"Buddhiheen Tanu Jaanike" — What Does This Hanuman Chalisa Doha Actually Say?
In this doha Tulsidas calls himself dull-witted — not the reader. It is the second opening doha of the Hanuman Chalisa: "बुद्धिहीन तनु जानिके, सुमिरौं पवन-कुमार". It means: knowing myself to be without wit, I remember Hanuman; may he grant me strength, intelligence and learning, and remove my afflictions and flaws. In bhakti, that humility is itself the qualification.
The Hanuman Chalisa opens with two dohas before its forty chaupais. The first is a salutation to the guru — "श्रीगुरु चरन सरोज रज, निज मनु मुकुरु सुधारि". The second is this one, in which Tulsidas puts his own case directly to Hanuman.
The full doha
बुद्धिहीन तनु जानिके, सुमिरौं पवन-कुमार।
बल बुधि बिद्या देहु मोहिं, हरहु कलेस बिकार॥
Plain meaning — "Knowing myself to be without intelligence, I remember Hanuman, the son of the wind. Give me strength, intelligence and learning, and take away my afflictions and my flaws."
Word by word
- tanu — body; here it stands for "myself"
- sumirau — I remember, I call to mind
- pavan-kumar — son of the wind god, that is, Hanuman
- kalesh — klesha, suffering and trouble
- vikar — defects of body and mind
Who is the dull one — the poet, not the reader
Tulsidas wrote the word about himself. Self-effacement is an old convention in Indian devotional poetry; in the Ramcharitmanas too he admits his own unworthiness again and again. It does not mean the person reciting the Chalisa is being called dull. The sense is simpler: your hands have to be empty before you can ask for anything. Someone who thinks he is already full has nowhere to put what is given.
Strength, intelligence, learning — only these three
Notice what the doha does not ask for: no money, no position, no harm to anyone. Three things only — bal, buddhi, vidya. At the end of the Kishkindha Kand of the Ramcharitmanas, Jambavan reminds Hanuman of the strength he had forgotten, and at the start of the Sundar Kand Hanuman leaps across the ocean. The power was already inside him; what was missing was the reminder. This doha asks for exactly that.
What people get wrong
Many take this to be the closing doha of the Chalisa. The closing doha is a different one — "पवनतनय संकट हरन, मंगल मूरति रूप". "Buddhiheen tanu jaanike" is the second of the two opening dohas, before the chaupais begin. Printed editions also vary between "बल बुधि बिद्या" and "बल बुद्धि विद्या" — that is Awadhi spelling against modern Hindi, and the meaning is unchanged.