Budhir Balam – Learn Sanskrit through Slokas – 4

With Hanumath Jayanthi getting celebrated recently, it is only appropriate that we pick a sloka on Lord Hanuman for our post today.

 

Today’s Sloka

“buddhir balam yasho dhairyam nirbhayathvam arogathaa
ajaadyam vaakpatuthvam cha hanumath smaranaath bhaveth”

Let’s discuss the word-by-word meaning of the above sloka.

buddhir balam yasho dhairyam

• ‘buddhi:‘ is intelligence. The “:” (pronounced “hi” here – budhihi ) becomes ‘r’ due to fusion with the next word
• ‘balam‘ is physical strength. ‘Balavaan’ is a strong man.
• ‘yasha:’ is fame (again it becomes ‘yasho’ due to fusion. Here the “:” is pronounced “ha”, as in ‘yashaha’)
• ‘dhairyam’ is courage (originates from ‘dheera’)

nirbhayathvam arogathaa

• ‘nirbhayathvam’ is fearlessness. The prefix ‘nir’ denotes ‘opposite of’. ‘Bhayam’ is fear and hence ‘nirbhayam‘ is fearlessness. Similarly ‘Nirmala‘ is one without any blemish and ‘Nirupama‘ is one without any equal.
• ‘arogathaa’ is health (rather, it is absence of disease as ‘roga‘ is sickness). Here the prefix ‘a’ also is used to denote ‘opposite of’. Recall Asathyam (falsehood).

ajaadyam vaakpatuthvam cha

• ‘ajaadyam’ is being of sound mind. jaadyam is sluggishness and thus a-jaadyam is freshness of mind
• ‘vaakpatuthvam’ is skillfulness of speech (‘vaak’ is speech, ‘vaagdevi’ is Goddess Saraswathi)
• ‘cha’ denotes the conjunction ‘and’

hanumath smaranaath bhaveth

• ‘smaranaath’ is by remembering/praying to. Smaranam is to contemplate.
• ‘hanumath’ – Lord Hanuman
• ‘bhaveth’ – happens (from the verb ‘Bhu‘ – to be)

The complete meaning of this Sloka would be, ‘By praying to Lord Hanuman, one will be blessed with intelligence, strength, fame, fearlessness, good health, mental strength and skillfulness of speech.’

Lord Aanjaneyaa or Hanuman is one of the prime Bhaagavathaas (faithful servant) to the Lord. He demonstrated all the above qualities when he set out to search for Goddess Sita in the great epic Ramayana (Sundara Kanda). For all his services, Lord blessed him to be always near his feet (thiruvadi) alongside Garuda.

Aanjaneya Swami ki Jai!

To learn more Sanskrit phrases, please read part 1, part 2 and part 3.