses, mind etc ! Then how can it be revealed ? Guru has to reveal it, that’s when he is a guru . Suppose a guru says "ok, ill show you God" ... but then God is not reachable with "eyes", how will he do that? It means what ever the guru shows is really a mental image and not God!! So there should be something deeper in that.


Also, some others say "Ok, Self cannot be reached by mind, so ill not study scriptures etc". Here again is a mistake. Because, the body being jada or lifeless does not need to find the Truth. The Self itself does not seek the Truth. So what is left is really the mind . So something has to be clearly done with the mind alone.
So when the student is taught Scriptures, lot of words are fed into the mind. Usually any word gives us some idea, some object associated with it. For example: Rose. When I say this, an associated object "occurs" in our minds and we say "Ah! I know". Thats knowing. But when scriptures use the words, if again we get some other objects in mind that is really not going to work. If scriptural words and teachings also work to create mental images about ourselves, that means they are failing. The teacher is failing. Because Self cannot be a mental image. So the purpose of the scriptural words and scriptures is to resolve all mental images and conditionings and leave us as we are! When scriptures are unfolded, the idea is : those words should resolve all names and forms in the mind and give us a darshan of the nameless and formless reality. For example the world "OM". OM is not going to create one more object in mind, it simply dissolves all the mental images and leaves us as the Self. [Infact to know the ocean , the waves need not subside .]. When a student chants “OM”, mind is at once resolved, but it returns. So in order to totally vanquish that mind, the meaning of “OM” is also taught for meditation. That meditation aids in resolving the mind totally. This is the job of Guru to unfold the teachings in such a way as to leave the student resolved and not create newer conditionings.
Our scriptures are called Darshana Shastras : Meaning they give us Darshana. Darshan means vision. Vision of what ? Our True Nature. But unfortunately when we read the scriptures, no Darshan happens. Thats why, when we read Ramana's gospel, we are a lot transformed. But if we start with Ashtavakra Gita, we would not understand or appreciate!! Basically that is because Asthavakra Gita is a Darshana Shastra that explains something which needs to be handled only by someone who has himself got that Darshana. Only a person who has the Vision can share it with others. Its almost the same with upadesha saram. If i straight away get upadesha saram and read it, i would understand nothing. After reading a lot of Ramana literature, I can probably understand that better. So there is always a requirement to go to someone who can present that Darshan or Vision well for us.
Basically scriptrues have the darshana available for us. But only some one who had that darshana can unfold it to us. So a Guru is such a person. So when the guru unfolds that knowledge, it gives us the darshan of God and thereby we can stand resolved.

That said, often it’s also very important that the student should be very sincere. That’s when the teacher can be found . Dattatreya is said to have 24 gurus. A bird was holding onto a fish and a flock of eagles started chasing it for that fish. Wherever the bird flew, the eagles would also follow until the bird finally drops the fish and lo! the eagles also left the bird and went after the fish. The bird then sat on a tree. Dattatreya saw this and said to himself "Ah! When one leaves the longing for the objects of senses thus, one is free and relaxed"
and that bird became his guru !!

And when dattatreya recognized this fact, that very moment the mind is automatically cleansed of all its attachments. Such a cleansed mind alone can do prayer, because puja means purnat jyayate iti puja... that which is born of inner completeness. Thats the meaning of puja. So, until that inner completeness is developed, the prayer is merely a ritual.
Dattatreya's guru -- the bird -- itself remained unenlightened, but Dattatreya got the understanding! In spirituality, it’s always the disciple's sincerity that’s important. The disciple has to be sincere and he or she should be clear as to what he wants to learn. If the student is not stuck at exotic experiences and feelings etc -- there is a possibility of getting to the Truth. Always the disciple's sincerity is as important as the guru's understanding. If I am not sincere, I might go to a guru like Sri Ramana and come back saying "He does not speak a word, what can I get from him?"
If the disciple is sincere, as we saw in the above story, he or she might learn from a bird, an animal or anything. Dattatreya was clear that what he wanted was "Absolute Bliss" and not temporary sense pleasures. That’s why when he saw that bird incident everything became clear at once.

And therefore a sincere student with a Guru who has himself seen the Truth is a super combination. That definitely works. By saying that I clean my mind with the dust of the guru’s feet , we are really invoking a mental state which is receptive and open. This means we are transforming ourselves to sincere students.

What Is The Dust At The Feet of Guru ?

The feet of a guru represent that basis upon which the guru stands firmly rooted. First the student has to get into the learning mode.
Typically Sciptural teachings, Vedanta, aids spiritual development a lot. If the student does not develop ego that he has learnt a lot of scriptures, every scripture is like a bomb that can destroy the ignorance. So the student, when he is sincere, would go to a guru who can teach him scriptures. And then God sends him to the right kind of teacher. The learning from that teacher is like dust that can clean our minds. That is why Brahma sutras etc say "athato brahma jijnasu", they do not say brahma jnana. Only jijnasa --- its merely an inquiry where the student is a jijnasu and the teacher simply guides him with that jijnasa. That jijnasa itself will take him to the Truth that He Himself IS.