The Poet Saint Tulsidas*

By T. Krishnaji

The keynote of Hindu religious life is the concept of dharma or righteous conduct. The word has no exact equivalent in English. Dharma may be defined as spiritual life expressed in socio-ethical conduct. It is the bedrock and support of human life. The two great Hindu epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, inculcate dharmic life by precept and example. Yudhisthira in the Mahabharata is a great exemplar of dharma; but Sri Rama in the Ramayana is its very personification. His story was chronicled by Valmiki, the great poet-sage, and he has been worshipped throughout India ever since. Various poet-saints rendered Valmiki's Sanskrit Ramayana into the regional languages, and it was Tulsidas who did into Hindi.

Tulsidas was born about 1583 in a Brahmin family of Rajpur. He was orphaned at an early age and went to Benares to prosecute his studies. Before he reached his sixteenth year he had mastered all the Sanskrit scriptures.
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* - Referred to also as Tulsi, Tulasi, Tulasidas and Tulasidasa.

On completion of his studies he was married. He loved his wife, Ratnavali, so passionately that he could not brook separation from her even for a few days. Once she went on a visit to her parents who lived on the opposite bank of the Jumna and, unable to endure her absence, he plunged into the river, then swollen with the rains, and swam across. He presented himself, dripping and exhausted, before her and told her of the danger he had faced to come to her. Far from being pleased, Ratnavali rebuked him sharply: "Aren't you ashamed to run after me like this? Such attachment to this perishable body of mine is misplaced. Life's misery would end for you if only you had such love and yearning for Sri Ram." Then occurred one of those sudden transformations one finds in the lives of saints. Her words opened his eyes and in a sudden access of Divine Love he turned and walked out of the house, going forth as a homeless wanderer in search of God.

Tulsidas went on pilgrimage to one after another of the great shrines of India before returning to Benares. In course of time he became famous as a poet and saint. His lyric and didactic poems have been collected in volumes known as Vinaya Patrika, Dohavali and Kavitavali. Many of his songs are still commonly sung throughout the Hindi-speaking parts of India today. But it is on his Ramayana that his fame mainly rests. He composed this in the space of 31 months at Ayodhya, the traditional town of Sri Rama, about 1692.

Being himself a poet and saint, Tulsidas, like the other great renderers of the Ramayana into regional languages, did not merely translate Valmiki but departed freely from him when so inclined. Valmiki depicts Rama as an ideal man, but still a man. Although his work is known as the Ramayana, he himself refers to it as Sitayah Charitam Mama - The Chronicles of Sita. But Tulsidas portrays Rama as a Divine Being and calls his work Raghunatha Gatha - The Story of Raghunath². The Christian mystic Jacob Boehme has said: "God must become Man, there must be a birth of the light of God in the soul, in order that the soul may live its highest." Tulsi's Ramayana shows that God-Man on earth and inspires the reader outwardly to devotion to Him, inwardly to development of the Divine in his own heart.

It is said that all who die at Benares obtain Liberation, having received initiation into the Taraka Mantra from Lord Siva. In Tulsi's Ramayana it is the Lord Siva Himself who tells the story to His spouse Parvati.

Poetically it is a work of the highest art. The poet shows rare skill in merging Sanskrit words into Hindi, while the prefatory Sanskrit verses at the head of each chapter show his mastery of the classical language. The poetic rhythms and vivid turns of phrase thrill the reader. It is as great a work of art as of devotion. Millions of copies have been sold and it would be hard to find a home in the U.P. without one. It ranks among the greatest works in the literature of the world.

Tulsidas was one of the pioneers of the invocation of the Divine Name as a means of sadhana. Indeed, he says in one place that, whereas Sabari obtained Liberation at the hands of Rama, many sinners have found it by merely calling on the name of Rama. Although he was not a philosopher, this was an important contribution to Hindu religious practice. Dr. Ranade, a recent renowned mystic and philosopher,³ writes that: "His remarkable exposition of the relation between such fundamental conceptions as Nama, Rupa, Saguna and Dhyana mark him out as a thinker of a very high order. He says that Name and Form are only attributes of God, and that may be regarded as Tulasidas's contribution to Indian philosophic thought."⁴

The reputation of Tulsidas as a poet-saint spread. Divine Grace flowed on him and many miracles are reported in his life, including the revival of a dead person. When he went to Mathura, the traditional town of Lord Krishna, the latter appeared before him in the form of Rama.

There was a galaxy of saints, poets and statesmen in his time, by whom he was highly esteemed. Surdas, the blind poet-saint, Nabhaji who wrote Bhakta Vijaya, Nandadas, another poet-saint, the great Advaitic scholar Madhusudan Saraswati, were some of his friends. The Emperor Akbar and his ministers, Mansingh and Birbal, were great admirers of his. The spot where he lived in Benares is known as Tulsighat. He lived to the great age of 90, when he left his body at the junction of the rivers Asi and Ganga, leaving to posterity his immortal Ramayana and a wealth of devotional lyrics still commonly sung by millions of devout Hindus.
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2 - A name for Rama, meaning 'Lord of the race of Raghus'.
3 - For an account of whose life and achievements see the Book Review section of our issue of January 1964.
4 - Pathway to God in Hindi Literature, p. 13.