Champai 5: Hanumaji, “a warrior, servant and sage”

Hath bajra aur dhvaja biraje

Kaandhe muoonj janehu sajai

You hold a thunderbolt club and a flag in your hands

And have a sacred thread on your shoulder

The Hanuman Chalisa is the most popular Chalisa ready by Hindus because it is in our DNA to be attracted to our humblest but most powerful deity through the 43 Awadi verses which has a gentle poetic rhythm of calming our nervous hearts every morning.

We can face the day and all its challenges knowing that Hanumanji with the weapon of Lord Indra, the gada and the flag of Lord Rama serves us with the strength of the celestial and earth-bound Gods.

The fact that Lord Hanumanji wears a janehu made of sabai grass (munja) makes him twice born (dvija), hence all our children girls and boys should undergo a janehu samskara in their youth. This gives our children physical and psychological birth. Piercing our earlobes is very important and represents our “human culture “like Hanumanji who was born into “human culture”.

In this way Hanumanji given the janehu turns from being a servant of Lord Ram to the commander of his army. The Vedas in this way shows us that from “beast to human” is possible, unlike Ravana who is human but behaves like a beast.

The gada establishes Hanumanji as a warrior (Kshatriya), the flag makes him Ram’s servant (dasa or shudra) and the sacred thread ( a Brahmin) ie: one who has accessed the Vedas. Therefore the highest and lowest statuses of the Vedic society (Varna) are all present in Hanumanji, a creature of the forest.

This Hanuman Jayanti, read the Hanuman Chalisa to transform your minds into a temple and enshrine this temple with Hanumanji.

Hon Shameen Thakur-Rajbansi

Leader of the Minority Front