Commentary / explanation of Hanuman Chalisa verses 35 & 36

Tumhare bhajan Ram ko pavei

Janam janam ke dukh bisravei

By reciting your qualities and repeating your name one can reach Sri Rama and get freed from the sorrows of many lives.

Anta kaal raghubar pur jai

Jahan janam hari bhakta kahai

At last when he leaves his physical body he attains to the abode of Sri Rama (Vaikunthsa) and for wherever he takes a new birth is known as a devotee of Lord Hari (Vishnu).

Hanuman Chalisa, verses 35 & 36

“By reciting your qualities and repeating your name one can reach Sri Rama and get freed from the sorrows of many lives.”

This verse is read as a continuation of verses 33 and 34, in which Sita is bestowing blessings on Hanuman (please refer to the previous article on Verses 33 & 34).

The most pleasing blessing to Hanuman’s ears was that through him one can reach Rama, and be freed from deep rooted sorrows accumulated through many lifetimes.

When one keeps Hanuman’s ideal and example in their mind and heart, they will gradually be led to embody Hanuman’s ideals, and this is the way to reach the Divine, of whom Rama is an embodiment. It is believed by many Hindus that Hanuman himself acts as the guide for all those who seek his grace – helping the wondering soul make its way to its true home through the sometimes winding and crooked paths of Samsara (manifest existence).

Our soul (jivatman) accumulates “impressions” (samskaras) from many lives. These samskaras shape our lives. Sorrowful experiences and longings accumulate negative samskaras and create cycles of suffering unless we learn to appreciate that the true and eternal source of joy in life is not in possessing things or in achievements of the external world, but in experiencing our true self nature – which is one with the Divine. 

“At last when he leaves his physical body he attains to the abode of Sri Rama (Vaikuntha) and wherever he takes a new birth is known as a devotee of Lord Hari (Vishnu).”

Having experienced its true self-nature, the soul achieves unity with the Divine upon death, and when it takes rebirth it is no longer deluded but remains in remembrance of its true self-nature as a portion of the Divine.

This is a particularly interesting position of Tulsidas – as the view that he appears to state here departs from the many other Hindu teachers’ view that the soul no longer takes birth after reaching the Divine.

Visit Hindu Perspective’s HANUMAN SECTION (special feature) for explanations to the other verses of the Hanuman Chalisa