HANUMAN CHALISA

                     

              Hanuman Chalisa (Hindi: हनुमान चालीसा "Forty chaupais on Hanuman") is a devotional song based on Lord Hanuman as the model devotee. It is a poem written by Tulsidas in the Awadhi language, and is his best known Hindu text apart from the Ramcharitmanas. The word "chālisā" is derived from "chālis" in Hindi, which means 40, as the Hanuman Chalisa has 40 verses.
Hanuman (also known as Anjaneya and Maruti) is a Hindu deity and an ardent devotee of Lord Rama, a central character in the Sanskrit epic Ramayana.

                        Legend goes that Tulsi Das went to meet the then Emperor Aurangzeb in Delhi after having had a darshan or vision of God Sri Rama in Gokula, the birth place of God Sri Krishna. The Emperor challenged Tulsi Das to show Sri Rama to him. When Tulsi Das replied that it is not possible without true devotion to Rama, he was imprisoned by Aurangzeb. In the prison, Tulsi Das is supposed to have written the beautiful verses of the Hanuman Chalisa on Sri Hanuman.

When he completed the Hanuman Chalisa in prison, it is said that an army of monkeys menaced the city of Delhi. The king unsuccessfully tried to control the monkeys with his forces. Finally, the Emperor is supposed to have realized that the monkey menace was a manifestation of the wrath of Hanuman, the Monkey God. He released Tulsi Das and urged him to intervene in this grave matter and it is said that the monkeys stopped their mischiefs immediately after Tulsi's release.
           Tulsi Das says in the Chalisa that whoever chants it with full devotion to Hanuman, will have Hanuman's grace. Amongst the Hindus of Northern India, it is a very popular belief that chanting the Hanuman Chalisa invokes Hanuman's divine intervention in grave problems, including those concerning evil spirits and this belief is based on the claim made in the Chalisa itself.