Tulsidas

On Tuesdays and Saturdays, it is my habit to sing the Hanuman Chalisa as part of morning devotions. I learned this beautiful prayer during the early days of the pandemic, listening to livestreams from Devadas.

Here is one of my favorite of Shri Tulsidas’ stanzas.

rāma duāre tuma rakhavāre
hota na ājñā binu paisāre

You are the guardian at the door of Ram’s abode, no one enters without your leave.

Hanuman is the personification of devotion. This verse tells us that without devotion, we cannot approach the indefinable, imperishable, unchanging state of consciousness that we usually refer to as God.

I would highly recommend this commentary from Paramahamsa Prajnanananda if you’d like to learn more about this powerful prayer.

If you’d like to learn the words and chant along, here are links to transliterations and English translations.

Hanuman Chalisa (Nina Rao’s Website)

Hanuman Chaleesa (Krishna Das Website)

राम राम

Prayer Book Hanuman Chalisa

“Having polished the mirror of my heart with the dust from my Guru’s lotus feet, I sing the pure fame of the best of the Raghus which bestows the four fruits of life.”

So begins the stunningly beautiful Hanuman Chalisa, a poem of devotion to Lord Hanuman composed by Tulsidas in the 16th Century.

Maharaj-ji said that every line of the Hanuman Chalisa is a Mahamantra. In my own experience, it does seem to be an extremely powerful prayer. It has certainly helped me trust and surrender to God more.

This is one of the chants that Devadas includes several days a week in his daily livestreamed sadhana. Also, Shyama Chapin has been livestreaming the Chalisa, along with other chants and readings from the Ramayana, each morning at 7 AM Eastern Time for nearly a year on her Facebook Page.

The photo above is a page from the Kainchi Temple prayer book available from the Taos Neem Karoli Baba Ashram’s online store.

Saturday Morning Hanuman Chalisa

The Hanuman Chalisa