Tulsidas, Saint Poet of India - Essay Example

Tulsidas, Saint Poet of India Tulsi is sansar me, sabse miliye bhai Na jaane kis roop me Narayan mil jaye Says Tulsi, treat everyone in this world like your brother Who knows in whom you might discover God (Dohas, n.d.)Goswami Tulsi Das (tl's ds), in his eternal search for God, has created such wonderful poetry. Breathtakingly simple, yet deep in its message, it firmly guides the individual to seek God within. What is remarkable in his poetry is the fact that he has used simple the everyday language of the people, so all can experience the wonder and the beauty of his work.

Tulsidas was what is known as a Bhakti Kavi, or devotee poet, driven and inspired by his utmost devotion to the Lord. During his lifetime, he aspired to bring India's epics and poetry, hitherto inaccessible to anyone but the Brahmins, or higher caste people, who were the only ones who knew Sanskrit, the language of the priests, to the common man.Tulsidas was born Rama Bhola in the mid-sixteenth century, during the reign of Humayun, in a place called Rajpur in India. It is assumed that he was born under an unlucky star, because he was abandoned immediately after birth.

Adopted by a wandering sadhu, or ascetic, he roamed the width and breadth of India, visiting many holy places - a story in part supported by passages in his poems. The sadhu renamed him Tulsidas, servant of the sacred tulsi plant, which was used in a ceremony of purification of the infant. It was from his guru, Narahari Das that he first learnt the story of Ramayana, but since it was in Sanskrit, the language of the Brahmin classes, he only grasped the story after many recitations. The beauty of the sacred epic made him determined to write it in the vernacular for his own benefit and for that of others in his position.

Tulsidas married early, a girl named Ratnavali, by whom he had a son named Taraka, who died at an early age. So lost was he in the devotion of his wife, that for a brief while he deserted his God, Rama. He was recalled firmly back to his path by his wife who reproached him for showing more affection to her than to his Lord. Struck with remorse, Tulsi left her and took to an ascetic life.With his base as Ayodhya, he visited distant places of pilgrimage. It was in Ayodhya that the Lord Rama is said to have appeared to him in a dream, and to have commanded him to write a Ramayana in the language used by the common people.

He began this work in the year 1574 and within 3 years had written his greatest epic poem, popularly called Tulsi-krita Ramayana, but entitled by its author Ramacharitamanasa, or the Lake of Rama's Deeds. It is said that the Lord, impressed by his devotion, "poured Himself," into Tulsidas when he wrote the 'Ramayana.'Sri Aurobindo, a prolific writer and poet, called the Tulsidas' Ramayana "a long chant of religious devotion". Comparing it to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, he observed that few works of literature produced anywhere in the world had so influenced the life and culture of a people. (qtd. Goel, ) The Indian epics have a great deal of ethical and moral content, and Tulsidas, by bringing the Ramayana to the masses has been an agent in fashioning what is best and sweetest in the Hindu national character.

Apart from the 'Tulsi Ramayana', Tulsidas has also written several hundred bhajans (devotional songs) and couplets. Poetry has outlasted his mortal frame and earned him eternal immortality. The poetry sheds light on ordinary, day-to-day situations, creating awareness of the Creator Himself, gently directing people on how to reach Him within each individual self. Prem prem se hota hai; aur prem nem se hota hai Love begets love and love comes from worship (Dohas, n.d.) Works CitedDohas. 18th Jan., 2006 from Goel Dr., M. L.

Sri Aurobindo on the Indian Epic Ramayana. 19th Jan., 2006 from Some famous doha's from Hindi poetry. 18th Jan., 2006 from Tulsidas, Chronicler of the Ramayana. Retrieved 18th Jan., 2006, from Tulsidas. Retrieved 18th Jan., 2006, from