Tulsidas Jayanti 2021: Messages, Quotes To Share With Your Friends

Goswami Tulsidas was a Hindu Vaishnava saint as well as a great poet, philosopher and reformer who composed various books in Sanskrit and Awadhi. He was born in the year 1532 in Varanasi and is remembered for his devotion to Lord Rama. He is the author of the great epic Ramcharitmanas. He founded the Sankatmochan Temple dedicated to Lord Hanuman in Varanasi and the name of Tulsi Ghat on the Ganges River has been kept after him. Therefore, to honour him and his works, Tulsidas Jayanti is celebrated in India and this year the date falls on 15 August.

Tulsidas has always been admired as a reincarnation of the Valmiki (original composer of Ramayana in Sanskrit and Hanuman Chalisa). According to the Hindu scripture Bhavishyottar Purana, Lord Shiva had described to his wife Parvati that is how Valmiki will incarnate in the Kal Yuga. It is believed that he started the Ramlila plays, a folk-theatre adaptation of the Ramayana.

Legend has it that Tulsidas took 12 months to come out in this world and till then he stayed in his mother's womb. Devotees believe that after birth, he didn't cry but chanted the name of Rama. That's why he was named Rambola, he himself stated in Vinayapatrika. In his works Kavitvali and Vinayapatrika, Tulsidas has stated how his parents abandoned him after his birth. It is said that the fourth night after his birth, his father passed away.

While according to some authors, Tulsidas was unmarried and Sadhu from birth, others believe that he was married to Ratnavali (the daughter of Dinbandhu Pathak of Mahewa village and Kaushambi district) on the 13th of Jyeshta month (May or June) in the year 1583. He also had a son named Tarak after some years of marriage, who died as an infant.

In the Chaitra month of the year 1631, Tulsidas started writing the Ramcharitmanas in Ayodhya on Ramnavami and it took him 2 years, seven months and twenty six days to complete this epic. The book was completed on Vivaha Panchami (marriage day of Rama and Sita) of the month Margashirsha.

Tulsidas breathed his last on the river bank of Gange at the Assi Ghat in the month of Shravan (July or August) in 1623.

On Tulsidas Jayanti, we have curated 10 quotes that will give you wisdom and strength in life.

1. 'There are three all-powerful evils: lust, anger and greed.' -Tulsidas

2. 'All the sleepers in a night of dilution beholding so many dreams. In this world of darkness, only those who sever themselves from the material world, become absorbed in the contemplation of the supreme. None can be regarded as really woken up from sleep till they have renounced all sensuous delights.' - Tulsidas

3. 'Even your pity is like a blast of wind and the words you speak would strip a tree of its blossoms.' - Tulsidas

4. 'No virtue is equal to the good of others and no vice greater than hurting others.' - Tulsidas

5. 'In dependence, there is no happiness, even in a dream.' - Tulsidas

6. 'There is no difference between knowledge and devotion, Both of them save the soul from the miseries of worldly life.' - Tulsidas

7. 'There can be no happiness for a being nor can its mind know any peace even in a dream so long as it does not relinquish desire, which is an abode of sorrow.' - Tulsidas

8. 'Abandon pride, which is the same as Tamas-guna (darkness), rooted as it is in ignorance and is a source of considerable pain; and adore Lord Shri Rama, the Chief of the Raghus and an ocean of compassion.' - Tulsidas, Ramayana

9. 'Nothing is unattainable, my Lord, to him who enjoys Your grace. Through Your might, a mere shred of cotton can surely burn a submarine fire (the impossible can be made possible).' - Tulsidas, Ramayana

10. 'Lord Ram gave Hanuman a quizzical look and said, "What are you, a monkey or a man?" Hanuman bowed his head reverently, folded his hands and said, "When I do not know who I am, I serve You and when I do know who I am, You and I are One.' - Tulsidas, Ramcharitmanas