1 verses · ~1 min
दीन-हित बिरद पुराननि गायो। आरत-बन्धु, कृपालु मृदुलचित जानि सरन हौं आयो॥१॥ तुम्हरे रिपुको अनुज बिभीषन बंस निसाचर जायो। सुनि गुन सील सुभाउ नाथको मैं चरनानि चितु लायो॥२॥ जानत प्रभु दुख सुख दासिनको तातें कहि न सुनायो। करि करुना भरि नयन बिलोकहु तब जानौं अपनायो॥३॥ बचन बिनीत सुनत रघुनायक हँसि करि निकट बुलायो। भेंट्यो हरि भरि अंक भरत ज्यौं लंकापति मन भायो॥४॥ करपंकज सिर परसि अभय कियो, जनपर हेतु दिखायो। तुलसीदास रघुबीर भजन करि को न परमपद पायो?॥५॥
इति
The Poet
तुलसीदास
Tulsidas
1532 · 1623
There are works of literature, and there are works that become the living tissue of a civilization works so deeply absorbed into the bloodstream of a people that they cease to be read and begin, instead, to be breathed. Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas is that second and almost impossibly rare thing. Composed in Awadhi in the sixteenth century, at a time when Sanskrit had erected a wall of exclusion around sacred knowledge, the Ramcharitmanas was an act of radical democratization a decision by a scholar of profound erudition to lay down his privilege and carry the light directly to those who had been told they were unworthy of it. Tulsidas took the Valmiki Ramayana and did not merely translate it. He recomposed it in the devotional key of Bhakti, saturating every couplet with such concentrated love that the text functions as much as a spiritual practice as a literary one. Generations of Hindu households have woken before dawn to the sound of these verses, heard them at birth and at death, found in them the moral grammar by which they ordered their lives. Tulsidas was not merely a poet. He was, in the most precise sense, an architect one who built a cathedral large enough for an entire subcontinent to live inside. The structure still stands. It has sheltered half a billion souls and shows no sign of age.
Paired Painting
Hanuman Bound in the Court of Ravana
This profound moment from the Sundara Kanda of the Ramayana captures the indomitable spirit of Shri Hanuman standing tall within the opulent and menacing court of the demon king Ravana. Having lovingly delivered the message of Lord Rama and exposed the vanity of Lanka, Hanuman allows himself to be bound by the celestial Brahmastra to converse with the king of demons. Yet, even wrapped in bonds, his radiant form overflows with divine power, humility, and unwavering devotion. The courtiers pull with all their mortal might, oblivious to the reality that true strength cannot be tied down by ropes, but only surrendered through love.
Open the viewer →