Hanumān’s Stotra to Rāma

This is the stotra that Hanumān sings to Bhagavān Rāma in Kiṃpurusha-varsha. It is found in the nineteenth chapter of the fifth skandha of the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa. The same chapter also praises Bhārata-varsha above all the other varshas (regions) of Jambūdvīpa, and it names the great mountains and rivers of Bhārata-varsha.

The setting

Bhagavān Rāma lives always in Kiṃpurusha-varsha, the second varsha of Jambūdvīpa. Hanumān and the Nava-yogeśvaras, the nine renunciant sons of Ṛshabhadeva, worship him there without a break. Kiṃpurusha-varsha is therefore a land of constant bhakti (devotion) centred on Bhagavān Rāma. Hanumān, the greatest devotee of Rāma, presides over it.

The stotra

Hanumān’s stotra is a hymn of deep devotion. Its main themes are these.

  • Bhagavān Rāma is the supreme Purusha. He came down to the earth with no compulsion and no limit, but out of pure grace, to set dharma on its feet and to free those who are bound.
  • His qualities are truth, righteousness, compassion and valour. His word and his deed are one. Every action of his is in full accord with dharma.
  • Hanumān is Rāma’s servant for ever. He says that even after Rāma’s work on earth was done, he stays the servant of Bhagavān Rāma in Kiṃpurusha-varsha. He worships him there with the Nava-yogeśvaras and lives by that devotion alone.
  • Rāma’s grace is the only way to cross the ocean of saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death). No raft, no skill and no knowledge can cross it, except the name and grace of Rāma.

The Nava-yogeśvaras join in this worship. Because of them, both the highest wisdom (jñāna) and the highest devotion (bhakti) are present together in Kiṃpurusha-varsha, in the company of Bhagavān Rāma.

The glory of Bhārata-varsha

The second part of the chapter is a long praise of Bhārata-varsha, the southernmost varsha. It is the land of karma (action) and the place where moksha is won. This declaration that Bhārata-varsha is higher than all the other varshas is one of the most quoted passages of the fifth skandha.

Why Bhārata-varsha is special

The Bhāgavatam says that among all the regions of the bhū-maṇḍala (the circle of the earth), Bhārata-varsha holds a place of its own. It is the only region where karma works in full, where the law of action and result is completely in force. So it is the only region where all four aims of human life can be sought and won: dharma, artha, kāma and moksha.

In all the other varshas:

  • The people live very long lives, up to thirteen thousand years in some regions.
  • They have no great suffering.
  • The seasons are always pleasant.
  • Disease and hardship are small or absent.
  • Their lives are full of natural happiness and plenty.

Because life is so easy there, the people of those varshas have no urgent push toward spiritual practice. They live in comfort on their earlier puṇya (merit). But in those births they cannot easily gain new puṇya of the kind that leads to moksha.

In Bhārata-varsha it is the other way:

  • Karma works in full, and every action has its result.
  • There is suffering: disease, death, loss, old age and fear.
  • All four seasons come, with their hardships.
  • Life is short; in Kali Yuga it is a hundred years at most.
  • Life constantly offers a choice between dharma and adharma.

These very conditions make Bhārata-varsha the best field for sādhanā (spiritual practice). A person born in Bhārata can gather, through tapas, yajña, dāna (giving) and devotion, the karma that leads not just to another comfortable birth in another varsha, but to the end of saṃsāra and to moksha.

The longing of the devas

The Bhāgavatam says that the devas themselves, though comfortable in svarga (heaven), look with longing at those born in Bhārata-varsha. They say among themselves: “When shall we too be lucky enough to be born in Bhārata-varsha, where we can chant the names of Bhagavān Hari and worship him with the things that human beings have? Through that sādhanā we could go on toward the moksha that our comfortable life in svarga does not truly bring.”

So the Bhāgavatam says that birth in svarga is not the goal of birth in Bhārata. It is the other way round: birth in Bhārata is the chance that the devas of svarga wish they had.

Nara-Nārāyaṇa

The chapter says that in Bhārata-varsha the avatāra Nara-Nārāyaṇa performs tapas at Badarikāśrama. This shows that Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa is present in this holy land and that he himself shows the path of sādhanā. Birth in Bhārata is therefore more than a chance to gather karma. It is a land blessed by the presence of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa in the form of an avatāra.

The mountains and rivers of Bhārata-varsha

The chapter lists the chief natural features of Bhārata-varsha.

The great mountain ranges (kula-parvatas): Mahendra, Malaya, Sahya, Śuktimān, Ṛksha, Vindhya and Pāriyātra. These are the seven great ranges from which the chief rivers of the land flow.

The holy rivers: Bhāgīrathī (Gaṅgā), Candrabhāgā, Yamunā, Sarasvatī, Narmadā, Sindhu, Mahānadī, Godāvarī, Kṛshṇaveṇā (Kṛshṇā) and Kāverī, and many hundreds more. All of them are holy. All of them have the power to purify those who bathe in them or remember them.

Sources

  • Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Fifth Skandha, Chapter 19