[Advaita-l] SAINT GOSWAMI TULASIDAS

[KAMESWARARAO MULA]

Dear Friends,                       Tulsidas  studied Sanskritgrammar, four Vedas, six Vedangas, Jyotisha and the six schools of Hinduphilosophy over a period of 15–16 years from guru Shesha Sanatanawho was based at the Pancaganga Ghat in Varanasi. Shesha Sanatana was a friendof Narharidas and a renowned scholar on literature and philosophy.                       After renunciation, Tulsidas spent most of histime at Varanasi,Prayag, Ayodhya, and Chitrakuta but visited many other nearby and far-offplaces. He travelled across India tomany places, studying different people, meeting saints and Sadhus andmeditating. The Mula Gosain Charita gives an account of his travels tothe fourpilgrimages of Hindus (Badrinath,Dwarka,Puri andRameshwaram)and the Himalayas.He visited the Manasarovar lake in current-day Tibet, where traditionholds he had Darshan (sight) of Kakabhushundi, the crow who is one ofthe four narrators in the Ramcharitmanas.                                 Tulsidas hints atseveral places in his works, that he had met face to face with Hanuman and Rama.The detailed account of his meetings with Hanuman and Rama are given in the Bhaktirasbodhiniof Priyadas.According to Priyadas', Tulsidas used to visit the woods outside Varanasi for his morning ablutions with a water pot. On hisreturn to the city, he used to offer the remaining water to a certain tree.This quenched the thirst of a Preta (a type of ghost/pisacha believed to be ever thirsty forwater), who appeared to Tulsidas and offered him a boon. Tulsidas said hewished to see Rama with his eyes, to which the Preta responded that it wasbeyond him. However, the Preta said that he could guide Tulsidas to Hanuman,who could grant the boon Tulsidas asked for. The Preta told Tulsidas thatHanuman comes everyday disguised in the mean attire of a leper to listen to hisKatha, he is the first to arrive and last to leave. That eveningTulsidas noted that the first listener to arrive at his discourse was an oldleper, who sat at the end of the gathering. After the Katha was over, Tulsidasquietly followed the leper to the woods. In the woods, at the spot where the Sankat Mochan Temple stands today, Tulsidas firmly fell at the leper'sfeet, shouting "I know who you are" and "You cannot escapeme". At first the leper feigned ignorance but Tulsidas did not relent.Then the leper revealed his original form of Hanuman and blessed Tulsidas. Whengranted a boon, Tulsidas told Hanuman he wanted to see Rama face to face.Hanuman told him to go to Chitrakuta where he would see Rama with his own eyes.                  At the beginningof the Ramcharitmanas, Tulsidas bows down to a particular Preta and asks forhis grace (Ramcharitmanas, Doha1.7). According to Rambhadracharya, this is the same Preta which led Tulsidasto Hanuman. As per Priyadas' account,Tulsidas followed the instruction of Hanumana and started living in an Ashramat Ramghat in Chitrakuta. One day Tulsidaswent to perform the Parikrama(circumambulation) of the Kamadgiri mountain. He saw two princes,one dark and the other fair, dressed in green robes pass by mounted onhorsebacks. Tulsidas was enraptured at the sight, however he could notrecognise them and took his eyes off them. Later Hanuman asked Tulsidas if hesaw Rama and his brother Lakshmana on horses. Tulsidas was disappointed and repentful.Hanuman assured Tulsidas that he would have the sight of Rama once again thenext morning. Tulsidas recalls this incident in a song of the Gitavaliand laments how "his eyes turned his own enemies" by staying fixed tothe ground and how everything happened in a trice. On the next morning,Wednesday, the new-moon day of Magha, Vikram 1607  or 1620 as per some sources, Rama again appeared to Tulsidas, this time as a child.Tulsidas was making sandalwood paste when a child came and asked for asandalwood Tilaka(a religious mark on the forehead). This time Hanuman gave a hint to Tulsidasand he had a full view of Rama. Tulsidas was so charmed that he forgot aboutthe sandalwood. Rama took the sandalwood paste and put a Tilaka himself on hisforehead and Tulsidas' forehead before disappearing.              Death: Tulsidas left hisbody at the Assi Ghaton the bank of the river Ganga in the Shraavan month of the year Vikram1680 . Like the year of his birth, people do not agree on the exact date of his death. Different sources givethe date as the third day of the bright half. 
Tulasi Jayanthi is celebrated on 17th August 2018 as his 521st birth aniversary.

Sri Guru Padaravindarpana MastuKameswara

    On Thursday, 15 March 2018 3:19 PM, KAMESWARARAO MULA via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
 

 Dear Friends,                       Tulsidas was bornon saptami, the bright half of thelunar month Shraavana  a village Sukarkhet, Soron, near Kasganj, UP(Varahakshetra) on the banks of the river Ganga. His parents wereHulsi and Atmaram Dubey. Sources identify him as a Saryupareen Brahmin of the ParasharGotra(lineage). Veni Madhav Das's account in the Mula Gosain Charita, whichgives the year of Tulsidas' birth as VikramiSamvat 1554 and the total life span of Tulsidas equal to 126 years. Legend goes that Tulsidas was born afterstaying in the womb for twelve months, he had all thirty two teeth in his mouthat birth, his health and looks were like that of a five-year-old boy, and hedid not cry at the time of his birth but uttered Rama instead. He wastherefore named Rambola (literally, he who uttered Rama), asTulsidas himself states  & as per theMula Gosain Charita, he was born under the Abhuktamūla constellation, which according to  astrology causes immediate danger to the life of the father. Due to theinauspicious events at the time of his birth, he was abandoned by his parentson the fourth night, sent away with Chuniya,  afemale servant of Hulsi. In his works Kavitavali and Vinayapatrika,Tulsidas attests to his parents abandoning him after birth due to aninauspicious astrological configuration. Chuniya took the child to her village of Haripur and looked after him for five and a half years after which she died.Rambola was left to fend for himself as an impoverished orphan, and wanderedfrom door to door begging for alms. It is believed that the goddess Parvatiassumed the form of a Brahmin woman and fed Rambola every day.At the age offive years, Rambola was adopted by Narharidas, a Vaishnava ascetic the disciple of Anantacharya. Rambola was given the ViraktaDiksha (Vairagi initiation) with the new name of Tulsidas. Tulsidasnarrates the dialogue that took place during the first meeting with his guru ina passage in the Vinayapatrika. When he was seven years old, his Upanayana  was performed by Narharidas on the fifthday of the bright half of the month of Maghaat Ayodhya, a pilgrimage-site related to Rama. Tulsidasstarted his learning at Ayodhya. After some time, Narharidas took him to aparticular Varaha Kshetra Soron(a holy place with temple dedicated to Varaha– the boar avatar of Vishnu), where he first narrated the Ramayana to Tulsidas.Tulsidas mentions this in the Ramcharitmanas. 
    
Tulasidas married Ratnavali in 1583 on 13th bright fortnight of Jyeshtha. As Ratnavali was beautiful and accomplished , Tulasi was passionately attached to her. It was like this that he could not bear a moment's separation from her & wouldn't let her go th her parent's home even on a short visit.Renunication: One it happened that when Tulasi was not at home, Ratnavali's brother came to fetch her to her parent's house with great persuation in the absence of Tulasi. On his retrun to home, Tulasi found her absent at home and rushed to his in-law's place by swimming the yamuna river in the night. Ratnavali was greatly embrassed, angry, scolded her tulasi " he will attain freedom from the fear of transmigration" if he dedicates himself half to his lord Rama  as much as he was to her body of flesh & bones.It is said that true love to be diverted from mundane to spiritual & requires strong rebuke. Ratnavali's words sharp as arrows, pierced Tulasi's conscience and his eyes workup to the universe of Rama (initial seed for writing of Ramacharita Manas) as he closed to them to the material world.
Sri Guru Padaravindarpana MastuKameswara
 
_______________________________________________
Archives: http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/
http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.culture.religion.advaita

To unsubscribe or change your options:
http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l

For assistance, contact:
listmaster at advaita-vedanta.org