[Advaita-l] SAINT GOSWAMI TULASIDAS

[KAMESWARARAO MULA]

 Dear Friends,                        Tulasidas and Ratnavali who is the daughter of dinabadhu pathak had a son named Tarak who died as a toddler. It is the believed that the siddha yogi Devraha baba who lived more than 200 years at the bank of the yamuna has attended the barat of tulsidas.Generally human beings, we live with main three main ambitions.1. Putreshana, desire for progeny for the perpetuate lineage2. Vitteshana, desire for wealth & materialistic things3. Lokeshana, desire for fame & name.
Instinct driven as these desires and contaminate the mind influences the intellect there by permanently closing the eyes. if one of them excessive, it over rides and becomes uncontrollable. Only a rare soul succeeds in raising above them. Although there are many examples of miracles which he performed out of his bhakti, a few are interesting to know & read for the self-realization. Master Ramakrishna used to say that a person who has vividly seen other divine forms in the manner can easily have vision of other forms & it is quire possible.
Goswami Ji used to say the hear of a saint (mahatma) is to be equated with the bitter by the poets. The heart of a holy saint melts at others adversities just like butter melts of its own heat. In the course of his pilligrimages, Goswami Ji came to Neemasara (Naimishaaranya) Vankahanji , the saint of neemsara requested him to spot at the holy place.
A kALAWARA, a liquor seller named Bhulai always indulged  in goswamjii's pathway and he passed away on one day, his wife came to goswamiji in grief. Goswamiji blessed his wife "Deergha sumangali bhava", i.e Live long life with family, unaware of her husbands death. Later she told goswamiji the truth and he aksed her to get his body to his cottage, he put charanamruta, foot of amborisa in his mouth & chanted Ramanaama, the dead became live and after that onwards he stopped sitting outside his cottage.
Although scientifically difficult to explain such type of miracles, it may be believed that he might have gone to the time (only a few hrs after passing) so that he can stop that event and rescue the person not to come in that time and it is quite possible for an enlightened soul.
My conclusion is that there can be many stories, legends. The importance of all such stories is that  a true devotee of lord is capable of turning even the impossible to possible. Initially he was turned to the materialistic world although enselfish to the core and risen above lokeshana, desire for fame. His concern is to serve people and lead them to the path of Lord's bhakti.
Source:From the book on  Goswami Tulasidas: Love of Rama Personfied- Life & works by Sh. APN pankaj, Publisher; Sri RamaKrishna Math, Chennai.
Sri Guru Padaravindarpana MastuKameswara

 

    On Friday, 16 March 2018 9:26 AM, KAMESWARARAO MULA <kamesh_ccmb at yahoo.co.in> wrote:
 

 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
 
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