Hanuman Aarti: Aarti Kije Hanuman Lala Ki with Meaning
Aarti Kije Hanuman Lala Ki is the flame ritual that closes Hanuman worship across North India — sung standing after a Hanuman Chalisa path, at Tuesday and Saturday mandir aarti, and on Hanuman Jayanti. Below is the full aarti in the most widely printed refrain + eleven-stanza form: every line in Devanagari, a roman transliteration for readers who cannot read the script, and a clear meaning for each stanza — because the aarti is a compressed Ramayana, and each deed it recalls is a reason for the flame being offered.
How the aarti is traditionally done — the thali, the occasions, and its Mangal-Shani connection in Jyotish — is described after the verses.
Aarti Kije Hanuman Lala Ki — with meaning
Refrain
आरती कीजै हनुमान लला की। दुष्ट दलन रघुनाथ कला की॥
Aarti kije Hanuman lala ki, dusht dalan Raghunath kala ki.
Arth: The refrain names its object twice, and the two names carry the aarti's whole theology. First 'Hanuman lala' — the affectionate diminutive a family uses for its own child; the mightiest being in the Ramayana is addressed with household tenderness. Then the correction of scale: he is 'Raghunath kala', a kala — a living fraction — of Ram himself, the one who crushes the wicked. Intimacy and immensity in a single couplet: that is how the tradition holds Hanuman.
Stanza 1
जाके बल से गिरिवर काँपे। रोग दोष जाके निकट न झाँके॥
Jake bal se girivar kaanpe, rog dosh jake nikat na jhaanke.
Arth: Two claims about the same strength, pointed in opposite directions. Outward: mountains tremble at his force — the singer recalls the Dronagiri peak carried through the night sky. Inward, and this is the line every household sings for: rog and dosh do not even peek near the one he guards. Notice the verb — na jhaanke, they dare not glance. Affliction is pictured not as fought off but as unable to approach, which is why Jyotish counts Hanuman upasana among the great protective disciplines.
Stanza 2
अंजनि पुत्र महा बलदाई। संतन के प्रभु सदा सहाई॥
Anjani putra maha baldai, santan ke prabhu sada sahai.
Arth: His mother's name comes first — Anjani putra — because the tradition never lets Hanuman's power float free of his origins. Then the epithet that matters: maha baldai, the great GIVER of strength, not merely its possessor. What he has, he transfers. And the recipients are named: the santan, those attempting to live rightly, for whom he is sada sahai — always, not occasionally, the helper.
Stanza 3
दे बीरा रघुनाथ पठाए। लंका जारि सिया सुधि लाए॥
De beera Raghunath pathaye, Lanka jaari Siya sudhi laye.
Arth: The stanza compresses the entire Sundar Kand into two lines. Ram gives the beera — the ring, the token of commission — and sends him; Hanuman burns Lanka and returns with sudhi, news of Sita. The sequence is the teaching: he acts on his Lord's word, the fire is incidental, and the treasure he brings back is not victory but information — the first hope Ram receives that Sita lives.
Stanza 4
लंका सो कोट समुद्र सी खाई। जात पवनसुत बार न लाई॥
Lanka so kot samudra si khai, jaat Pavansut baar na lai.
Arth: The obstacles are listed like a fortress inspection: Lanka's rampart of a wall, the ocean itself for a moat. Then the punchline of effortlessness — the son of the wind crossed it all and baar na lai, took no time, made nothing of it. The stanza is sung when a task in front of you looks engineered to be impossible; the tradition's answer is that scale is a fact about the obstacle, not about what can cross it.
Stanza 5
लंका जारि असुर संहारे। सियारामजी के काज सँवारे॥
Lanka jaari asur sanhare, Siyaramji ke kaaj sanvare.
Arth: Burning Lanka and destroying asuras would be the boast of any warrior's song — but the couplet lands on a homelier verb: kaaj sanvare, he set his Lord's affairs in order. The devastation was housekeeping. This is the aarti's recurring judgment about Hanuman: his violence is never his own project; it is tidying done in Siya-Ram's service, and the tradition praises the service, not the fire.
Stanza 6
लक्ष्मण मूर्छित पड़े सकारे। आनि संजीवन प्राण उबारे॥
Lakshman moorchhit pade sakare, aani Sanjeevan praan ubare.
Arth: The night Lakshman lay unconscious is the tradition's darkest hour before dawn — sakare, by morning, the healing must arrive or the story ends. Hanuman brings the Sanjeevan herb (bringing the whole mountain rather than risk choosing wrongly) and praan ubare — rescues the life itself. This stanza is why his aarti is sung at bedsides: the tradition remembers him as the one who fetched healing when the deadline was absolute.
Stanza 7
पैठि पताल तोरि जम-कारे। अहिरावण की भुजा उखारे॥
Paithi pataal tori jam-kare, Ahiravan ki bhuja ukhare.
Arth: The rescue that proves no depth is out of reach: Ahiravan drags Ram and Lakshman down to pataal, the netherworld, and Hanuman follows — breaking open jam-kare, the very prison of Yama's realm, and tearing the abductor's arms out. Where stanza four showed him crossing horizontal distance (the ocean), this one shows the vertical: there is no world below this one far enough down that his protection stops.
Stanza 8
बाईं भुजा असुर दल मारे। दाहिने भुजा संतजन तारे॥
Baayi bhuja asur dal maare, daahine bhuja santjan taare.
Arth: One body, two simultaneous works: the left arm destroys the armies of the asuras while the right carries the santjan across to safety. The stanza gives Hanuman's ferocity and his gentleness the same anatomy — they are not moods he alternates between but two arms of one act. Protection, the image insists, is always both: something is stopped, and someone is carried.
Stanza 9
सुर नर मुनि आरती उतारें। जय जय जय हनुमान उचारें॥
Sur nar muni aarti utare, jai jai jai Hanuman uchare.
Arth: The camera pulls back: devas, humans and munis — the three tiers of the tradition's cosmos — are all found doing exactly what the singer in the room is doing, circling the flame and calling jai. The stanza quietly dignifies the domestic ritual: your small evening aarti is not a private custom but a joining of registers, the household voice landing in a chorus that includes the sages and the gods.
Stanza 10
कंचन थार कपूर लौ छाई। आरती करत अंजना माई॥
Kanchan thaar kapoor lau chhai, aarti karat Anjana maai.
Arth: The most tender image in the aarti: a golden thali, the camphor flame spreading its light — and the one waving it is Anjana, his mother. The being who broke open Yama's prison is shown receiving aarti from the woman who raised him. The stanza teaches the singer their own posture: the correct relationship to this much power is not awe from a distance but the closeness of family.
Stanza 11
जो हनुमानजी की आरती गावे। बसि बैकुंठ परम पद पावे॥
Jo Hanumanji ki aarti gaave, basi Baikunth param pad paave.
Arth: The phala-shruti — the closing statement of the singing's own fruit: the one who sings this aarti dwells in Baikunth and attains the highest state. The promise is characteristically indirect. Hanuman is Shiva's amsha in most traditions, yet the destination named is Vishnu's Baikunth — because devotion to the servant delivers you to the Lord he serves. Even the aarti's reward is routed through Hanuman's own definition of himself: the way to him is the way through him, to Ram.
How Hanuman aarti is traditionally done
When this aarti is sung
Aarti Kije Hanuman Lala Ki traditionally closes a Hanuman Chalisa path — the Chalisa is recited, then the aarti is sung standing, flame in hand. Its weekly occasions are Tuesday (Mangalvar, Hanuman's own day) and Saturday (Shanivar, when the tradition holds his protection tempers Shani), at mandir aarti or the home altar. Hanuman Jayanti is its great annual occasion; that tithi shifts every year with the lunar calendar, so check a panchang for the current date rather than a remembered one.
How the aarti is done
The thali carries a ghee or camphor flame, flowers and sindoor — vermilion mixed with oil is Hanuman's distinctive offering, recalling the story of him covering his body in it for Ram's long life. Boondi or besan laddu are his classical bhog. The thali is rotated clockwise before the murti while everyone stands and sings; the aarti is collective and audible by design, which is why its tune barely varies from one mandir to the next even when a booklet prints the stanzas in slightly different order.
The Mangal and Shani connection
Jyotish tradition routes two grahas' remedies through Hanuman. For Mangal — his own day is Tuesday, and a chart with a prominent or afflicted Mangal is classically directed to Hanuman upasana to give that heat discipline and direction. For Shani, the tradition tells of Hanuman freeing Shani Dev from Ravan's captivity, in return for which Shani's gaze softens on Hanuman's devotees — the reason Sade Sati observance so often includes Tuesday-Saturday Hanuman worship. Tradition frames both as steadying disciplines, not transactions; the chart shows tendencies, and the upay is how you meet them.
Related on Ishvaram: the Hanuman Chalisa (the 40-verse path this aarti traditionally closes — with verse-by-verse meaning), the Mangal upay guide (why Tuesday Hanuman upasana is Mangal's classical remedy), the Shani upay guide (the Sade Sati custom this aarti belongs to), and your free kundali to see where Mangal and Shani sit in your own chart.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 'Aarti Kije Hanuman Lala Ki' mean?
In one line: 'Perform the aarti of beloved Hanuman — the crusher of the wicked, who is a living portion (kala) of Raghunath.' The refrain holds both of the tradition's views of him at once: 'lala' is the affectionate name a family gives its own child, while 'Raghunath kala' declares him an aspect of Ram himself. The stanzas then recount his deeds — Lanka, the Sanjeevan rescue, pataal — as reasons for the flame being offered.
Who wrote the Hanuman Aarti?
Devotional convention attributes it to Tulsidas, the poet of the Hanuman Chalisa and Ramcharitmanas, and printed aarti booklets usually carry it under his name directly after the Chalisa. Unlike the Chalisa, though, the attribution is traditional rather than documented — the aarti's language is the common devotional Hindi of North India, and its authorship is not settled scholarship. Ishvaram states the convention honestly rather than asserting it as fact.
When should the Hanuman Aarti be sung?
Its natural place is at the close of a Hanuman Chalisa path — Chalisa seated, aarti standing. The weekly occasions are Tuesday (Mangalvar, Hanuman's day) and Saturday (Shanivar), and the annual high point is Hanuman Jayanti, whose date shifts each year with the lunar calendar — use a panchang for the current year's tithi rather than a remembered date.
What is the difference between the Hanuman Chalisa and the Hanuman Aarti?
The Chalisa is a 40-verse path — a recitation, done seated, that praises Hanuman's qualities and deeds in sequence. The aarti is the closing flame ritual: shorter, sung standing with the lit thali circling the murti, collective and audible. Traditionally they come as a pair — the Chalisa is the offering of words, the aarti the offering of light — which is why booklets print the aarti immediately after the Chalisa's closing doha.
Why is Hanuman worship connected to Mangal and Shani?
Two separate threads in Jyotish tradition. Mangal: Tuesday is Hanuman's own day, and charts with a prominent or afflicted Mangal are classically pointed to Hanuman upasana — his example gives Mangal's heat discipline and direction. Shani: the tradition tells of Hanuman freeing Shani Dev from Ravan's captivity, after which Shani's gaze softens on Hanuman's devotees — the root of the custom of Hanuman worship through Sade Sati. Both are framed as steadying disciplines; the chart shows tendencies, not fixed outcomes.
Can anyone sing the Hanuman Aarti?
Yes. The aarti belongs to the open devotional tradition — no initiation, gender, or caste restriction attaches to it, and it is sung collectively in homes and mandirs precisely so that everyone present joins. The only traditional expectations are ordinary ones: be bathed or clean, stand for the aarti, and sing it rather than mutter it — it is the audible, shared part of Hanuman worship.