Tulsidās

Others

Tulsidās was a great poet devotee in the history of Bhārat. He was born in 1532 (Samvat 1589) in Rājāpur (Bāndā), located in Uttar Pradesh. His parents were Ātmārām and Hulasi. After spending one year in the womb, he uttered the name of ‘Rām’ as soon as he was born. He had a full set of 32 teeth at birth; therefore, people called him a demon. His mother died after one year. Afraid more trouble may come, his father gave the child, along with some jewelry for subsistence, to his servant and retired. The servant also died within five years and Tulsidās became an orphan. Narharidās felt compassion for the child and raised him. He learned Sanskrit for 15 years and then married a brāhmin woman named Ratnāvali. He was very infatuated with his wife. When she went to her parents home, Tulsidās went after her in the middle of the night. Along the way, he rode a corpse floating in water and climbed a tree by grabbing a snake, mistaking it for a rope. When he reached his wife’s home, she was surprised to see he had followed her home. She told him to develop love for God instead. Tulsidās’s eyes opened up and he renounced his home to find God. He met Hanumānji in Chitrakut who helped him attain the darshan of Rām. His pure life touched everyone. He wrote the Rāmcharitmānas.