Tulsidas
People of different spiritual states derive different light and meaning from the text in accordance with their need and understanding. Ordinary human life can be sublimated and bhakti cultivated through a study of the Ramayana. The Ramayana of Valmiki includes characters as they are and as they ought to be. Rama, Sita, Kausalya, Bharata, Hanumana, Janaka, and others are ideal characters. Dasharatha, Kaikeyi, Lakshmana, Shatrughna, Sugriva, and others have been presented as beings with mixed qualities. Ravana, Kumbhakarna, and other rakshasas are portrayed as personifications of abominable qualities.
Rama plays the role of an ideal son, disciple, brother, master, husband, friend, and king. Subject to human emotions and weaknesses, Rama is a supernal god in human form?but he is also a human who has ascended to be an adorable god.
Rama?s bow and arrow symbolize a force that guarantees peace and justice. Rama?s is the ideal of ?aggressive goodness? as opposed to ?weak and passive goodness?. Rama does not, however, kill or destroy; he rather offers salvation to those he slays in battle. This is technically called uddhara.There are many other versions of the Ramayana: Adhyatma Ramayana, Vasishtha Ramayana, Ananda Ramayana, Agastya Ramayana, Kamba Ramayana (Tamil), Krittivasa Ramayana (Bengali), and Ezuttachan?s Adhyatma Ramayana (Malayalam), among others. Although these differ in disposition, flavour, emphasis, amount of details, and length of each kanda (canto), they all describe the life of Rama and are inspired by the Valmiki Ramayana.
When Swamiji was at Ramnad, he said in the course of a conversation that Shri Rama was the Paramatman and that Sita was the Jivatman, and each man?s or woman?s body was the Lanka (Cey?lon). The Jivatman which was enclosed in the body, or captured in the island of Lanka, always desired to be in affinity with the Paramatman, or Shri Rama. But the Rakshasas would not allow it, and Rakshasas represented certain traits of character. For instance, Vibhishana represented Sattva Guna; Ravana, Rajas; and Kumbhakarna, Tamas. These Gunas keep back Sita, or Jivatman, which is in the body, or Lanka, from joining Paramatman, or Rama. Sita, thus imprisoned and trying to unite with her Lord, receives a visit from Hanuman, the Guru or divine teacher, who shows her the Lord?s ring, which is Brahma-Jnana, the supreme wisdom that destroys all illusions; and thus Sita finds the way to be one with Shri Rama, or, in other words, the Jivatman finds itself one with the Paramatman
an outburst of bhakti based on his own spiritual experiences. Although the origin of the Ramcharitmanas lies in the Valmiki Ramayana, its immediate source is the Adhyatma Ramayana. What are the differences between these two Ramayanas?
The Valmiki Ramayana is ancient, has 24,000 verses, and depicts Rama as the epitome of human perfection. The much shorter Adhyatma Ramayana, a part of the Brahmanda Purana, is of a later period. It depicts Rama as Brahman itself, and is an excellent confluence of Advaita Vedanta philosophy and the Valmiki Ramayana.
The character Ravana in the Valmiki Ramayana is a plain villain, symbolic of vice in an ordinary human being. By contrast, the Ravana of the Adhyatma Ramayana longs for liberation through confrontation with Rama, which is described as vidvesha bhakti.
Ramcharitmanas means the lake of the deeds of Ram. The entire story is a narration by Shiv to Parvati. Manas here denotes a lake conceived in the mind of Shiv. Like the other Ramayanas, the Ramcharitmanas also contains seven kandas. On literary merit, it can be compared with the Sanskrit works of Kalidasa. According to Vishwanath,
Tulsidas has packed into this single work all the drama and variety of emotions, moods, and judgements that Shakespeare spread out across his thirty-seven plays. In addition, he depicts how one ought to be.
It is written in Awadhi, or Baiswari the dialect of the Awadh region mainly in the chaupai and doha metres, and is sung to a sweet and captivating tune. It not only provides a philosophical outlook on life through its enthralling poetry, but is also a powerful tool for lila chintan, or thinking of the exploits and glories of God, which is an efficacious method of sadhana.
Brahman, within the reach of the masses. He made the Formless take birth and walk on earth and thus redirected the flow of people?s consciousness to this lofty ideal.
How could the formless Brahman become a human being? This abstract and ever-perplexing metaphysical question is clarified in the first canto of the Ramcharitmanas, through a conversation between Parvati and Shiv: Parvati: Is this that Ram, the son of Ayodhya?s king or is he an unborn, attributeless, and unperceivable being? If he is the son of a king, how can he be Brahman? (If he is Brahman) how did he get perturbed upon the loss of his wife?. Shiv:
There is no difference between the saguna, endowed with attributes, and the nirguna, attributeless. ? That which is attributeless, formless, unmanifested, and unborn, is none other than the saguna, just as ice is nothing but water. Sri Ram is the all-pervasive Brahman, the supreme Bliss, the Almighty, the Ancient.
While Sri Ram is the omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient Brahman, the jiva is ?a part of Ishvara indestructible, conscious, unblemished, and blissful by its very nature. Being under the control of maya, the jiva is tied up, like a parrot or a monkey! And in this way, a knot has been formed between consciousness and matter, which is very difficult to untie, although unreal.
This attitude of Tulsi incensed the people further. In a fit of anger, they demanded that if the stone image of Nandi?the sacred bull in the temple of Shiva?would eat out of the hands of that murderer, then they would accept that he had been purified. A day was selected for this ritual, and to the consternation of the people, the Nandi image actually ate from the murderer?s hands. The brahmanas were thus compelled to eat humble pie. However, this did not settle matters. This event increased Tulsidas?s popularity even more and enraged the already defeated people afresh, triggering off more attacks and assaults. The troubled Tulsidas then turned to Hanuman for help. Hanuman appeared to him in a dream and asked him to appeal to Sri Ram. Thus was the Vinay-patrika born. It is a petition in the court of King Ram. Ganesh, Surya, Ganga, Yamuna, and others are propitiated first, just as the courtiers would be approached first. Then follows wonderful poetry soaked in bhakti.
Human life, in all its facets and fancies, twists and turns, ups and downs, is on display in the Ramayana. People of different spiritual states derive different light and meaning from the text in accordance with their need and understanding. Ordinary human life can be sublimated and bhakti cultivated through a study of the Ramayana.
The Ramayana of Valmiki includes characters as they are and as they ought to be. Rama, Sita, Kausalya, Bharata, Hanumana, Janaka, and others are ideal characters. Dasharatha, Kaikeyi, Lakshmana, Shatrughna, Sugriva, and others have been presented as beings with mixed qualities.
Ravana, Kumbhakarna, and other rakshasas are portrayed as personifications of abominable qualities. Rama plays the role of an ideal son, disciple, brother, master, husband, friend, and king. Subject to human emotions and weaknesses, Rama is a supernal god in human form but he is also a human who has ascended to be an adorable god.
Rama?s bow and arrow symbolize a force that guarantees peace and justice. Rama?s is the ideal of ?aggressive goodness? as opposed to ?weak and passive goodness?. Rama does not, however, kill or destroy;
he rather offers salvation to those he slays in battle. This is technically called uddhara.There are many other versions of the Ramayana: Adhyatma Ramayana, Vasishtha Ramayana, Ananda Ramayana, Agastya Ramayana, Kamba Ramayana (Tamil), Krittivasa Ramayana (Bengali), and Ezuttachan?s Adhyatma Ramayana (Malayalam), among others. Although these differ in disposition, flavour, emphasis, amount of details, and length of each kanda (canto), they all describe the life of Rama and are inspired by the Valmiki Ramayana.
When Swamiji was at Ramnad, he said in the course of a conversation that Shri Rama was the Paramatman and that Sita was the Jivatman, and each man?s or woman?s body was the Lanka (Cey?lon). The Jivatman which was enclosed in the body, or captured in the island of Lanka, always desired to be in affinity with the Paramatman, or Shri Rama. But the Rakshasas would not allow it, and Rakshasas represented certain traits of character. For instance, Vibhishana represented Sattva Guna; Ravana, Rajas; and Kumbhakarna, Tamas. These Gunas keep back Sita, or Jivatman, which is in the body, or Lanka, from joining Paramatman, or Rama. Sita, thus imprisoned and trying to unite with her Lord, receives a visit from Hanuman,
the Guru or divine teacher, who shows her the Lord?s ring, which is Brahma-Jnana, the supreme wisdom that destroys all illusions; and thus Sita finds the way to be one with Shri Rama, or, in other words, the Jivatman finds itself one with the Paramatman
These included Kabir, the weaver, Dhanna the peasant, Sena the barber, Pipa the king, Raidas the cobbler, and through Raidas, Mirabai. The great Tulsidas too may be counted as belonging to this tradition. Ramanand is reputed to have been the fifth spiritual descendant of Sri Ramanujacharya. We have no record of the sayings of Ramanand, who perhaps preferred to spread the immortal message of bhakti through the radiant and glowing example of his own life. However, one of his songs, included in the Guru Granth Sahib, is evidence of his insight.
The ideal of illicit love between Krishna and Radha might also have been reduced to immoral practices in the hands of unfit and incompetent persons, had an alternative not been provided.
The reason for this downfall is that the inherently weak and indecisive human mind easily and unconsciously slips into permissive practices and is consumed by them. As opposed to this, Tulsidas placed before the people the ideal of chaste grihastha life.
Tulsidas presented a picture of human perfection, achievable by common people, through which one could uplift and divinize one?s own character.Tulsidas never became attracted to miracles or money. He was guileless but fearless and frank, innocent but outspoken and plain in speech. He did not preach any particularized doctrine, nor did he found a sect or school. Yet his pure life and enchanting, forceful, and touching poetry have cast a permanent spell on society.
