Due to the inclusion of many things against the Vedas of Tulsidas’s written Ram Charitmanas, there was a huge opposition from the pundits of Kashi as well as many other sections. There were also theft attempts. It is said that the thieves who went to steal were seen around Tulsidas’s hut, guarding them with bow and arrows. Both the young men were very handsome and were of Shyam and Gaur color respectively. On seeing him, the thieves’ intellect became pure and they stopped stealing from that time and got engaged in the worship of God.
Sant Tulsidas Jayanti on 4th August 2022: Poet Goswami Tulsidas (1511-1623), a representative of the Sagun stream of Hindi literature, Bhakti period, is recognized in all three forms as a poet, devotee and social reformer. Tulsidas, who is considered to be an incarnation of Maharishi Valmiki, the author of Adikavya Ramayana, composed Shri Ramcharitmanas, a book dedicated to Maryada Purushottam Shri Ram, which is considered to be an Awadhi translation of Valmiki Ramayana. During his long life span of 126 years, Tulsidas wrote in chronological order the timeless texts like Ramlalanhachhu, Vairagyasandeepani, Ramagyaprashna, Janaki-Mangal, Ramcharitmanas, Satsai, Parvati-Mangal, Geetavali, Vinay-Patrik, Krishna-Gitavali, Barvai Ramayana, Dohavali and Kavitavali etc. Did compositions. Tulsidas’s handwriting was as beautiful as the master of calligraphy. A copy of Ayodhyakand of Shri Ram Charitmanas is kept safe in a temple in Rajapur, his birthplace. The epic Shri Ramcharitmanas, which is read with great devotion throughout North India, was ranked 46th among the one hundred best popular poems in the world. He has received titles like Goswami, Abhinavvalmiki, etc. in his honor.
According to traditional information, Tulsidas was born in a village named Rajpur under Chitrakoot district of Uttar Pradesh in Vikram Samvat 1568 in the house of Pt. Nevertheless, there is a difference of opinion among scholars regarding both the place of birth and the date of birth of Tulsidas. Many are of the view that he was born in the year 1554 according to Vikram Samvat, but some others believe that Tulsidas was born in the year 1532. He spent his life for 126 years. His place of birth is disputed. Some scholars believe that he was born in Soron Shukarkshetra, present-day Kasganj (Etah) Uttar Pradesh, but some scholars believe that he was born in Rajapur district of Banda (present-day Chitrakoot). Whereas most scholars are in favor of considering the birth place of Tulsidas as Rajapur. It is said that due to the twelve months of the baby in the womb of the pregnant mother Hulsi, the child was very strong and teeth were visible in her mouth. He uttered the name Ram as soon as he was born. Due to which his name came as Rambola. He has also mentioned this in Vinaya Patrika. His mother Hulsi died on the very second day of his birth.
On this, the father handed over the child to a maid named Chuniya to avoid any further ill-effects and became estranged himself. His father died a few days after his birth. Somewhere, on the fourth day itself, it is written about the death of the father, but there has also been talk of becoming detached from the world. Tulsidas has also described the grief of his loneliness after the death of his parents in Kavitavali and Vinaya Patrika. When Rambola was five and a half years old, even the maid was no more. Rambola was forced to live like an orphan wandering from street to street. It is believed that Goddess Parvati took the form of a Brahmin and raised Rambola and with the inspiration of Lord Shankar, Sri Narharyanand ji, the dear disciple of Sri Anantananda, who lived on Ramshail, found this child Rambola and duly named him Tulsiram.
Baba Narahari performed the Yagyopaveet-sanskar in Ayodhya on Tulsiram’s Vikram Samvat 1561 Magh Shukla Panchami day on Friday. Even at the time of the rites, without being taught, the child Rambola uttered the Gayatri-Mantra clearly, which everyone was astonished to hear and see. After this, Narahari Baba did five rites of Vaishnavas to Rambola, initiated the child into Ram-mantra and made him study while staying in Ayodhya. Rambola, a child with great intellect, used to memorize what he once heard from the mouth of the Guru. After some time both the Guru and the disciple reached Shukarkshetra (Soron). There Narahari Baba narrated the story of Rama to the child Rambola, but she did not understand him very well. At the age of twenty-nine, on the Jyeshtha Shukla Trayodashi day of Vikram Samvat 1583, on Thursday, his marriage was completed with Ratnavali, daughter of Bharadwaj Gotra, the beautiful daughter of Deenbandhu Pathak, a village located a little far from Rajpur. Due to lack of cow law, his wife Ratnavali staying in her maternal home, he went to Kashi and got engaged in the study of Vedas and Vedanga, staying with the rest of the Sanatan. But suddenly one day he remembered his wife and started getting distraught in the separation. When his wife was not left without him, he returned to his native place Rajapur after taking permission from Guruji. But due to not being a cowherd, the wife Ratnavali was in the maternal house.
So Tulsiram swam across the raging Yamuna river in the darkest night and went straight to his wife’s bedroom. Ratnavali was surprised to see her husband come alone in the terrible night, and she asked him to go back quietly out of fear of public shame. Tulsi started urging the wife to go home at the same time. Annoyed by this unexpected stubbornness of his, Ratnavali taught him through a couplet composed by him, listening to and understanding its meaning, became Tulsiram Tulsidas. It is said that leaving the wife there at her father’s house, she returned to her village Rajapur. When he went to his house in Rajapur to learn that his father was no more in his absence and that the whole house was destroyed, he suffered even more. He performed Shradh for his father by law and by staying in the village, he started telling the story of Lord Rama to the people.
According to some scholars, after a few years of marriage, Rambola got a son named Tarak, who died in childhood. According to him, once when Tulsidas had gone to Hanuman temple, his wife went to her father’s house. When he returned to his home and did not see his wife Ratnavali, he crossed the Yamuna river to meet his wife. The rest of the story of Ratnavali being hurt and scolded is the same as above. Some other writers also believe that he was unmarried and a monk by birth.
After the abandonment of his wife, after a few days of Ramkatha discourse in his village Rajpur, he again went to Kashi and started narrating Ramkatha to the people there. During the story, one day he found a phantom in the guise of a human, who told him the address of Hanuman. Tulsidas, meeting Hanuman, requested him to have a darshan of Shri Ram. Hanuman told him that Raghunathji would have darshan in Chitrakoot. On this Tulsidas ji started towards Chitrakoot. After reaching Chitrakoot, he fixed his seat at Ramghat. One day while circumambulating the Kadamgiri mountain, suddenly he had a vision of Shri Ram on the way. He saw two very handsome princes riding on horses and carrying bows and arrows. Tulsidas was attracted to see him, but could not recognize him. Then when Hanuman came from behind and told him all the secret, he started repenting.
On this Hanuman consoled him and said that there will be darshan again in the morning. Lord Shri Ram reappeared in front of him on Wednesday on Mauni Amavasya of Samvat 1607. He came in the form of a child and said to Tulsidas – We want sandalwood, can you give us sandalwood? Hanuman thought that he should not be deceived this time also, so he assumed the form of a parrot and told about the presence of Shri Ram through a couplet. Tulsidas forgot about his own body by looking at that wonderful image of Lord Shri Ram. At last the Lord himself took sandalwood from his own hand and applied it on the head of Tulsidas and Tulsidas and he disappeared.
In Samvat 1628, he left for Ayodhya with the permission of Hanuman. In those days Magh Mela was held in Prayag. They stayed there for a few days. Six days after the festival, he had a vision of Bharadwaja and Yajnavalkya Muni under a banyan tree. There had been the same story, which he had heard from his master in Sukrkshetr. As soon as the Magh Mela was over, Tulsidas came back to Kashi from Prayag and while residing in the house of a Brahmin at Prahlad Ghat, the power of poetry blossomed in him and he started composing poetry in Sanskrit. But all the verses he composed during the day would all vanish in the night. This incident happened regularly. On the eighth day, Lord Shankar ordered Tulsidas in a dream that you should compose poetry in your own language. Tulsidas was disturbed by what he heard in the dream and he got up and sat down. At the same time Lord Shiva and Parvati appeared before him. Tulsidas prostrated to him. Pleased on this, Shiva said – You go to Ayodhya and live and compose poetry in Hindi. With my blessings, your poetry will be as fruitful as Samaveda. Saying this, Gaurishankar disappeared. Tulsidas obeyed his orders and went straight from Kashi to Ayodhya.
It is a legend that in Vikram Samvat 1631, the same yoga was formed on the day of Shri Ram Navami, as it was on the day of Rama’s birth in Tretayuga. Tulsidas started the composition of Shri Ramcharitmanas early that day. This wonderful book was completed in two years, seven months and twenty six days. In the Margashirsha Shukla Paksha of Samvat 1633, the seven Kands were completed on the day of Rama’s marriage.
After this Tulsidas went to Kashi by the order of God. There he narrated Shri Ramcharitmanas to Lord Vishwanath and Mata Annapurna. The book was kept in the Vishwanath temple at night. When the doors of the temple were opened in the morning, Satyam Shivam Sundaram was found written on the book, below which was the correct (confirmation) of Lord Shankar. At that time the people present there also heard the voice of Satyam Shivam Sundaram. Due to the inclusion of many things against the Vedas of Tulsidas’s written Ram Charitmanas, there was a huge opposition from the pundits of Kashi as well as many other sections. There were also theft attempts.
It is said that the thieves who went to steal were seen around Tulsidas’s hut, guarding them with bow and arrows. Both the young men were very handsome and were of Shyam and Gaur color respectively. On seeing him, the thieves’ intellect became pure and they stopped stealing from that time and got engaged in the worship of God. Tulsidas got the book kept at Todarmal, one of the Navaratnas of his friend Akbar. After this he wrote a second copy with his remarkable memory. On the basis of that, other copies were prepared and the promotion of the book started increasing day by day, and today it has become the favorite of the people. Tulsidas died in Vikram Samvat 1680 V. Accordingly, in 1623 AD, on Shravan Krishna Tritiya Saturday, Tulsidas left his body saying Ram-Ram.
