The verse and its meaning · Hanuman Chalisa · Hanuman Chalisa — Who Hanuman Is

Tiny for Sita, Vast for Lanka

Hanuman Chalisa 11

सूक्ष्म रूप धरि सियहिं दिखावा। बिकट रूप धरि लंक जरावा॥

Meaning · English

Taking a tiny form, you showed yourself to Sita; taking a huge and fearsome form, you set Lanka on fire.

Sukshm means small and fine. Bikat means huge and frightening. The same Hanuman takes both shapes. In the Sundara Kanda, which both Valmiki and the Ramcharitmanas tell, he shrinks to slip unseen into Lanka and comes before Sita, held captive in Ravana's grove, quietly enough not to frighten her. Later Ravana's men set his tail alight. He grows enormous and leaps from roof to roof until the city burns. His size follows the work in front of him.

A nurse speaks in a low voice at a frightened child's bedside, then raises her voice and pushes through a crowded corridor to clear the way for a stretcher. Same person, same purpose, two very different sizes of presence. Hanuman is small and gentle before Sita, then vast and fierce in Lanka, both for one errand of Rama's.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: Lover of the Lord's Story · Hanuman Chalisa 10
• Next: Fearsome Form, Tasks Completed · Hanuman Chalisa 12
• All of Hanuman Chalisa · Ask Krishna about it

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