The Fist of Hanuman: Five Fingers, Three Gunas and the Fear of Death
In the morning satsanga of October 16, 2026, Swami Jyotirmayananda read the fist of Hanuman as the power of self-effort, gave the meaning of each finger in the chin mudra, and taught that sattva must be awakened toward devotion to Rama.
The satsanga opened with an invocation to Lord Rama of the Raghu dynasty, whose complexion is like a blue lotus, tender and delightful, with Sita on his left and a powerful bow and arrow in his hands, and with the Hare Rama mantra. Swamiji then read a poem, a prayer to the Divine Mother: "flow through me." Lift the veil of illusion from before my eyes; flow through my tongue so that I may praise Thy infinite glory; through my hands, so that I may serve Thee; through my mind, so that I may remember Thee at all times; through my heart, so that the clouds of pure feeling may gather and rain down a shower of cosmic love. And flow through my soul, so that I may realize "I and you are one and the same."
In this season of Navaratri, he gave glory to the Devi as the bestower of shakti, bhakti and liberation: Durga Devi gives shakti, Lakshmi Devi gives bhakti, and Sarasvati Devi gives liberation. Then he turned to Hanuman, whose strength is boundless, and through whom the divine grace showers.
Lanka, the World of Ignorance
Lanka, Swamiji explained, is the world dominated by ignorance. It is constantly protected by the power of ignorance, and that guardian power is Lankini.
He then spoke of Durga Devi as Durgati Harini, the one who removes durgati, the bad destination. The more one lives with an inflated ego, the more one paves the way to durgati. Then one's gati, one's movement, does not lead to liberation; it leads to the cycle of birth and death. That is durgati. But with Hanuman, durgati becomes sadgati, the good destination. Durgati is given a great blow by the Hanuman mushtika, the fist of Hanuman.
The Language of the Hand
Why the fist? Because Hanuman shakti, Swamiji explained, expresses through your hand. Self-effort, Swamiji taught, is done by the hand; the feet do not do all that. The scriptures give much more detail about the movements of the hand, describing them in the form of mudras, and yogis gain different powers by adopting different mudras.
The greatest of them is the chin mudra, the mudra of pure consciousness, and in it each finger is symbolic. The kanishtha, the little finger, is the movement that drives away negative things; when you see something negative going on, your hand moves like that. The anamika is the finger that wears the ring, and all marriages are done with this finger as the highlight. The madhyama, the middle finger, points to the highest goal. The first finger shows the path. "It has a beckoning light," Swamiji said, and so whenever you guide people, it is this finger that points the way. And the final attainment is the angushtha, the thumb. Together, he said, that is the Hanuman mushtika.
The Three Gunas in Ravana's City
From the story Swamiji drew several insights. As Hanuman's strength develops, then instead of getting trapped by all the negative forces, you develop the movement of the sakshi, the witness. "You begin to watch." You see the mind under the power of Ravana, which presents a picture of great joy, rest and enjoyment.
This whole description, he explained, is the role of the three gunas: sattva, rajas and tamas. Tamas makes you like Kumbhakarna, "constantly, as if sleeping to the truth." You may have read the scriptures, and still the truth sleeps.
The rajas movement is subtle movement, and it gives you success in whatever project you have taken up, the project of Ravana. And the first stage of sattva is always serving, always attending on Ravana, helping him whenever he creates a project. The simple point, Swamiji said, is that when you are trapped by a sakamya, desire-driven, state of mind, even your mundane success requires a special worship.
Hanuman represents the movement of inquiry, which sees the power of sattva. Sattva is to be awakened, not to stay attending on Ravana, but to develop more and more devotion to Rama. You may practice devotion, he cautioned, while that devotion is directed toward fulfilling your wishes, toward help in succeeding in your project and your ventures. Hanuman is the awakening of sattva.
The Mind That Blames
Later in the reading, Swamiji gave a simple illustration of how foolish the mind becomes under anger. Ravana himself brought Sita; Sita did not want to come. And now he was ready to kill her, because he thinks she is the cause. You yourself brought her, Swamiji said. "Who told you to do that?" Remove your error; take her back. But "instead of correcting his own mistake," he wants to kill Sita. That is stupidity. Who brought Sita? He himself. And why all this? Anger.
Removing the Fear of Death
Swamiji called the next a profound episode. When it faces terrible challenges, the human mind sometimes invokes death to be free of them, and spends all its energy planning how to end its life. Even that, he observed, is not easy; it requires much planning.
If you want adversity to be truly removed, he taught, do not use your mind to think about how to die, but about how to "remove the fear of death." You are not the body. The body is under mortality; you are the soul. So "commit mystical suicide": let go of the body as your identity, and "let your soul shine." Instead of committing suicide, you realize that you are eternal. Shivoham, Shivoham.
The satsanga closed with a prayer for the shower of grace, the blessings of Durga, Lakshmi and Sarasvati, the Mahamrityunjaya mantra, and the peace prayer for the welfare of all.
Terms in This Satsanga
- mushtika — the fist; the Hanuman mushtika is the power of self-effort expressed through the hand.
- mudra — a symbolic gesture of the hand; the chin mudra is the mudra of pure consciousness.
- kanishtha, anamika, madhyama, angushtha — the little, ring, middle finger and thumb.
- durgati, sadgati — the bad destination of the ego, and the good destination Hanuman's grace brings.
- sakshi — the witness; the movement of watching the mind.
- sattva, rajas, tamas — the three gunas of purity, activity and inertia.
- sakamya — motivated by desire.
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