Hanuman, the divine monkey of Hindu tradition, is not merely a symbol of devotion but an embodiment of devotion-in-action—a being whose every thought, emotion, and physical power is offered in service to Rama without concern for personal bliss or mood. Jai Uttal explores how Hanuman's relationship to his beloved Lord offers a radical teaching for devotees: true devotion is inseparable from work, service, and the willingness to show up regardless of internal state. Through personal stories of his own guru, Neem Karoli Baba, and his direct experience singing to Hanuman statues, Uttal reveals how invoking Hanuman's blessing is essential to accessing genuine devotion.
Who Is Hanuman in Hindu Devotional Practice?
Hanuman occupies a unique place in Hindu mythology and practice. He is often called the monkey god, though his divinity extends far beyond animal form—he is a being of immense spiritual power who has deliberately chosen to pour that power entirely into service. As Uttal explains, "he's powerful he's extremely powerful but but he is so much about love that he actually forgets his power until the time when his power is called forth." This paradox is central to understanding Hanuman's role: he is not defined by his strength, intelligence, or capabilities, but by his relationship to devotion itself.
In the epic Ramayana, when Rama—the Lord—requires Hanuman to exercise his extraordinary abilities, Hanuman expands to the size of a mountain of gold and leaps across the ocean to battle the demon kingdom. But between these moments of cosmic action, Hanuman is singing, meditating, and attending to the needs of his beloved Lord. The point is not that Hanuman occasionally remembers he has power; it is that his entire being—mind, heart, and body—is so oriented toward Rama that power itself becomes incidental. Hanuman does not think about himself; he thinks about what Rama needs.
What Is the Difference Between Sitting in Bliss and Serving?
One of the most challenging teachings Uttal brings forward comes from a conversation with his spiritual mother at his guru's temple in the mountains of India. Uttal had confessed that while he sings devotional music, he often feels like he is simply working—not experiencing the bliss he imagines devotion should bring. Her response cut through a common Western misunderstanding: "that's cuz it's service. You Americans think that that service is eat a lotu and sit down and and go into a bliss but for US service is all sometimes is filled with anxiety and it's always filled with work. You're doing your service. It doesn't matter what you feel."
This teaching inverts a spiritual assumption many Western practitioners carry: that the goal is an internal state of peace or joy, and that genuine practice delivers consistent bliss. Instead, the teaching suggests that devotion is demonstrated not by mood or internal experience but by action taken regardless of mood. Hanuman models this perfectly. He is not waiting to feel inspired or emotionally elevated before serving Rama. He serves because service is the expression of devotion, and service often requires work, anxiety, uncertainty, and the willingness to show up without reward of pleasant feeling.
Uttal draws a sharp distinction: "hanaman is not just is not just devotion you know like in a room somewhere singing and praying and blissing out hanaman is is devotion and action." Devotion divorced from action remains interior, perhaps consoling, but incomplete. Hanuman is devotion-in-motion, devotion with hands, devotion that maintains temples, feeds people, and does what needs to be done.
How Did Jai Uttal Meet Hanuman Through His Guru?
Uttal's personal relationship to Hanuman deepened through his connection to his spiritual teacher, Neem Karoli Baba (also known as Maharaji). When Uttal first traveled to India in 1971, he had heard of Hanuman but had no direct relationship to him. Maharaji, however, had constructed and frequented Hanuman temples, living in them for extended periods. These were not peripheral to his spiritual life; they were central.
A turning point came when Uttal had been at his guru's temple for several weeks and Maharaji suddenly disappeared. The guru sometimes did this—either explicitly telling his devotees to leave "like like you talk to a stray dog but but in a loving way" or simply vanishing. At that moment, Uttal "didn't even realize how deeply attached I had become to him." When he discovered his guru was gone, "my heart was broken." It was as if Uttal's deepest longing, which he had not consciously recognized, suddenly became undeniable.
In that state of anguish, Uttal went and sat in front of a Hanuman statue he had been seeing daily in the temple. "I sat down in front of hanaman and I started singing and to me hanaman was maharaji and maharaji was hanaman and and I was just singing and singing." For perhaps the first time, Uttal could express through song the raw longing, need, and pain that had been building in his heart. The boundary between the guru, the deity, and his own devotion collapsed. "There's some synonymity...between maharaji and hanaman for me they're the same," he reflects.
What Does It Mean That Maharaji and Hanuman Are the Same?
Uttal is careful here not to make metaphysical claims about literal identity. "I can never comment about those things until I have a direct experience and and perhaps I never will and that's quite all right," he says. What he does claim is his own direct experience: when he sings to Hanuman, he feels he is singing to Maharaji. When he invokes Hanuman's blessing, he is, in his lived experience, invoking the blessing of his guru.
This is not mystical confusion but rather the recognition that a complete devotee like Hanuman—or like Maharaji—becomes transparent to the divine they serve. They are not separate from what they serve; they have merged their will entirely with the will of the Lord. In Hindu philosophy and practice, this merger is called *yoga* (union). A complete devotee is a channel so clear that the distinction between the devotee and the divine becomes immaterial to those who interact with them.
This has profound implications for how to approach Hanuman in practice. Hanuman is not an intermediary figure one approaches to get something from Rama. Rather, invoking Hanuman is invoking the very principle of complete union with the divine. To sing to Hanuman, to sit in his temple, to remember his service—these acts align the devotee's will with the principle Hanuman embodies.
Why Can't We Access Devotion Without Hanuman's Blessing?
Near the end of his reflection, Uttal makes a striking statement: "we can't we can't find devotion except through the blessings of the complete devotees like hanaman." This is not a metaphor. It suggests that devotion is not something an individual practitioner generates through effort or will. Devotion must be awakened; it must be bestowed. And it is awakened through the blessing and presence of those who have already realized it—complete devotees like Hanuman.
This teaching reverses the common assumption that we approach spiritual practice as autonomous agents who "develop" or "cultivate" devotion through our own work. Instead, the devotional path is fundamentally relational: devotion arises in the presence of and through the grace of those who embody it. When we sing Hanuman's name, when we sit in his temple, when we remember his service, we are opening ourselves to the transmission of his realized devotion. We are asking to be infected, so to speak, with the disease of love.
Uttal affirms this from his own practice: "I know that whenever we sing hanaman is there and he's blessing us and he's showering blessings on us." This is not belief in absence of evidence; it is recognition of what happens when a true invocation occurs. The presence is not imagined but felt, not wished for but recognized as already active.
Where to Go From Here
For practitioners new to devotional paths, several threads from Uttal's teaching offer concrete direction. First, examine your own assumptions about what devotion should feel like. If you are expecting consistent bliss, peace, or emotional elevation, you may be looking in the wrong place. Devotion is demonstrated in service, in showing up to do what needs to be done, in maintaining the temple (whether literal or internal), in singing and chanting regardless of mood.
Second, if you are drawn to work with Hanuman or with any complete devotee figure, understand that you are not approaching a symbol but a living presence. The boundary between invoking a guru and invoking a deity dissolves when both represent the same principle—complete dedication to the divine. You may find, as Uttal did, that your devotion awakens not through solitary effort but through the presence of one who has already realized it.
Finally, recognize that the path of devotion requires service, work, anxiety, and the constant willingness to subordinate personal mood and preference to what is needed. This is not a path of escape but a path of engagement. Hanuman, the mighty god who forgets his own power, teaches that true strength lies in total commitment to something beyond oneself.
