Tulsidas

Tulsidas was born to a brahmin family in the town of Rajapur near Allahabad somewhere around 1532, the exact date is in dispute. He was separated from his parents at a very young age and survived on handouts. Tulsidas married young and had a passionate attachment to his wife and could not bear to be separated from her. One day, after an incident that embarrassed her, she scolded him; telling him that if he had the same love for Lord Ram as he did for her, he would attain immortality. This hit him like a cosmic revelation. Tulsidas left everything, went on a fourteen year pilgrimage visiting sacred places, living the life of an ascetic. He wrote twelve books. The most famous is his Ramayan; which has had a profound effect on Hindu culture. He lived in Ayodhya for awhile and then Varanasi. He left his body around 1623.

excerpts from Tulsidas' Ramayana

 	      Doha 8
My place is poor, but my ambition high
I have confidence in one thing
the good will listen with pleasure
while the fool laughs with disdain.

	      Doha 18
I have great reverence for Sita and Rama
who are truly inseparable
as a word is inseparable from its meaning
as a wave cannot be distinguished from water.

	      Doha 26
The Name of Rama is like the tree of paradise
the center of all that is good
meditating on this, Tulsidas, a vile hemp-nettle
has become the sacred tulasi plant.

	      Doha 33
Rama is infinite, his perfection infinite
His stories beyond measure
thus, men of insight wonder not at their truth
knowing anything is possible.

	      Doha 49
Rama's acts are mysterious
only the wise can understand
the dull-witted, the sensual, the greedy
imagine they know, projecting their imagination.

	      Doha 50
The omnipresent God, the ocean of beauty
unbegotten, indifferent to passion
with abilities unfathomable
has taken a physical form and become a man.