MY EXPERIENCE WITH THE

HANUMAN CHALISA
My introduction to the Hanuman Chalisa happened a
few years ago, during a phone conversation with Shri
Manish Pandit ji. I had never really recited it before,
though I had been regularly doing some sadhana of
Shakti, and my family has been bhaktas of Dattatreya
in the form of Swami Samartha of Akkalkot. After
Manish recommended Hanuman Chalisa (HC), I
started with the Sadhana on immediately. I was
anyway under dual influence of Saturn, with my sade-
saati on, and my Shani Mahadasha on as well. I took
care to ensure that I did not start on either a
Chaturthi, Asthami, Navami, or Dwadashi.

The sadhana required me to recite the HC, 11 times a

day for 21 days. I had to ensure that it was recited at
the exact same time, from the exact same place, along
with a bunch of other restrictions such as
vegetarianism, no alcohol, and complete
brahmacharya. While I do eat non vegetarian food,
and drink alcohol, both are very occasional as no one
else in my family does so. As such none of these
conditions were impossible for me.

However it was a twist of fate, or perhaps Hanumana

trying to drive home the point of the restrictions I was
invited to a relative’s birthday about 6 days into the
Sadhana. As I said almost everyone else in my family
is vegetarian so it wasn’t such a big issue for me to
eat out with them. However, for dessert, there was a
dish which had eggs in it. I unknowingly had (literally)
one bite of it. That same night, I had tremendous
acidity as if that one bite was burning through me. I
had to stay up through the night and bear the pain. I
would like to say that I did the prayaschitta for my
mistake immediately.

After that I became extra careful about the restrictions

and ensured there was no inadvertent slip even. There
were a few things that I experienced during the
process of my recitation daily, and without going into
them, would only recommend that if you feel a sudden
fear when reciting or you see or hear anything, just
recite louder, and clearer.

But the most interesting thing happened on the last

day (21st day). It was a Saturday, Hanumana and
Shani’s vaar, and since the time I had chosen for
recitation was in the afternoon I was relaxing,
watching some movie or the other. I live in an
independent house, and a girl who lives in the villa
opposite called me on the phone. She said “there is a
dog outside your door”. Now this was the monsoon
season and was pouring outside. So me and my wife
went down to open the door, and lo behold there was
this a of sweetness shivering in the cold right outside
my door because the gate was ajar. The dog, whom we
have named Cocoa, had an injured leg and god knows
from how far he had limped to my house. For me it
was an interesting occurrence, the 21st and final day
of my sadhana, a Saturday, I being governed by
Saturn, Hanumana being Saturn’s controller, Saturn
has a limp, and a limping dog shows up at my
doorstep.
Yes of course, one can say it was coincidence. But
aren’t all miracles? And life is how you see it. I chose
to see it then (and now) as an acknowledgement of my
sadhana. The coming of a new life at my home. And
Cocoa has indeed been a protector in many ways. He
has enriched my life in a way that it is now impossible
to imagine it without him.

There was another outcome of this sadhana which

involved me getting dreams revealing the meaning of
some esoteric concepts. But it is too fantastic to write
about here at this stage. Let’s just say that the adage
“In Sanskrit there no sound that is not a beeja” was
made absolutely clear to me.