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Shrimad Valmikiya Ramayan, Sundarkand, With Commentary
श्री गोस्वामी तुलसीदास जी महाराज के द्वारा प्रणीत श्रीरामचरितमानस हिन्दी साहित्य की सर्वोत्कृष्ट रचना है। आदर्श राजधर्म, आदर्श गृहस्थ-जीवन, आदर्श पारिवारिक जीवन आदि मानव-धर्म के सर्वोत्कृष्ट आदर्शों का यह अनुपम आगार है। सर्वोच्य भक्ति, ज्ञान, त्याग, वैराग्य तथा भगवान की आदर्श मानव-लीला तथा गुण, प्रभाव को व्यक्त करनेवाला ऐसा ग्रंथरत्न संसार की किसी भाषा में मिलना असम्भव है। आशिर्वादात्माक ग्रन्थ होने के कारण सभी लोग मंत्रवत् आदर करते हैं। इसका श्रद्धापूर्वक पाठ करने से एवं इसके उपदेशों के अनुरूप आचरण करने से मानवमात्र के कल्याण के साथ भगवत्प्रेम की सहज ही प्राप्ति सम्भव है। श्रीरामचरितमानस के सभी संस्करणों में पाठ-विधि के साथ नवान्ह और मासपरायण के विश्रामस्थान, गोस्वामी जी की संक्षिप्त जीवनी, श्रीरामशलाका प्रश्नावली तथा अंत में रामायण जी की आरती दी गयी है।
250 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1560
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About the author
Tulsidas
121 books33 followersTulsidas was a realized soul and saint, poet, often called reformer and philosopher from Ramanandi Sampradaya, in the lineage of Jagadguru Ramanandacharya renowned for his devotion to the Lord Shri Rama.
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November 18, 2018
I have read this book long time ago. Tulsidas wrote this book in bhakti style. Love the way he wrote the Ramcharitmanas. You can feel how much he have spiritual love for Lord Ram. It is considered as one of the greatest work in Hindi. Ramcharitmanas means Lake of the deeds of Rama. Everyone should read this book.
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March 5, 2016जब रामचरितमानस पढ़ना शुरू किया था तो सोचा था की इसके हर काण्ड के बाद उसकी समीक्षा लिखूंगा। पर जैसे जैसे आगे पढ़ता गया, सवालों की बहुत लम्बी कतार मन में लग गयी। बहुत मुश्किल हो गया दृश्यों-परिदृश्यों के बारे में लिखना। इसलिए नहीं की कुछ समझना मुश्किल था बल्कि इसीलिए की कितना कुछ है इस किताब में विचारने लायक।
कुछ बातें हैं इसमें जो मेरी समझ से परे हैं। बिना किसी बुद्धिमान व्यक्ति के समझाए समझ में नहीं आएँगी। पर बहुत कुछ ऐसा भी है जो गहराई से विचार करने पर समझ में आता है।
लिखना तो और भी चाहता हूँ पर धीरे धीरे ही पूरी करूंगा ये समीक्षा। पर कुछ बहुत महत्वपूर्ण विचार ज़रूर लिखना चाहता हूँ जो मुझे यहाँ से समझ आये।
पहला की ईश्वर ने ये सृष्टि और ये ब्रह्माण्ड अपने कौतुक के लिए बनाया है। थोड़ा विचित्र विचार है पर शायद सच है। दूसरा की सृष्टि की विविधता ही ईश्वर की माया है। पर इन सब के बीच मनुष्य के जीवन का अर्थ क्या है? क्या इंसान हमेशा ज़िन्दगी का अर्थ और उसकी अर्थहीनता के बीच झूलता रहेगा? रामचरितमानस की मदद से शायद इस सवाल का जवाब ढूंढने में आसानी होती है। जब तक पृथ्वी पर मनुष्य है तब तक इस पर कलह, अशांति और दुःख रहेगा ही। पर इन सब के बीच अगर एक व्यक्ति किसी दुसरे व्यक्ति की मदद करता है, तो ये सब अमंगल चीज़ें दूर रह सकती हैं।
मदद, सहायता या परहित ही एक मात्र उपाय है जो मनुष्य के जीवन को अर्थ देता है।
मुझे लगता है की महाभारत पढ़ने पर इस ब्रह्माण्ड और पृथ्वी पर जीवन के बारे में समझ और बढ़ेगी।
पुरानी समीक्षा: This is a long book. And writing a review at the end would be too cumbersome and difficult. So, I've decided to split it into sections.
I'm trying to read the book as a fantasy poem and not as a sacred and revered book. As is the case with most of the fantasy books, this epic poem is divided into seven small books (काण्ड).
As is common with the fantasy genre, this poem has beings other than humans.
अवधी में लिखी हुई ये कविता तुलसीदास जी ने संवत 1631, यानी 1574 AD, में लिखना शुरू किया था। सात काण्डों में बंटी इस कहानी का पहला काण्ड है - बालकाण्ड, जिसमें तुलसीदास जी ने रामजन्म के पहले की कथायें, रामजन्म और रामविवाह जैसी कहानियाँ कही हैं।
तुलसीदास बालकाण्ड में बतलाते हैं की उन्होंने ये राम कथा अपने गुरु से सुनी। वे लिखते हैं की सबसे पहले ये कथा शिवजी ने अपने मन में रची थी। फिर उन्होंने इस कथा को पारवती और काकभुशुण्डि से कहा। काकभुशुण्डि ने ये कथा मुनि याज्ञवलक्य से कही और उन्होंने ये कथा मुनि भरद्वाज से कही।
बालकाण्ड के शुरू में वे लिखते हैं -
उपजहिं एक संग जग माहीं। जलज जोंक जिमि गुन बिलगाहीं।।
सुधा सुय सम साधु असाधू। जनक एक जग जलधि अगाधू।।
अच्छा बुरा एक साथ जन्मता है, पर कमल और जोंक की तरह उनके गुण-अवगुण अलग अलग हैं - कमल देखने पर आँखों को सुख देता है पर जोंक शरीर का स्पर्श पाते ही खून चूंसने लगती है। साधू अमृत के समान है और असाधु मद्य के सामान है।
भलेउ पोच सब बिधि उपजाए। गनि गुन दोष बेद बिलगाए।।
कहहिं बेद इतिहास पुराना। बिधि प्रपंचु गुन अवगुन साना।।
भले-बुरे सभी विधाता के पैदा किये हुए हैं। पर वेदों ने गुण और दोषों को सोचकर अलग अलग कर दिया है। वेद, इतिहास, और पुराण कहते हैं की विधाता की ये सृष्टि गुण-अवगुण से सनी हुई है।
निज कबित्त केहि लाग ननीका। सरस होउ अथवा अति फीका।।
जे पर भनिति सुनत हरषाहीं। ते बर पुरुष बहुत जग नाहीं।।
रसीली हो या फीकी, अपनी कविता किसे अच्छी नहीं लगती ? पर जो दूसरे की रचना को सुनकर हर्षित होते हैं, ऐसे उत्तम लोग जगत में बहुत नहीं हैं।
जग बहु नर सर सरि सम भाई। जे निज बाढ़ि बढ़हि जल पाई।।
सज्जन सकृत सिंधु सम कोई। देखि पूर बिधु बाढ़इ जोई।।
जगत में तालाबों और नदियों के समान मनुष्य ही अधिक हैं, जो जल पाकर अपनी ही बाढ़ से बढ़ते हैं, मतलब अपनी ही उन्नति से खुश होते हैं। पर समुद्र सा तो कोई एक विरला ही सज्जन होता है जो चन्द्रमा को पूरा देखकर (मलतब दूसरों का उत्कर्ष देखकर) उमड़ पड़ता है।
बालकाण्ड में तुलसी ने राम नाम की खूब महिमा गायी है।
जान आदिकबि नाम प्रतापू। भयउ सुद्ध करि उलटा जापू।
सहस नाम सम सुनि सिवबानी। जपि जेई पिय संग भवानी।।
तुलसी जी कहते हैं की आदिकवि वाल्मीकि जी राम नाम के प्रताप को जानते थे, जो उल्टा नाम ('मरा', 'मरा') जपकर पवित्र हो गए। शिव के इस वचन की सुनकर की एक राम नाम हज़ारों नाम के बराबर है, पार्वती सदा उनके साथ राम नाम का जाप करती हैं।
ध्यानु प्रथम जुग मख बिधि दूजे। द्वापर परितोषित प्रभु पूजे।।
कलि केवल मल मूल मलीना। पाप पयोनिधि जन मन मीना।।
तुलसीदास लिखते हैं की पहले युग में ध्यान से, दूसरे युग में यज्ञ से और द्वापर युग में पूजन से भगवान प्रसन्न होते हैं, पर कलियुग केवल एक मलिन (मल और मूल के समान अपशिष्ट) युग है, और इस युग में मनुष्य का मन पाप रुपी समुद्र में मछली बना हुआ है, जो पाप से कभी अलग ही नहीं होना चाहता।
नहिं कलि करम न भगति बिबेकू। राम नाम अवलंबन एकू।।
कालनेमि कलि कपट निधानू। नाम सुमति समरथ हनुमानू।।
कलियुग में न कर्म है, न भक्ति है और न ही ज्ञान है; राम नाम ही एक आधार है। कपट की खान इस कलयुग में राम नाम की एक मात्र निधान है।
भाय कुभाय अनख आलसहूँ। नाम जपत मंगल दिसि दसहूँ।।
सुमिरि सो नाम राम गुन गाथा। करउँ नाइ रघुनाथहि माथा।।
अच्छे भाव से, बुरे भाव से, क्रोध से या आलस्य से, किसी तरह से भी नाम जपने से हर दिशा मे कल्याण होता है।
तुलसीदास कहते हैं की वो मुनि याज्ञवल्क्य और मुनि भरद्वाज हुआ संवाद लिखेंगे। उसी संवाद के भीतर शिव-पारवती संवाद और काकभुशुण्डि और गरुड़ संवाद भी हैं।
इसी काण्ड में शिव-सती और शिव-पारवती विवाह की कथा है। तुलसी लिखते हैं की शिव स्वाभाव से उदासीन हैं और गुणहीन, कुलहीन, और नग्न रहने वाले हैं।
देव दनुज नर किन्नर ब्याला। प्रेत पिशाच भूत बेताला।।
इन्ह कै दसा न कहेउँ बखानी। सदा काम के चेरे जानी।।
जब कामदेव को शिव की तपस्या भंग करने के लिए बुलाया गया, तब उसके प्रभाव से सारे लोक व्याकुल हो गए। तुलसीदास लिखते हैं की वो देव, दानव, मनुष्य, किन्नर, प्रेत, भूत, पिशाच और बेताल की दशा का क्या कहें, जो हमेशा की काम के ग़ुलाम हैं।
राम जनम के हेतु अनेका। परम बिचित्र एक तें एका।।
शिव पारवती संवाद में शिव पारवती से कहते हैं की भगवान के अवतार लेने के कई कारण हो सकते हैं, और कुछ ऐसे भी हो सकते हैं जिन्हे कोई नहीं जान सकता और सभी एक से बढ़कर एक विचित्र हैं।
तुलसी आगे लिखते हैं की भगवान के अवतार लेने के कई कारण होते हैं। इस सन्दर्भ में वे कई कथाएं लिखते हैं जैसे जय-विजय कथा, नारद श्राप कथा, स्वयंभू और शतरूपा कथा, सत्यकेतु और प्रतापभानु कथा।
नारद श्राप कथा में तुलसी बतलाते हैं की नारद मुनि जैसे हरिभक्त भी मोह,अभिमान और क्रोध से मुक्त नहीं हैं। देवराज इंद्र भी भय, क्रोध, मोह और ईर्ष्या से मुक्त नहीं हैं। देवताओं में भी मनुष्यों जैसी की कमज़ोरियाँ हैं।
जे कामी लोलुप जग माहीं। कुटिल काक इब सबहि डेराही।।
नारद श्राप कथा में जब नारद मुनि एक सुन्दर जगह देखकर वहां तप करने बैठ गए, तब देवराज इंद्र के ��न में डर पैदा हुआ की नारद उनका राज्य चाहते हैं। तुलसीदास लिखते हैं की जगत में जो लोग कामी और लोभी होते हैं, वे कुटिल कौवे की तरह सबसे डरते हैं।
काम चरित नारद सब भाये। जद्यपि प्रथम बरजि सिवँ राखे।।
अति प्रचंड रघुपति कै माया। जेहि न मोह अस को जग जाया।।
जब इंद्र ने डरकर कामदेव को नारद मुनि की तपस्या भंग करने भेजा और वो नारद का ध्यान भंग नहीं कर पाया, तब कामदेव ने नारद मुनि के चरण पकड़ लिए और उनसे माफ़ी मांगी। मुनि ने कामदेव को माफ़ कर दिया पर उनके मन में इस बात का अहंकार पैदा हो गया की हमने कामदेव को जीत लिया है।
तब मुनि शिव के पास गए और उनको साड़ी बात कही। पर शिव ने उनसे बार बार विनती की ये कथा वे हरि को न सुनायें। पर मुनि को ये बात अच्छी नहीं लगी। कुछ दिन बाद जब मुनि हरि से मिले, तो शिव के मना करने पर भी, उन्होंने सारी कथा हरि से कह दी।
तुलसीदास लिखते हैं की रघुनाथ की माया बड़ी ही प्रबल है। जगत में ऐसा कोई नहीं जिसे वो माया मोहित न कर दे।
बेगि सो मैं डारिहउँ उखारी। पण हमार सेवक हितकारी।।
मुनि कर हित मम कौतुक होई। अवसि उपाय करबि मैं सोई।।
जब हरि ने मुनि की और बड़ाई की, तो उन्होंने देखा की मुनि के मन में अत्याधिक गर्व घर कर रहा है। उन्होंने, मुनि के हित के लिए, निश्चय किया की वो उस अहंकार को उखाड़ फेंकेंगे, इससे मुनि का कल्याण होगा और उनका खेल होगा।
प्रभु कौतुकी प्रनत हितकारी। सेवत मोहहि मुनि ग्यानी सुलभ सकल दुखहारी।।
शिव पारवती को नारद की कथा कहते हुए कहते हैं की ज्ञानी मुनि भी भगवान की माया से मोहित हो जाते हैं। भगवान अपने कौतुक से ही सबका हित करते हैं।
सुर नर मुनि कोउ नाहिं जेहि न मोह माया प्रबल।
अस बिचारी मन माहिं भजिअ महामाया पतिहि।।
देवता, मनुष्य और मुनियों में ऐसा कोई नहीं है जिसे भगवान की माया मोहित न कर दे।
रावण कथा में तुलसी लिखते हैं की रावण का जन्म भले ही पुलस्त्य ऋषि के कुल में हुआ, पर पूर्व जन्मों के श्राप के कारण वो अभिमानी और हिंसक राक्षस हुआ।
सुख संपत्ति सुत सेन सहाई। जय प्रताप बल बुद्धि बढ़ाई।।
नित नूतन सब बाढ़त जाई। जिमि प्रतिलाभ लोभ अधिकाई।।
रावण कथा में तुलसीदास लिखते हैं की सुख, संपत्ति, पुत्र, सेना, सहायक, जय, प्रताप, बल, बुद्धि बढ़ाई - ये सब उसके ऐसे रोज़ ऐसे बढ़ते थे जैसे हर लाभ पर लोभ बढ़ता है।
बाढ़े खल बहु चोर जुआरा। जे लपट परधन परदारा।।
मानहि मातु पिता नहिं देवा। साधुन्ह सब करवावहिं सेवा।।
जिन्ह के यह आचरन भवानी। ते जानेहु निसिचर सब प्रानी।।
अतिसय देखि धर्म कै ग्लानी। परम सभीत धरा अकुलानी।।
शिव पारवती से कहते हैं रावण के समय में दूसरे के धन पर मन चलाने वाले, दुष्ट, चोर, और जुआरी बहुत बढ़ गए। लोग माता -पिता को मानते नहीं थे, और साधुओं से सेवा करवाते थे। ऐसे लोगों को, शिव कहते हैं की, राक्षस ही समझना चाहिए।
गिरि सरि सिंधु भार नहिं मोही। जस मोहि गरुअ एक परद्रोही।।
तुलसीदास लिखते हैं की इस तरह धर्म के प्रति लोगों की अनास्था देखकर पृथ्वी बहुत व्याकुल हो गयी और सोचने लगी की पर्वतों, नदियों और समुद्रों का बोझ उससे इतना भारी नहीं लगता, जितना भारी उसे एक परद्रोही (दूसरोँ का बुरा करने वाला) लगता है।
हरी ब्यापक सर्वत्र समाना। प्रेम तें प्रगट होहिं मैं जाना।।
देस काल दिसि बिदिसिहु माहीं। कहहु सो कहाँ जहाँ प्रभु नाहीं।।
तुलसी लिखते हैं की जब सभी लोग रावण के दुःख से परेशान होकर हरि को ढूढ़ने गए तब शिव ने सब से कहा की भगवान सब जगह समान रूप से बसते हैं प्रेम से नाम लेने पर प्रकट हो जाते हैं। देश, काल, दिशा, विदिशा में ऐसी कोई जगह नहीं है, जहाँ भगवान न हो।
बालकाण्ड में ही आगे तुलसीदास जी ने राम जन्म, और राम विवाह की कहानी कही है।
कुछ बातें हैं इसमें जो मेरी समझ से परे हैं। बिना किसी बुद्धिमान व्यक्ति के समझाए समझ में नहीं आएँगी। पर बहुत कुछ ऐसा भी है जो गहराई से विचार करने पर समझ में आता है।
लिखना तो और भी चाहता हूँ पर धीरे धीरे ही पूरी करूंगा ये समीक्षा। पर कुछ बहुत महत्वपूर्ण विचार ज़रूर लिखना चाहता हूँ जो मुझे यहाँ से समझ आये।
पहला की ईश्वर ने ये सृष्टि और ये ब्रह्माण्ड अपने कौतुक के लिए बनाया है। थोड़ा विचित्र विचार है पर शायद सच है। दूसरा की सृष्टि की विविधता ही ईश्वर की माया है। पर इन सब के बीच मनुष्य के जीवन का अर्थ क्या है? क्या इंसान हमेशा ज़िन्दगी का अर्थ और उसकी अर्थहीनता के बीच झूलता रहेगा? रामचरितमानस की मदद से शायद इस सवाल का जवाब ढूंढने में आसानी होती है। जब तक पृथ्वी पर मनुष्य है तब तक इस पर कलह, अशांति और दुःख रहेगा ही। पर इन सब के बीच अगर एक व्यक्ति किसी दुसरे व्यक्ति की मदद करता है, तो ये सब अमंगल चीज़ें दूर रह सकती हैं।
मदद, सहायता या परहित ही एक मात्र उपाय है जो मनुष्य के जीवन को अर्थ देता है।
मुझे लगता है की महाभारत पढ़ने पर इस ब्रह्माण्ड और पृथ्वी पर जीवन के बारे में समझ और बढ़ेगी।
पुरानी समीक्षा: This is a long book. And writing a review at the end would be too cumbersome and difficult. So, I've decided to split it into sections.
I'm trying to read the book as a fantasy poem and not as a sacred and revered book. As is the case with most of the fantasy books, this epic poem is divided into seven small books (काण्ड).
As is common with the fantasy genre, this poem has beings other than humans.
अवधी में लिखी हुई ये कविता तुलसीदास जी ने संवत 1631, यानी 1574 AD, में लिखना शुरू किया था। सात काण्डों में बंटी इस कहानी का पहला काण्ड है - बालकाण्ड, जिसमें तुलसीदास जी ने रामजन्म के पहले की कथायें, रामजन्म और रामविवाह जैसी कहानियाँ कही हैं।
तुलसीदास बालकाण्ड में बतलाते हैं की उन्होंने ये राम कथा अपने गुरु से सुनी। वे लिखते हैं की सबसे पहले ये कथा शिवजी ने अपने मन में रची थी। फिर उन्होंने इस कथा को पारवती और काकभुशुण्डि से कहा। काकभुशुण्डि ने ये कथा मुनि याज्ञवलक्य से कही और उन्होंने ये कथा मुनि भरद्वाज से कही।
बालकाण्ड के शुरू में वे लिखते हैं -
उपजहिं एक संग जग माहीं। जलज जोंक जिमि गुन बिलगाहीं।।
सुधा सुय सम साधु असाधू। जनक एक जग जलधि अगाधू।।
अच्छा बुरा एक साथ जन्मता है, पर कमल और जोंक की तरह उनके गुण-अवगुण अलग अलग हैं - कमल देखने पर आँखों को सुख देता है पर जोंक शरीर का स्पर्श पाते ही खून चूंसने लगती है। साधू अमृत के समान है और असाधु मद्य के सामान है।
भलेउ पोच सब बिधि उपजाए। गनि गुन दोष बेद बिलगाए।।
कहहिं बेद इतिहास पुराना। बिधि प्रपंचु गुन अवगुन साना।।
भले-बुरे सभी विधाता के पैदा किये हुए हैं। पर वेदों ने गुण और दोषों को सोचकर अलग अलग कर दिया है। वेद, इतिहास, और पुराण कहते हैं की विधाता की ये सृष्टि गुण-अवगुण से सनी हुई है।
निज कबित्त केहि लाग ननीका। सरस होउ अथवा अति फीका।।
जे पर भनिति सुनत हरषाहीं। ते बर पुरुष बहुत जग नाहीं।।
रसीली हो या फीकी, अपनी कविता किसे अच्छी नहीं लगती ? पर जो दूसरे की रचना को सुनकर हर्षित होते हैं, ऐसे उत्तम लोग जगत में बहुत नहीं हैं।
जग बहु नर सर सरि सम भाई। जे निज बाढ़ि बढ़हि जल पाई।।
सज्जन सकृत सिंधु सम कोई। देखि पूर बिधु बाढ़इ जोई।।
जगत में तालाबों और नदियों के समान मनुष्य ही अधिक हैं, जो जल पाकर अपनी ही बाढ़ से बढ़ते हैं, मतलब अपनी ही उन्नति से खुश होते हैं। पर समुद्र सा तो कोई एक विरला ही सज्जन होता है जो चन्द्रमा को पूरा देखकर (मलतब दूसरों का उत्कर्ष देखकर) उमड़ पड़ता है।
बालकाण्ड में तुलसी ने राम नाम की खूब महिमा गायी है।
जान आदिकबि नाम प्रतापू। भयउ सुद्ध करि उलटा जापू।
सहस नाम सम सुनि सिवबानी। जपि जेई पिय संग भवानी।।
तुलसी जी कहते हैं की आदिकवि वाल्मीकि जी राम नाम के प्रताप को जानते थे, जो उल्टा नाम ('मरा', 'मरा') जपकर पवित्र हो गए। शिव के इस वचन की सुनकर की एक राम नाम हज़ारों नाम के बराबर है, पार्वती सदा उनके साथ राम नाम का जाप करती हैं।
ध्यानु प्रथम जुग मख बिधि दूजे। द्वापर परितोषित प्रभु पूजे।।
कलि केवल मल मूल मलीना। पाप पयोनिधि जन मन मीना।।
तुलसीदास लिखते हैं की पहले युग में ध्यान से, दूसरे युग में यज्ञ से और द्वापर युग में पूजन से भगवान प्रसन्न होते हैं, पर कलियुग केवल एक मलिन (मल और मूल के समान अपशिष्ट) युग है, और इस युग में मनुष्य का मन पाप रुपी समुद्र में मछली बना हुआ है, जो पाप से कभी अलग ही नहीं होना चाहता।
नहिं कलि करम न भगति बिबेकू। राम नाम अवलंबन एकू।।
कालनेमि कलि कपट निधानू। नाम सुमति समरथ हनुमानू।।
कलियुग में न कर्म है, न भक्ति है और न ही ज्ञान है; राम नाम ही एक आधार है। कपट की खान इस कलयुग में राम नाम की एक मात्र निधान है।
भाय कुभाय अनख आलसहूँ। नाम जपत मंगल दिसि दसहूँ।।
सुमिरि सो नाम राम गुन गाथा। करउँ नाइ रघुनाथहि माथा।।
अच्छे भाव से, बुरे भाव से, क्रोध से या आलस्य से, किसी तरह से भी नाम जपने से हर दिशा मे कल्याण होता है।
तुलसीदास कहते हैं की वो मुनि याज्ञवल्क्य और मुनि भरद्वाज हुआ संवाद लिखेंगे। उसी संवाद के भीतर शिव-पारवती संवाद और काकभुशुण्डि और गरुड़ संवाद भी हैं।
इसी काण्ड में शिव-सती और शिव-पारवती विवाह की कथा है। तुलसी लिखते हैं की शिव स्वाभाव से उदासीन हैं और गुणहीन, कुलहीन, और नग्न रहने वाले हैं।
देव दनुज नर किन्नर ब्याला। प्रेत पिशाच भूत बेताला।।
इन्ह कै दसा न कहेउँ बखानी। सदा काम के चेरे जानी।।
जब कामदेव को शिव की तपस्या भंग करने के लिए बुलाया गया, तब उसके प्रभाव से सारे लोक व्याकुल हो गए। तुलसीदास लिखते हैं की वो देव, दानव, मनुष्य, किन्नर, प्रेत, भूत, पिशाच और बेताल की दशा का क्या कहें, जो हमेशा की काम के ग़ुलाम हैं।
राम जनम के हेतु अनेका। परम बिचित्र एक तें एका।।
शिव पारवती संवाद में शिव पारवती से कहते हैं की भगवान के अवतार लेने के कई कारण हो सकते हैं, और कुछ ऐसे भी हो सकते हैं जिन्हे कोई नहीं जान सकता और सभी एक से बढ़कर एक विचित्र हैं।
तुलसी आगे लिखते हैं की भगवान के अवतार लेने के कई कारण होते हैं। इस सन्दर्भ में वे कई कथाएं लिखते हैं जैसे जय-विजय कथा, नारद श्राप कथा, स्वयंभू और शतरूपा कथा, सत्यकेतु और प्रतापभानु कथा।
नारद श्राप कथा में तुलसी बतलाते हैं की नारद मुनि जैसे हरिभक्त भी मोह,अभिमान और क्रोध से मुक्त नहीं हैं। देवराज इंद्र भी भय, क्रोध, मोह और ईर्ष्या से मुक्त नहीं हैं। देवताओं में भी मनुष्यों जैसी की कमज़ोरियाँ हैं।
जे कामी लोलुप जग माहीं। कुटिल काक इब सबहि डेराही।।
नारद श्राप कथा में जब नारद मुनि एक सुन्दर जगह देखकर वहां तप करने बैठ गए, तब देवराज इंद्र के ��न में डर पैदा हुआ की नारद उनका राज्य चाहते हैं। तुलसीदास लिखते हैं की जगत में जो लोग कामी और लोभी होते हैं, वे कुटिल कौवे की तरह सबसे डरते हैं।
काम चरित नारद सब भाये। जद्यपि प्रथम बरजि सिवँ राखे।।
अति प्रचंड रघुपति कै माया। जेहि न मोह अस को जग जाया।।
जब इंद्र ने डरकर कामदेव को नारद मुनि की तपस्या भंग करने भेजा और वो नारद का ध्यान भंग नहीं कर पाया, तब कामदेव ने नारद मुनि के चरण पकड़ लिए और उनसे माफ़ी मांगी। मुनि ने कामदेव को माफ़ कर दिया पर उनके मन में इस बात का अहंकार पैदा हो गया की हमने कामदेव को जीत लिया है।
तब मुनि शिव के पास गए और उनको साड़ी बात कही। पर शिव ने उनसे बार बार विनती की ये कथा वे हरि को न सुनायें। पर मुनि को ये बात अच्छी नहीं लगी। कुछ दिन बाद जब मुनि हरि से मिले, तो शिव के मना करने पर भी, उन्होंने सारी कथा हरि से कह दी।
तुलसीदास लिखते हैं की रघुनाथ की माया बड़ी ही प्रबल है। जगत में ऐसा कोई नहीं जिसे वो माया मोहित न कर दे।
बेगि सो मैं डारिहउँ उखारी। पण हमार सेवक हितकारी।।
मुनि कर हित मम कौतुक होई। अवसि उपाय करबि मैं सोई।।
जब हरि ने मुनि की और बड़ाई की, तो उन्होंने देखा की मुनि के मन में अत्याधिक गर्व घर कर रहा है। उन्होंने, मुनि के हित के लिए, निश्चय किया की वो उस अहंकार को उखाड़ फेंकेंगे, इससे मुनि का कल्याण होगा और उनका खेल होगा।
प्रभु कौतुकी प्रनत हितकारी। सेवत मोहहि मुनि ग्यानी सुलभ सकल दुखहारी।।
शिव पारवती को नारद की कथा कहते हुए कहते हैं की ज्ञानी मुनि भी भगवान की माया से मोहित हो जाते हैं। भगवान अपने कौतुक से ही सबका हित करते हैं।
सुर नर मुनि कोउ नाहिं जेहि न मोह माया प्रबल।
अस बिचारी मन माहिं भजिअ महामाया पतिहि।।
देवता, मनुष्य और मुनियों में ऐसा कोई नहीं है जिसे भगवान की माया मोहित न कर दे।
रावण कथा में तुलसी लिखते हैं की रावण का जन्म भले ही पुलस्त्य ऋषि के कुल में हुआ, पर पूर्व जन्मों के श्राप के कारण वो अभिमानी और हिंसक राक्षस हुआ।
सुख संपत्ति सुत सेन सहाई। जय प्रताप बल बुद्धि बढ़ाई।।
नित नूतन सब बाढ़त जाई। जिमि प्रतिलाभ लोभ अधिकाई।।
रावण कथा में तुलसीदास लिखते हैं की सुख, संपत्ति, पुत्र, सेना, सहायक, जय, प्रताप, बल, बुद्धि बढ़ाई - ये सब उसके ऐसे रोज़ ऐसे बढ़ते थे जैसे हर लाभ पर लोभ बढ़ता है।
बाढ़े खल बहु चोर जुआरा। जे लपट परधन परदारा।।
मानहि मातु पिता नहिं देवा। साधुन्ह सब करवावहिं सेवा।।
जिन्ह के यह आचरन भवानी। ते जानेहु निसिचर सब प्रानी।।
अतिसय देखि धर्म कै ग्लानी। परम सभीत धरा अकुलानी।।
शिव पारवती से कहते हैं रावण के समय में दूसरे के धन पर मन चलाने वाले, दुष्ट, चोर, और जुआरी बहुत बढ़ गए। लोग माता -पिता को मानते नहीं थे, और साधुओं से सेवा करवाते थे। ऐसे लोगों को, शिव कहते हैं की, राक्षस ही समझना चाहिए।
गिरि सरि सिंधु भार नहिं मोही। जस मोहि गरुअ एक परद्रोही।।
तुलसीदास लिखते हैं की इस तरह धर्म के प्रति लोगों की अनास्था देखकर पृथ्वी बहुत व्याकुल हो गयी और सोचने लगी की पर्वतों, नदियों और समुद्रों का बोझ उससे इतना भारी नहीं लगता, जितना भारी उसे एक परद्रोही (दूसरोँ का बुरा करने वाला) लगता है।
हरी ब्यापक सर्वत्र समाना। प्रेम तें प्रगट होहिं मैं जाना।।
देस काल दिसि बिदिसिहु माहीं। कहहु सो कहाँ जहाँ प्रभु नाहीं।।
तुलसी लिखते हैं की जब सभी लोग रावण के दुःख से परेशान होकर हरि को ढूढ़ने गए तब शिव ने सब से कहा की भगवान सब जगह समान रूप से बसते हैं प्रेम से नाम लेने पर प्रकट हो जाते हैं। देश, काल, दिशा, विदिशा में ऐसी कोई जगह नहीं है, जहाँ भगवान न हो।
बालकाण्ड में ही आगे तुलसीदास जी ने राम जन्म, और राम विवाह की कहानी कही है।
December 16, 2016
I have no words about my mythological book.
I have read huge no. of times.
Every time, I finds new things.
I just love it.
I have read huge no. of times.
Every time, I finds new things.
I just love it.
April 2, 2020
Spiritual education
Must read to understand real purpose of life and get answers to all queries , written in easy language and contains essence of all vedic scriptures
Must read to understand real purpose of life and get answers to all queries , written in easy language and contains essence of all vedic scriptures
January 12, 2022
तुलसीदास जी कि श्री रामचरितमानस पढ़ कर समझ आता है कि इसे भक्ति काल कि उत्कृष्ट रचना क्यूँ कहा जाता है। इसकी समीक्षा नहीं वरण इसका अध्यन करने कि जरूरत है।
March 23, 2023
Ramcharitmanas is an epic poem in the Awadhi dialect of Hindi, composed by the 16th-century Indianbhakti poet Goswami Tulsidas (c. 1532–1623).
Ramcharitmanas literally means "Lake of the deeds of Rama". It is considered one of the greatest works of Hindi literature. The work has variously been acclaimed as "the living sum of Indian culture", "the tallest tree in the magic garden of medieval Indian poetry", "the greatest book of all devotional literature" and "the best and most trustworthy guide to the popular living faith of the Indian people".
Tulsidas was a great scholar of Sanskrit. However, he wanted the story of Rama to be accessible to the general public and not just the Sanskrit-speaking elite. In order to make the story of Rama as accessible to the common people, Tulsidas chose to write in Awadhi which was the language of general parlance in large parts of north India at the time. The epic poem is, therefore, also referred to as Tulsikrit Ramayana (literally, The Ramayana composed by Tulsidas).
Ramcharitmanas, made available the story of Rama to the common man to sing, meditate and perform on. The core of the work is considered by some to be a poetic retelling of the events of the Sanskrit epic Ramayana by Valmiki. Rama was the crown prince of Ayodhya and is considered in Hindu tradition as the seventh Avatar of Vishnu. However, the Ramacharitmanas is by no means a word-to-word copy of the Valmiki Ramayana nor an abridged re-telling of the latter.
Tulsidas himself never writes Ramcharitmanas as being a retelling of Valmiki Ramayana. He calls the epic Ramcharitmanas as the story of Rama, that was stored in the mind (Mānasa) of Shiva before he narrated the same to His wife Parvati. Tulsidas claims to have received the story through his guru.
The first two parts, Bāl Kāṇḍ (Childhood Episode) and Ayodhyā Kāṇḍ (Ayodhya Episode), make up more than half of the work. The other parts are Araṇya Kāṇḍ (Forest Episode), Kiśkindhā Kāṇḍ (Kishkindha Episode), Sundar Kāṇḍ (Pleasant Episode), Laṅkā Kāṇḍ (Lanka Episode), and Uttar Kāṇḍ (Later Episode).
The work is primarily composed in the Chaupai metre (four-line quatrains), separated by the Doha metre (two-line couplets), with occasional Soratha and various Chhand metre
Ramcharitmanas is structured around three separate conversations. The conversations happen between Shiva and Parvati, Sages Bharadwaj and Yajnavalkya and finally Kakbhushundi and the king of birds, Garuda.
Ramcharitmanas literally means "Lake of the deeds of Rama". It is considered one of the greatest works of Hindi literature. The work has variously been acclaimed as "the living sum of Indian culture", "the tallest tree in the magic garden of medieval Indian poetry", "the greatest book of all devotional literature" and "the best and most trustworthy guide to the popular living faith of the Indian people".
Tulsidas was a great scholar of Sanskrit. However, he wanted the story of Rama to be accessible to the general public and not just the Sanskrit-speaking elite. In order to make the story of Rama as accessible to the common people, Tulsidas chose to write in Awadhi which was the language of general parlance in large parts of north India at the time. The epic poem is, therefore, also referred to as Tulsikrit Ramayana (literally, The Ramayana composed by Tulsidas).
Ramcharitmanas, made available the story of Rama to the common man to sing, meditate and perform on. The core of the work is considered by some to be a poetic retelling of the events of the Sanskrit epic Ramayana by Valmiki. Rama was the crown prince of Ayodhya and is considered in Hindu tradition as the seventh Avatar of Vishnu. However, the Ramacharitmanas is by no means a word-to-word copy of the Valmiki Ramayana nor an abridged re-telling of the latter.
Tulsidas himself never writes Ramcharitmanas as being a retelling of Valmiki Ramayana. He calls the epic Ramcharitmanas as the story of Rama, that was stored in the mind (Mānasa) of Shiva before he narrated the same to His wife Parvati. Tulsidas claims to have received the story through his guru.
The first two parts, Bāl Kāṇḍ (Childhood Episode) and Ayodhyā Kāṇḍ (Ayodhya Episode), make up more than half of the work. The other parts are Araṇya Kāṇḍ (Forest Episode), Kiśkindhā Kāṇḍ (Kishkindha Episode), Sundar Kāṇḍ (Pleasant Episode), Laṅkā Kāṇḍ (Lanka Episode), and Uttar Kāṇḍ (Later Episode).
The work is primarily composed in the Chaupai metre (four-line quatrains), separated by the Doha metre (two-line couplets), with occasional Soratha and various Chhand metre
Ramcharitmanas is structured around three separate conversations. The conversations happen between Shiva and Parvati, Sages Bharadwaj and Yajnavalkya and finally Kakbhushundi and the king of birds, Garuda.
February 8, 2021
I have heard it so many times and yet never came around to actually reading it. I had to do this cover to cover. This is meant to be heard but to do that you need to know the words.
This is in the realm of holy mythology and everyone will be delighted to hear about fantastical beasts and plants and a zillion other forms herein. There is an Inception like quality to it, where the story is being told in another story which is being told in another one. Also references to characters in other stories make it a very lengthy task to follow through. If you love poetry you will love this. It is why it is still the most recited of all time. So beautiful but so dangerous. I personally didn't like some parts which I was happy to skim through since a lot has changed now. The role of women I completely ignored. I do not take this story as Holy Word but as a work of art that has the power to change.
It is not so much about the war, but human hopes and fears and what it takes to transcend them. It is marinated in Bhakti and what it means. As a non believer I still enjoyed it as a metaphor. It's a book worth reading many times.
It is almost a salve to ears which is why you can hear it endlessly.
Initial reading is going to be very hard.
This is in the realm of holy mythology and everyone will be delighted to hear about fantastical beasts and plants and a zillion other forms herein. There is an Inception like quality to it, where the story is being told in another story which is being told in another one. Also references to characters in other stories make it a very lengthy task to follow through. If you love poetry you will love this. It is why it is still the most recited of all time. So beautiful but so dangerous. I personally didn't like some parts which I was happy to skim through since a lot has changed now. The role of women I completely ignored. I do not take this story as Holy Word but as a work of art that has the power to change.
It is not so much about the war, but human hopes and fears and what it takes to transcend them. It is marinated in Bhakti and what it means. As a non believer I still enjoyed it as a metaphor. It's a book worth reading many times.
It is almost a salve to ears which is why you can hear it endlessly.
Initial reading is going to be very hard.
September 11, 2025
It feels almost presumptuous to apply a conventional star rating to a work as profound as Sant Tulsidas's Sri Ramcharitmanas.
This is not just a book to be read; it is a sacred journey into the heart of devotion and a guiding light for millions. More than a simple translation of the original Ramayana, it is Tulsidas's heartfelt devotional re-imagining, a poetic masterpiece woven with deep reverence and accessible wisdom.
Through his genius, the divine story and profound teachings of Lord Ram were made accessible to the masses, becoming an intrinsic part of the cultural and spiritual fabric of India. The text is a moral compass, with its characters and their actions serving as archetypes for integrity, humility, and selfless service. The rhythmic Chaupais and Dohas create an immersive and lyrical experience, whether read or heard, that draws you into a timeless narrative.
Ultimately, to engage with this epic is to find not just a captivating story but a source of solace and a blueprint for righteous living. It is a work that transcends literature, offering a glimpse into the divine that should be received with a humble and open heart.
This is not just a book to be read; it is a sacred journey into the heart of devotion and a guiding light for millions. More than a simple translation of the original Ramayana, it is Tulsidas's heartfelt devotional re-imagining, a poetic masterpiece woven with deep reverence and accessible wisdom.
Through his genius, the divine story and profound teachings of Lord Ram were made accessible to the masses, becoming an intrinsic part of the cultural and spiritual fabric of India. The text is a moral compass, with its characters and their actions serving as archetypes for integrity, humility, and selfless service. The rhythmic Chaupais and Dohas create an immersive and lyrical experience, whether read or heard, that draws you into a timeless narrative.
Ultimately, to engage with this epic is to find not just a captivating story but a source of solace and a blueprint for righteous living. It is a work that transcends literature, offering a glimpse into the divine that should be received with a humble and open heart.
August 19, 2018
Of all the books I have read till today there hasn't been any other book like this. I finished it today and I am restarting again. I knew story of Ramayan and had read Valmiki Ramayan earlier but that was in sanskrit and i thought this would be almost similar. Trust me its very very different, initially I was struggling since book is in "Awadhi" but by time i was reading "Uttarkand" it became easier to understand.
I recommend to all who know Hindi book has much more to offer than you can imagine. Even if you
I recommend to all who know Hindi book has much more to offer than you can imagine. Even if you
June 27, 2019
Expected:
- Sweet and melodious language (esp. during paaraayaN).
- As usual good translation by Gita Press.
Few unexpected things:
- Full Shiv-Paarvati (90 pages) and KaakbhusunDi (50 pages) episodes.
- Lakshman Rekha not mentioned in Aranya KaanD but Mandodari mentions "Rekha drawn by Lakshman" in Lanka KaanD.
- Sita Parityaag not mentioned in Uttar KaanD.
- Nice stuti-s by Indra, Veda-s, Shivji (twice), a Brahman in praise of Shri Raam.
- Really insightful KaakbhusunDi-GaruD samvaad at the end explaining complex topics through simple words.
- Sweet and melodious language (esp. during paaraayaN).
- As usual good translation by Gita Press.
Few unexpected things:
- Full Shiv-Paarvati (90 pages) and KaakbhusunDi (50 pages) episodes.
- Lakshman Rekha not mentioned in Aranya KaanD but Mandodari mentions "Rekha drawn by Lakshman" in Lanka KaanD.
- Sita Parityaag not mentioned in Uttar KaanD.
- Nice stuti-s by Indra, Veda-s, Shivji (twice), a Brahman in praise of Shri Raam.
- Really insightful KaakbhusunDi-GaruD samvaad at the end explaining complex topics through simple words.
June 8, 2013
Loved it. Cool concept, of God coming to Earth in human form, exiling Himself into the forest to rid the planet of demons. Only difficult part of the book is going from sections that rhyme to sections that are written normally. Anyway, loved the dedication to the various God's as they are in thier stations, and the great deal of symbolism. No question why Mahatma Ghandi considered this book the most important on the planet.
February 26, 2015
A very nice translation of this beautiful poem. To be read with reverence and an open heart.
September 4, 2020
Keeping religious angle aside, it is a great example of poetic expression of medieval era Awadhi.
February 12, 2020
Read this book long time ago.
Book is written in Bhakti style. Love it.
Book is written in Bhakti style. Love it.
April 26, 2020
'Ramcharitmanas' being one of my first
Pious book which I commenced . Tulsidas renowned to be one of great poet ,writer who putted his utmost effort in illumination of young and requisite mind. So if you have bit fancy on this very kind of gener then you must plunge into it. This book will construct a man with high moral value,love for humanity,.
It will also make aqquintice to grandeur writing style of Tulsidas.
Pious book which I commenced . Tulsidas renowned to be one of great poet ,writer who putted his utmost effort in illumination of young and requisite mind. So if you have bit fancy on this very kind of gener then you must plunge into it. This book will construct a man with high moral value,love for humanity,.
It will also make aqquintice to grandeur writing style of Tulsidas.
January 19, 2013
Filled with Bhakti, Tulsi Das pours out love in the form of words. One cannot help but become enchanted with the deeply spiritual Love tulsidas has for Lord Rama. I love this book, especially the Sunderkand chapters which describe Hanumans exploits..
November 3, 2019
Nobody had capabilities to review Goswami Ji
January 17, 2020
This is the greatest work ever written. I'm my dad moments, this holy book has brought me solace. This contains all the solutions to life 's tribulations.
Currently reading
March 30, 2011Its a very devotional book. This book will give you the real meaning of devotion of Truth, Trust and Love. I am currently reading this bbok and will end it soon.
September 12, 2016
Description of prabhu Ramas character as per Lord shiva's mind and heart.
September 18, 2018
must read
September 29, 2018
JAI SHREE RAM JAI BAJARANGBALI 🌹🌼🌺🌹🙏🙏🙏
December 31, 2021
Ramcharitmanas is an epic poem in the Awadhi language, composed by the 16th-century Indian bhakti poet Tulsidas (c. 1532–1623). The word Ramcharitmanas literally means "Lake of the deeds of Rama".[1] It is considered one of the greatest works of Hindu literature. The work has variously been acclaimed as "the living sum of Indian culture", "the tallest tree in the magic garden of medieval Indian poetry", "the greatest book of all devotional literature" and "the best and most trustworthy guide to the popular living faith of the Indian people".
Tulsidas was a great scholar of Sanskrit. However, he wanted the story of Rama to be accessible to the general public, as many Apabhramsa languages had evolved from Sanskrit and at that time few people could understand Sanskrit. In order to make the story of Rama as accessible to the layman as to the scholar, Tulsidas chose to write in Awadhi. Tradition has it that Tulsidas had to face a lot of criticism from the Sanskrit scholars of Varanasi for being a bhasha (vernacular) poet. However, Tulsidas remained steadfast in his resolve to simplify the knowledge contained in the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Puranas to the common people. Subsequently, his work was accepted by all.
Ramcharitmanas, made available the story of Rama to the common man to sing, meditate and perform on. The writing of Ramcharitmanas also heralded many a cultural tradition, most significantly that of the tradition of Ramlila, the dramatic enactment of the text. Ramcharitmanas is considered by many as a work belonging to the Saguna school of the Bhakti movement in Hindi literature.
Tulsidas was a great scholar of Sanskrit. However, he wanted the story of Rama to be accessible to the general public, as many Apabhramsa languages had evolved from Sanskrit and at that time few people could understand Sanskrit. In order to make the story of Rama as accessible to the layman as to the scholar, Tulsidas chose to write in Awadhi. Tradition has it that Tulsidas had to face a lot of criticism from the Sanskrit scholars of Varanasi for being a bhasha (vernacular) poet. However, Tulsidas remained steadfast in his resolve to simplify the knowledge contained in the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Puranas to the common people. Subsequently, his work was accepted by all.
Ramcharitmanas, made available the story of Rama to the common man to sing, meditate and perform on. The writing of Ramcharitmanas also heralded many a cultural tradition, most significantly that of the tradition of Ramlila, the dramatic enactment of the text. Ramcharitmanas is considered by many as a work belonging to the Saguna school of the Bhakti movement in Hindi literature.
December 14, 2025
सीता राम चरित अति पावन:
मधुर सरस और अति मन भावन:
पुनि पुनि कितनेहू सुने सुनाये:
हिय की प्यास बुझत न बुझाए:
I was introduced to this book by my mentor Mt. Biswajeet Chatterjee, way back in 1998. Took me a long time to get acclimatised, but once I did, there was no holding back.
And why do I say so?
Just because of the fact that reading ‘Sri Ramcharitmanas’ is not an act of finishing a book; it is an act of entering a climate.
You do not “close” it when the last canto is done—its cadence lingers in the room, in the breath, in the moral weather of your days.
‘Tulsidas ji ji does not merely retell the Ramayana; he re-temperatures it, making it warm enough for household lamps, village courtyards, women’s songs, the speech of saints and sinners alike.
What Maharshi Valmiki gave as epic architecture in Sanskrit, ‘Tulsidas ji pours into the living arteries of Awadhi, turning scripture into circulation. This is why ‘Ramcharitmanas’ survives not as a monument but as a companion—recited, sung, argued with, leaned upon, and loved.
At its heart, the book is a meditation on maryādā—measure, balance, ethical proportion. Rama is not simply a god performing miracles; he is a man constantly refusing to overstep the line that defines righteousness. This restraint is what makes him luminous.
Valmiki’s Rama is already the exemplar of dharma, but ‘Tulsidas ji sharpens this further, polishing Rama into an almost unbearable ideal of self-command. The exile is not a narrative necessity; it is a moral crucible. When Rama accepts banishment without bitterness, the moment echoes the Vedic insistence on rita, the cosmic order that must be upheld even when it hurts.
One hears faintly the voice of the Rig Veda murmuring, “ऋतं च सत्यं चाभीद्धात् तपसोऽध्यजायत”—from tapas arises truth and order. Rama’s tapas is not ascetic fire but ethical endurance.
‘Tulsidas ji frames this endurance with bhakti, and here lies the text’s revolutionary intimacy. The ‘Manas’ is soaked in devotion, but it is not hysterical or escapist. Bhakti here is intelligence with a heartbeat. When ‘Tulsidas ji writes, “सियाराममय सब जग जानी,” he dissolves metaphysics into daily perception: to see the world as soaked in Sita and Rama is not to flee from it but to engage it with tenderness.
The divine does not cancel the human; it dignifies it. This is where ‘Tulsidas ji parts company from colder philosophies and joins hands, unexpectedly, with Shakespeare.
When Shakespeare lets Hamlet say, “There is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will,” he gestures toward the same paradox ‘Tulsidas ji inhabits fully: agency and grace are not enemies; they are collaborators.
The narrative movement of ‘Ramcharitmanas’ is deceptively gentle. It flows like a river that seems calm until you realize how many worlds it irrigates. The Bala Kanda establishes not just origins but tone—a cosmos where gods lean in to watch human ethics unfold.
The Ayodhya Kanda is the emotional core, a masterclass in the portrayal of grief without melodrama. Dasharatha’s collapse is not the fall of a tyrant but the cracking of a father’s heart.
Kaikeyi is not demonized into caricature; she is rendered tragically human, susceptible to poisoned counsel and the seduction of certainty. In her moral failure, one hears an echo of Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth, whose certainty outruns her soul.
Yet ‘Tulsidas ji, unlike Shakespeare, refuses tragic nihilism. Even error is held within a larger arc of redemption.
Sita, in ‘Tulsidas ji, is not merely the silent sufferer she is sometimes accused of being. She is moral gravity. The forest becomes habitable because of her presence; exile becomes pilgrimage. When she follows Rama, the act is not submission but solidarity. ‘Tulsidas ji writes her with a quiet steel that resists both pity and pedestal. Her later trial by fire is among the most disturbing and debated moments in Indian literature, and ‘Tulsidas ji does not soften its cruelty.
Yet he reframes it within a cosmic courtroom where the verdict indicts society as much as the accused. If Valmiki presents the trial as a narrative inevitability, ‘Tulsidas ji lets it ache as a moral scandal. It is here that the ‘Manas’ invites modern readers to argue with it—and that invitation is a sign of a living classic.
The forest episodes breathe with ecological sensitivity before ecology was a discipline. Trees are not scenery; they are witnesses. Hermitages are not retreats from life but laboratories of ethical living. In this sense, ‘Ramcharitmanas’ feels astonishingly Vedic.
The Upanishadic instinct to see the world as ensouled hums beneath the surface. The Vedic prayer “सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः” does not appear verbatim, but its spirit animates the narrative: the good life is collective or it is false. Rama’s kingship is valuable not because it centralizes power but because it redistributes well-being.
Hanuman, that incomparable bridge between devotion and action, may be ‘Tulsidas ji’s greatest gift to cultural imagination. Valmiki’s Hanuman is heroic; ‘Tulsidas ji’s Hanuman is incandescent. He is the bhakta who forgets himself so completely that power flows through him without ego.
When he leaps across the ocean, the feat is less about muscle than about alignment. ‘Tulsidas ji’s famous portrayal of Hanuman burning Lanka is not an orgy of destruction; it is a controlled blaze, a warning flare. There is discipline even in wrath.
Shakespeare would have recognized this figure immediately—the loyal servant who understands his master’s soul better than the master himself, like Kent in ‘King Lear’, whose devotion is intelligence in disguise.
The Sundara Kanda is often called the emotional high point of the ‘Manas’, and rightly so. It is here that separation sharpens love into clarity. Sita’s endurance in Ashoka Vatika is a hymn to inner sovereignty. Ravana’s power, by contrast, curdles into theatricality. He has everything except measure.
‘Tulsidas ji is not interested in demonology; he is interested in imbalance. Ravana is undone not by Rama’s arrows but by his own refusal to listen. In this, he resembles Shakespeare’s tragic kings, whose downfall is scripted by their deafness to counsel. When Lear rages into the storm, he is Ravana without ten heads; when Ravana roars in his court, he is Lear without Cordelia.
War, when it arrives, is stripped of glamour. ‘Tulsidas ji refuses to eroticize violence. Each death costs the cosmos something.
Rama’s victory is tinged with exhaustion, not triumphalism. This moral sobriety sets the ‘Manas’ apart from epics that revel in conquest. The final restoration of order feels earned precisely because it has been paid for in restraint. Rama’s return to Ayodhya is not the restoration of pleasure but of proportion. The lamps lit for Diwali are not fireworks of joy; they are small, steady affirmations that light still knows its way home.
Language is the ‘Manas’s secret weapon. Awadhi allows ‘Tulsidas ji to achieve something rare: philosophical density without obscurity. The couplets move with the ease of speech, yet they carry metaphysical freight. This is why the text survives translation but resists replacement. You can render its meaning, but not its music.
Like Shakespeare’s blank verse, ‘Tulsidas ji’s chaupais lodge in the memory because they sound like thought discovering its own rhythm. When Shakespeare writes, “The quality of mercy is not strained,” he could be paraphrasing ‘Tulsidas ji’s entire ethical universe. Mercy, for both, is the sign of power that knows itself.
The theology of the ‘Manas’ is generous. Rama is supreme, but devotion is not policed. Even antagonists are given moments of tragic dignity. Vibhishana’s defection is not opportunism; it is conscience crossing enemy lines. Rama’s acceptance of him is one of the text’s quiet revolutions.
In a world obsessed with purity, Tulsidas ji imagines a god who recognizes sincerity over origin. This is bhakti as moral cosmopolitanism. The Vedas whisper again here, reminding us that truth has many doorways.
Critics often accuse ‘Ramcharitmanas’ of idealism, of creating a Rama too perfect to be human. But this critique misunderstands the text’s ambition. ‘Tulsidas ji is not writing psychology; he is writing aspiration.
Rama is less a portrait than a compass. You do not ask a compass to resemble you; you ask it to guide you. In times of moral fog, the ‘Manas’ has functioned as orientation. That function does not expire with modernity; if anything, it becomes more urgent.
There are moments, undeniably, where the text reflects the anxieties and hierarchies of its time. Gender norms, caste assumptions, and social rigidity surface, and modern readers are right to interrogate them.
Yet the ‘Manas’ also contains the tools for its own critique. Its central insistence on compassion, humility, and self-knowledge undercuts any attempt to weaponize it. ‘Tulsidas ji’s Rama does not crush dissent; he absorbs it into a larger ethic of care.
To read the text responsibly today is not to freeze it in reverence but to keep it in conversation—with Valmiki, with the Vedas, with Shakespeare, and with our own uneasy present.
The aftertaste of ‘Sri Ramcharitmanas’ is serenity without sedation. It calms without dulling. It does not promise a painless world; it promises a meaningful one. In an age addicted to speed and certainty, Tulsidas ji offers slowness and measure. He teaches that greatness is not loud, that power kneels before mercy, that exile can become education, and that return is possible without revenge.
When Shakespeare has Prospero renounce his magic, choosing forgiveness over domination, one hears a distant kinship with Rama laying down his bow to rule with justice rather than fear.
Ultimately, the ‘Manas’ endures because it trusts the reader. It trusts us to sing it, to argue with it, to misread and reread it, to carry it into kitchens and classrooms, into grief and celebration. It is scripture that behaves like literature and literature that behaves like prayer.
Valmiki gives us the epic of events; ‘Tulsidas ji gives us the epic of inner weather. The Vedas provide the hum of cosmic order; Shakespeare supplies the tremor of human doubt.
Somewhere between them, ‘Sri Ramcharitmanas’ continues to breathe—ancient, intimate, unexhausted—asking not whether we believe in Rama, but whether we are willing, even briefly, to live as if compassion were real and restraint were strength.
A classic to cherish forever. This book is Sanatan’s gift to posterity.
मधुर सरस और अति मन भावन:
पुनि पुनि कितनेहू सुने सुनाये:
हिय की प्यास बुझत न बुझाए:
I was introduced to this book by my mentor Mt. Biswajeet Chatterjee, way back in 1998. Took me a long time to get acclimatised, but once I did, there was no holding back.
And why do I say so?
Just because of the fact that reading ‘Sri Ramcharitmanas’ is not an act of finishing a book; it is an act of entering a climate.
You do not “close” it when the last canto is done—its cadence lingers in the room, in the breath, in the moral weather of your days.
‘Tulsidas ji ji does not merely retell the Ramayana; he re-temperatures it, making it warm enough for household lamps, village courtyards, women’s songs, the speech of saints and sinners alike.
What Maharshi Valmiki gave as epic architecture in Sanskrit, ‘Tulsidas ji pours into the living arteries of Awadhi, turning scripture into circulation. This is why ‘Ramcharitmanas’ survives not as a monument but as a companion—recited, sung, argued with, leaned upon, and loved.
At its heart, the book is a meditation on maryādā—measure, balance, ethical proportion. Rama is not simply a god performing miracles; he is a man constantly refusing to overstep the line that defines righteousness. This restraint is what makes him luminous.
Valmiki’s Rama is already the exemplar of dharma, but ‘Tulsidas ji sharpens this further, polishing Rama into an almost unbearable ideal of self-command. The exile is not a narrative necessity; it is a moral crucible. When Rama accepts banishment without bitterness, the moment echoes the Vedic insistence on rita, the cosmic order that must be upheld even when it hurts.
One hears faintly the voice of the Rig Veda murmuring, “ऋतं च सत्यं चाभीद्धात् तपसोऽध्यजायत”—from tapas arises truth and order. Rama’s tapas is not ascetic fire but ethical endurance.
‘Tulsidas ji frames this endurance with bhakti, and here lies the text’s revolutionary intimacy. The ‘Manas’ is soaked in devotion, but it is not hysterical or escapist. Bhakti here is intelligence with a heartbeat. When ‘Tulsidas ji writes, “सियाराममय सब जग जानी,” he dissolves metaphysics into daily perception: to see the world as soaked in Sita and Rama is not to flee from it but to engage it with tenderness.
The divine does not cancel the human; it dignifies it. This is where ‘Tulsidas ji parts company from colder philosophies and joins hands, unexpectedly, with Shakespeare.
When Shakespeare lets Hamlet say, “There is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will,” he gestures toward the same paradox ‘Tulsidas ji inhabits fully: agency and grace are not enemies; they are collaborators.
The narrative movement of ‘Ramcharitmanas’ is deceptively gentle. It flows like a river that seems calm until you realize how many worlds it irrigates. The Bala Kanda establishes not just origins but tone—a cosmos where gods lean in to watch human ethics unfold.
The Ayodhya Kanda is the emotional core, a masterclass in the portrayal of grief without melodrama. Dasharatha’s collapse is not the fall of a tyrant but the cracking of a father’s heart.
Kaikeyi is not demonized into caricature; she is rendered tragically human, susceptible to poisoned counsel and the seduction of certainty. In her moral failure, one hears an echo of Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth, whose certainty outruns her soul.
Yet ‘Tulsidas ji, unlike Shakespeare, refuses tragic nihilism. Even error is held within a larger arc of redemption.
Sita, in ‘Tulsidas ji, is not merely the silent sufferer she is sometimes accused of being. She is moral gravity. The forest becomes habitable because of her presence; exile becomes pilgrimage. When she follows Rama, the act is not submission but solidarity. ‘Tulsidas ji writes her with a quiet steel that resists both pity and pedestal. Her later trial by fire is among the most disturbing and debated moments in Indian literature, and ‘Tulsidas ji does not soften its cruelty.
Yet he reframes it within a cosmic courtroom where the verdict indicts society as much as the accused. If Valmiki presents the trial as a narrative inevitability, ‘Tulsidas ji lets it ache as a moral scandal. It is here that the ‘Manas’ invites modern readers to argue with it—and that invitation is a sign of a living classic.
The forest episodes breathe with ecological sensitivity before ecology was a discipline. Trees are not scenery; they are witnesses. Hermitages are not retreats from life but laboratories of ethical living. In this sense, ‘Ramcharitmanas’ feels astonishingly Vedic.
The Upanishadic instinct to see the world as ensouled hums beneath the surface. The Vedic prayer “सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः” does not appear verbatim, but its spirit animates the narrative: the good life is collective or it is false. Rama’s kingship is valuable not because it centralizes power but because it redistributes well-being.
Hanuman, that incomparable bridge between devotion and action, may be ‘Tulsidas ji’s greatest gift to cultural imagination. Valmiki’s Hanuman is heroic; ‘Tulsidas ji’s Hanuman is incandescent. He is the bhakta who forgets himself so completely that power flows through him without ego.
When he leaps across the ocean, the feat is less about muscle than about alignment. ‘Tulsidas ji’s famous portrayal of Hanuman burning Lanka is not an orgy of destruction; it is a controlled blaze, a warning flare. There is discipline even in wrath.
Shakespeare would have recognized this figure immediately—the loyal servant who understands his master’s soul better than the master himself, like Kent in ‘King Lear’, whose devotion is intelligence in disguise.
The Sundara Kanda is often called the emotional high point of the ‘Manas’, and rightly so. It is here that separation sharpens love into clarity. Sita’s endurance in Ashoka Vatika is a hymn to inner sovereignty. Ravana’s power, by contrast, curdles into theatricality. He has everything except measure.
‘Tulsidas ji is not interested in demonology; he is interested in imbalance. Ravana is undone not by Rama’s arrows but by his own refusal to listen. In this, he resembles Shakespeare’s tragic kings, whose downfall is scripted by their deafness to counsel. When Lear rages into the storm, he is Ravana without ten heads; when Ravana roars in his court, he is Lear without Cordelia.
War, when it arrives, is stripped of glamour. ‘Tulsidas ji refuses to eroticize violence. Each death costs the cosmos something.
Rama’s victory is tinged with exhaustion, not triumphalism. This moral sobriety sets the ‘Manas’ apart from epics that revel in conquest. The final restoration of order feels earned precisely because it has been paid for in restraint. Rama’s return to Ayodhya is not the restoration of pleasure but of proportion. The lamps lit for Diwali are not fireworks of joy; they are small, steady affirmations that light still knows its way home.
Language is the ‘Manas’s secret weapon. Awadhi allows ‘Tulsidas ji to achieve something rare: philosophical density without obscurity. The couplets move with the ease of speech, yet they carry metaphysical freight. This is why the text survives translation but resists replacement. You can render its meaning, but not its music.
Like Shakespeare’s blank verse, ‘Tulsidas ji’s chaupais lodge in the memory because they sound like thought discovering its own rhythm. When Shakespeare writes, “The quality of mercy is not strained,” he could be paraphrasing ‘Tulsidas ji’s entire ethical universe. Mercy, for both, is the sign of power that knows itself.
The theology of the ‘Manas’ is generous. Rama is supreme, but devotion is not policed. Even antagonists are given moments of tragic dignity. Vibhishana’s defection is not opportunism; it is conscience crossing enemy lines. Rama’s acceptance of him is one of the text’s quiet revolutions.
In a world obsessed with purity, Tulsidas ji imagines a god who recognizes sincerity over origin. This is bhakti as moral cosmopolitanism. The Vedas whisper again here, reminding us that truth has many doorways.
Critics often accuse ‘Ramcharitmanas’ of idealism, of creating a Rama too perfect to be human. But this critique misunderstands the text’s ambition. ‘Tulsidas ji is not writing psychology; he is writing aspiration.
Rama is less a portrait than a compass. You do not ask a compass to resemble you; you ask it to guide you. In times of moral fog, the ‘Manas’ has functioned as orientation. That function does not expire with modernity; if anything, it becomes more urgent.
There are moments, undeniably, where the text reflects the anxieties and hierarchies of its time. Gender norms, caste assumptions, and social rigidity surface, and modern readers are right to interrogate them.
Yet the ‘Manas’ also contains the tools for its own critique. Its central insistence on compassion, humility, and self-knowledge undercuts any attempt to weaponize it. ‘Tulsidas ji’s Rama does not crush dissent; he absorbs it into a larger ethic of care.
To read the text responsibly today is not to freeze it in reverence but to keep it in conversation—with Valmiki, with the Vedas, with Shakespeare, and with our own uneasy present.
The aftertaste of ‘Sri Ramcharitmanas’ is serenity without sedation. It calms without dulling. It does not promise a painless world; it promises a meaningful one. In an age addicted to speed and certainty, Tulsidas ji offers slowness and measure. He teaches that greatness is not loud, that power kneels before mercy, that exile can become education, and that return is possible without revenge.
When Shakespeare has Prospero renounce his magic, choosing forgiveness over domination, one hears a distant kinship with Rama laying down his bow to rule with justice rather than fear.
Ultimately, the ‘Manas’ endures because it trusts the reader. It trusts us to sing it, to argue with it, to misread and reread it, to carry it into kitchens and classrooms, into grief and celebration. It is scripture that behaves like literature and literature that behaves like prayer.
Valmiki gives us the epic of events; ‘Tulsidas ji gives us the epic of inner weather. The Vedas provide the hum of cosmic order; Shakespeare supplies the tremor of human doubt.
Somewhere between them, ‘Sri Ramcharitmanas’ continues to breathe—ancient, intimate, unexhausted—asking not whether we believe in Rama, but whether we are willing, even briefly, to live as if compassion were real and restraint were strength.
A classic to cherish forever. This book is Sanatan’s gift to posterity.
January 4, 2022
Extract of divinity
An art of living in this mortal existence is Ram Charit Manas. It is the Devine bliss to humanity .
An art of living in this mortal existence is Ram Charit Manas. It is the Devine bliss to humanity .
March 15, 2020
अद्वितीय है। बस क्या ही कहूँ! धार्मिक के साथ-साथ कमाल का साहित्यिक ग्रंथ है। इसे मैंने इस बार नवरात्रि के नौ दिनों के अंदर पूरा पढ़ा था।
August 6, 2020
It is simply amazing...
Jay shree ram
Jay shree ram
June 9, 2021
There is nothing like this, Pure Bliss
None of the author in this world can match Tulsi Das. A master in true sense and and this book is the master piece. I have not read all the books in this world, still I can say that Ramacharita Manasa could be second to none. I lived with Lord Ram during the reading and felt his blessings too. You can't choose this book to read, this book will choose you if you are meant to read it. It's like drinking nectar and being immortal by establishing Ram in the heart. A book could easily be written in the praise of this master piece. I am much obliged that this book selected me as its reader 🙏🙏🙏🙏.
None of the author in this world can match Tulsi Das. A master in true sense and and this book is the master piece. I have not read all the books in this world, still I can say that Ramacharita Manasa could be second to none. I lived with Lord Ram during the reading and felt his blessings too. You can't choose this book to read, this book will choose you if you are meant to read it. It's like drinking nectar and being immortal by establishing Ram in the heart. A book could easily be written in the praise of this master piece. I am much obliged that this book selected me as its reader 🙏🙏🙏🙏.
April 27, 2020
कुछ बातें हैं इसमें जो मेरी समझ से परे हैं। बिना किसी बुद्धिमान व्यक्ति के समझाए समझ में नहीं आएँगी। पर बहुत कुछ ऐसा भी है जो गहराई से विचार करने पर समझ में आता है।
no matter which religion you follow.... no matter you believe in god or not. you should just read this book once. i assure you that you will definately love this book.
no matter which religion you follow.... no matter you believe in god or not. you should just read this book once. i assure you that you will definately love this book.
November 4, 2021
सुनु सुभ कथा भवानि रामचरितमानस बिमल। कहा भुसुंडि बखानि सुना बिहग नायक गरुड़ ।।
रामचरितमानस कोई पुस्तक नही जिसकी समीक्षा की जाए। यह भारत की संस्कृति का आधारस्तंभ है जो पूजनीय है, वन्दनीय है और मुक्तिदायिनी मार्गदर्शिका है।
रामचरितमानस कोई पुस्तक नही जिसकी समीक्षा की जाए। यह भारत की संस्कृति का आधारस्तंभ है जो पूजनीय है, वन्दनीय है और मुक्तिदायिनी मार्गदर्शिका है।
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