Goswami Tulsidas
If you’ve grown up reading about Sri Ram as a kid, you have one legend to thank. That’s Goswami Tulsidas & here’s his story.
Tulsidas was born in the 16th century as Rambola Dubey. He was abandoned by his parents & had a very rough childhood but found shelter in his Guru Narharidas who adopted & opened the world to him, helping him master all subjects over 15 years.
Despite his intellect, he married in his early 20s & became obsessed with his wife, Ratnavali, who told him that if he diverted just a fraction of his devotion to Sri Ram, he’d win in life.
This triggered Tulsidas to leave behind his worldly life in search of answers, leading him to find Hanuman, who finally helped him get Sri Ram’s darshan at Chitrakoot.
Inspired & blessed, Tulsidas spent ~2.5 years from 1574, touring between Ayodhya, Varanasi & Chitrakoot, to complete his most important epic poem, the Ramcharitmanas. This was a huge text, 1073 stanzas long, organized into 7 kandas.
At that time, the Mughal Empire was endangering our Hindu communities, and the common people had no access to our scriptures which were all guarded in Sanskrit by Brahmins.
So Tulsidas’ work, written in vernacular Avadhi & Braj languages, challenged & changed the situation, helping Ramayana reach women, middle & lower class people.
He made the wisdom of the Upanishads, Vedas & other Hindu scriptures open to the masses.
His work also bridged the gap between Vaishnavs & Shaivas, as he showed Sri Ram worshipping Shiva, and Shiva narrating Ram’s glory in the book.
Later, when Akbar imprisoned him for refusing to showcase his divinity & magic, he also composed the Hanuman Chalisa over the next 40 days, singing praises of the ultimate Bhakt, and giving us the timeless prayer that we recite for daily protection & strength even today.
Even when passing away in 1607, Tulsidas composed the Hanuman Bahuk, chanted to relieve illness & bring strength.
Walking in the legacy of the Alvar & Nayanar saints, Goswami Tulsidas took the Bhakti movement to the next level, setting the stage for a Hindu revival.