Goswami Tulsidas

Tulsidas was born at Rajapur on the Yamuna, and tradition says he came into the world on an unlucky star, was given away as an infant, and grew up in poverty until Narharidas, a sadhu of the Ramanandi line, took him in and first told him the Ramayana katha. He married Ratnavali; the well-known account says that when he followed her to her father’s house, her rebuke, that he would do better to love Rama as he loved her body, turned him to renunciation. He lived as a wandering devotee at Chitrakoot, Ayodhya and finally Kashi. On Ram Navami of Samvat 1631 (1574 CE) at Ayodhya he began the Ramcharitmanas, the Ramayana retold in Awadhi chaupais and dohas, which became the scripture of the Hindi-speaking home and the text of every Ramlila. Kashi tradition holds that Hanuman guided him to Rama’s darshan, and the Sankat Mochan temple is linked with his name. His other works include the Vinaya Patrika, a book of petitions to Rama; the Kavitavali; the Gitavali; the Dohavali; and the Hanuman Bahuk, which tradition says he wrote when his arm was in pain. He left his body at Assi Ghat in Kashi in 1623. Tulsi’s Rama is Bhagwan himself who has become a man for love of his devotees, and the path he teaches is simple: the name of Rama, the company of saints, and humility.