Watching Hanuman Ansh Through a Spiritual Lens
Friends, I went today to the theatre to see the blockbuster movie Hanuman Ansh. The emotions in the movie are powerful, but what interested me even more was how many of the apparently miraculous events can also be understood as symbolic expressions of inner spiritual experiences. I do not feel that every event has to be forced into either a literal miracle or a fictional story. Some may have been experienced as extraordinary events, while at the same time carrying a deeper psychological and yogic meaning.
One scene that particularly affected me was the freedom fighter eating chana-puri. On the surface it is only a simple meal, but emotionally it becomes almost an ultimate expression of hunger and satiety. Hunger is one of the most basic limitations of the body, and the satisfaction that comes from food can communicate relief, dignity and joy without requiring elaborate words. The simplicity of the scene is precisely what gives it such emotional strength.
Baba Standing in Cold Water and the Symbolism of Kundalini
Another scene showed Baba standing in water and remaining in samadhi for an extended period. My own feeling while watching it was that the cold water could symbolically represent a powerful stimulus to the body, with the resulting inward movement being portrayed through yogic language as energy rising from Muladhara through Sushumna. In the traditional Kundalini understanding, the awakening and upward movement of Shakti is associated with the transformation of consciousness and deeper states of meditation.
Of course, this should be understood as a yogic interpretation rather than as an established physiological explanation. Cold water produces strong bodily and autonomic responses, whereas science has not demonstrated that such responses are literally Kundalini moving through Sushumna. Still, as a symbolic reading of the scene, the connection is meaningful: the body is exposed to an intense experience while awareness appears to become increasingly inward and absorbed.
The Prison Lock as Liberation From Limited Identification
The events that appear miraculous in Baba’s life can similarly be understood as symbolic. When the prison lock opens by itself and Baba wanders outside, I see something more than simply a miraculous opening of a physical lock. The prison can represent the limited identification of consciousness with the body, personality and circumstances. The opening of the lock can therefore symbolize the breaking of that limitation.
Baba walking out of the prison becomes an image of consciousness moving beyond confinement into something much vaster. If this is connected with samadhi, the symbolism becomes even deeper: the body may remain in the world, but awareness is no longer experienced as confined to the ordinary boundaries of individual identity. The movement is from prison, to locked identity, to the opening of the lock, to freedom and finally to the vastness of existence.
The Serpents Around Baba and Awakened Kundalini Shakti
I also remembered the account in which a devotee saw Neem Karoli Baba covered with hooded snakes while he was in samadhi. To me, this too can be understood as a powerful representation of awakened Kundalini Shakti. The serpent is one of the oldest symbols associated with Kundalini in Indian yoga. Therefore, seeing serpents surrounding a yogi absorbed in samadhi can naturally be interpreted as the devotee perceiving the immense Shakti associated with his spiritual state.
We cannot know from such an account whether actual snakes were physically present, whether the devotee experienced a visionary perception, or whether the experience was influenced by familiar spiritual symbolism. But the symbolic meaning remains striking: serpent, Kundalini Shakti, awakening, ascent of consciousness and samadhi all come together in a single image.
The Train That Would Not Move and the Power of Guilt
Another event has an equally interesting psychological interpretation. Baba was pushed out of a train, but afterward the train would not start. This can be seen symbolically as the train of life itself stopping after an innocent person has been wronged. The person may have thought that he had simply removed an unwanted passenger, but suddenly the entire movement of the train comes to a halt.
It resembles the way guilt can stop the inner movement of a person. An innocent person is hurt, conscience becomes disturbed, guilt arises, and the normal momentum of life is interrupted until there is recognition and remorse. In this sense, what we reject or hurt outwardly can become an obstruction within ourselves. The story is therefore not merely about punishment; it can also represent the power of innocence, compassion and spiritual presence to interrupt the unconscious momentum of the ego.
Miracles, Telepathy and the Traditional Yogic View of Siddhis
There may also be other events in Baba’s life that appear telepathic or clairvoyant. I do not think we should automatically dismiss such accounts. In the traditional yogic framework, extraordinary perceptions and abilities, called siddhis, are described as possibilities arising from profound concentration and samadhi. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, particularly the Vibhuti Pada, discusses such capacities.
At the same time, not being disproved is not the same as being scientifically established. Modern science has not established telepathy or clairvoyance as reliable supernatural abilities, and individual stories can have different explanations. So I would leave the question open rather than making an absolute claim. A spiritual account may be interpreted literally by a devotee, symbolically by a contemplative, psychologically by a modern reader, or perhaps, in some cases, as an extraordinary phenomenon that we do not yet understand.
The important point in yoga is also that siddhis are not themselves liberation. Even when such abilities arise, attachment to them can become another distraction from samadhi and realization. The purpose of spiritual practice remains freedom, not the acquisition of extraordinary powers.
The Child Who Wanted to Reach God
Perhaps the most touching part for me is the story of how Baba’s spiritual search was inspired in childhood. When people told him that his deceased mother had gone to God, he apparently took the statement with the directness of a child. If his mother had gone to God, then he too wanted to go there. This desire became strong enough that he eventually left home in search of yoga and the means of reaching that state.
There is something profound in this simplicity. He did not begin with complicated theories about chakras, Kundalini or enlightenment. He began with longing: if there is a place called God, I want to reach it. From that simple question came the search for yoga, renunciation, spiritual practice and eventually samadhi. It reminds me that the deepest spiritual journey may begin not with philosophy but with an intense longing to know what lies beyond ordinary existence. I still remember my childhood, when my family tried to console me after my elder sister was gone, telling me that she had gone to God. As a child, I accepted those words with a simple heart, imagining that she had only gone somewhere beyond my reach.
The Essence of Tantra in a Few Words
Another thing that struck me was the simplicity of the instruction given to the child Baba by his guru: to leave dhyana at the Ajna chakra and place it at the Muladhara chakra. The deeper implication is that this can establish strong dhyana at the Ajna chakra by itself, without continuously forcing attention there. To me, this is perhaps one of the most basic and complete essences of Tantra expressed in an extraordinarily few words. The teaching does not need a long philosophical explanation; a simple direction contains an entire method, which the practitioner can discover through practice. Teaching Tantra in such simple and little words is itself amazing.
Seeing the Miracles as a Language of Inner Experience
After watching Hanuman Ansh, I therefore feel that the miraculous stories surrounding Baba can be approached on several levels at once. The chana-puri scene expresses the bodily movement from hunger to satiety; the cold water and samadhi can suggest the inward movement of energy; the opening prison can symbolize liberation from limited identification; the serpents can represent awakened Kundalini Shakti; the stopped train can represent conscience and guilt interrupting the momentum of life; and the accounts of telepathic or clairvoyant perception can be considered in the context of the traditional yogic descriptions of siddhis, while leaving their literal interpretation open.
For me, this makes the story more meaningful rather than less miraculous. What appears outwardly as a miracle may also be a language through which an inner spiritual event is being communicated. The physical story, the devotional interpretation, the symbolic meaning, the psychology of consciousness and the possibility of extraordinary yogic experience do not necessarily have to cancel one another. They can exist together, allowing us to watch the life of a yogi not merely as a collection of miraculous incidents, but as a possible symbolic map of the movement from bodily limitation toward freedom, expanded awareness and the divine.
Demystifying Kundalini 