Pauranic · पौराणिकDhyana shloka

Manojavam Maruta-tulya-vegam

The best-known Hanuman dhyana shloka — swift as thought, master of his senses, foremost of the wise, and Rama's messenger.

Hanuman dhyana shloka; recited at the opening of the Sundarkand the four-line dhyana verseedition

Hanuman ·

Sanskrit · संस्कृत

मनोजवं मारुत तुल्य वेगं जितेन्द्रियं बुद्धिमतां वरिष्ठम् । वातात्मजं वानर यूथ मुख्यं श्री रामदूतं शिरसा नमामि ॥

manojavaṃ māruta tulya vegaṃ jitendriyaṃ buddhimatāṃ variṣṭham । vātātmajaṃ vānara yūtha mukhyaṃ śrī rāmadūtaṃ śirasā namāmi ॥

Read in another script

No verified recitation yet. We publish audio only with a named reciter and a recorded licence, rather than files of unknown provenance.

Meaning

Swift as thought, rivalling the wind in speed, master of his senses, foremost among the intelligent, son of the wind, chief of the vanara host — I bow my head to the messenger of Rama.

This rendering is by a DharmSetu editor, not a quotation from a published translation. Compare with the public-domain translation.

A Hindi meaning has not been written for this mantra yet. Hindi is authored by a named editor rather than machine-translated, so it arrives more slowly.

How to recite

Four lines of eleven syllables each — *indravajrā*. Recited standing, or at the opening of a Sundarkand path.

Time: Before a Sundarkand reading

Pronunciation key — sounds commonly got wrong

ट ठ ड ढ ण · ṭ ṭh ḍ ḍh ṇ: Retroflex — the tongue curls back and touches the roof of the mouth. Distinct from the dental त थ द ध न, where the tongue touches the teeth.
श ष स · ś ṣ s: Three different sounds: ś as in “shy”, ṣ retroflex and further back, s plain. Collapsing them changes words.
ः · ḥ (visarga): A soft outward breath echoing the preceding vowel — not a hard “ha”.
ं · ṃ (anusvara): Nasalises the vowel; the closing sound follows the consonant that comes next.
Long vs short vowels — a / ā, i / ī, u / ū: Vowel length is meaningful in Sanskrit. Hold the macron vowels roughly twice as long.
Aspirated consonants — kh, gh, ch, th, dh, ph, bh: A distinct puff of breath. ph is an aspirated p, never an English “f”.

Context

The most widely recited of the Hanuman dhyana verses, and the one usually placed at the head of a Sundarkand reading. What it chooses to praise is the point. Three of its four descriptions are of **mind** rather than muscle — *jitendriya* (master of the senses), *buddhimatāṁ variṣṭham* (foremost of the intelligent), *manojavam* (swift as thought) — and only *māruta-tulya-vegam* is about speed. The strongman of popular imagination is not what this verse commemorates; the last word it lands on is *rāmadūtam*, messenger, which is a role, not a power.

Shadanga — the six limbs

The traditional analytic frame for a mantra. Blank limbs are simply not recorded for this text.

devata: Hanuman

Recited at / traditionally recited for

Dhyana (meditation)Sankalpa (intention)

Classified as Pauranic — From the Puranas. Most widely recited deity mantras belong here. Basis for this classification.

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