My Relationship with the Hanuman Chalisa
I’m writing this because I was recently invited to offer the Hanuman Chalisa as part of Chalisas for Peace through Go Dharmic. It felt surreal to be included in something like that, especially alongside people I’ve looked up to for a long time in the kirtan world. I don’t fully have words for that yet, but it brought me back to where this all started for me.
I first heard the Hanuman Chalisa in 2015 at a Krishna Das retreat at Yogaville in Buckingham, Virginia. It was my first live kirtan, and I remember being very in my head the whole time, trying to understand what was happening and where I fit into it. But when the Chalisa started, there was something strangely familiar about it. It felt like I already knew parts of it, even though I had never actually heard it before. That feeling stayed with me.
The Hanuman Chalisa itself is a 40-verse devotional hymn traditionally attributed to Tulsidas, written in the 16th century. It’s composed in Awadhi, a language spoken in North India, and was meant to make devotion more accessible—something that could be sung, remembered, and carried in everyday life, not just studied. It centers on the qualities of Hanuman—strength, devotion, humility, service—and for a lot of people, it’s less about understanding every word and more about what happens through repetition and relationship over time.
After that, I kept coming back to it, but not for the reasons I might say now. At the time, I wanted to learn it almost like a badge of my spirituality. I wanted to be someone who knew the Hanuman Chalisa. Looking back, that feels a little silly, but I also don’t think it was wrong. It got me closer to something real, even if the motivation wasn’t fully clear at the time.
Things started to shift more when I took a class with Kavita Kat Macmillan. It was a 13-week class, which worked well for me, and I started taking the learning more seriously. Around that time, I began noticing small moments that felt connected to the Chalisa showing up in my life. I remember chanting by myself at an overlook in the mountains, and an Indian family came by. The daughter’s name was one of Hanuman’s names. Another time I was at a gas station, and the person there noticed my tulsi mala and asked if I knew Hanuman. There were more moments like that. Nothing dramatic, but enough that it felt like something was quietly weaving its way through my life.
Now when I chant the Hanuman Chalisa on my own, it’s simpler. I feel a bit more peaceful. Sometimes it feels like Hanuman is actually with me, offering some kind of protection or strength to move through whatever is in front of me. Other times it’s just a light shift, something subtle that’s easy to miss if I’m not paying attention. But even that is enough. It helps me remember my connection to God.
I still don’t feel like I fully understand it, and I don’t think I need to. Most of what I know has come through repetition, through listening, through trying, and sometimes through not feeling much at all. That used to bother me more than it does now.
If someone is just coming to it for the first time, I understand how overwhelming it can feel. It’s a lot of words, and it can feel like something you’re supposed to get right. But there’s really no need to memorize it right away, and no need to force anything. It helps to let go of trying to “do it properly” and just let the sound guide you wherever it takes you.
I recorded a version of it as part of this offering, trying to stay close to that same feeling. If you want to listen, you can find it here: [YouTube link] and it’s also on Spotify: [Spotify link].
