RAMACHARITAMANASA


When Sri Rama, Seetha and Lakshmana come to the forest Guha serves them in many ways.

The next day Guha is to ferry them across the river. Sri Rama is about to step into the boat. Then Guha behaves in a way which at first seems stange. He says to Rama, 'My Lord, pardon me; I Cannot allow you to get into the boat until I wash your feet. The mere touch of the dust of your feet turned a stone into a woman, the wife of a sage. What am I to do it my boat turns into a woman at the touch of the dust of your feet?" (Ahalya had become a stone by a curse; the divine touch of Sri Rama made her again a woman).
Tulasidas has depicted this situation very touchingly. In the words of Guha, a fine sense of humour, innocent devotion and Rama's divinity are all reflected at the same time.

Tulasidas has also brought out Bharatha's intense love for his brother, the affection of Dasharatha for his son, the simplicity of Sumitra. Rama's magnanimity and grace in' his treatment of Shabari and Jatayu and many other such virtues.

The scholars of Tulasidas's times thought that epics ought to be composed only in Sanskrit. Tulasidas knew that scholars would object that his epic was in Hindi, the language of the common man. But he believed that good poetry, like the sacred river Ganga, should be accessible to one and all and should reach everyone.
On the whole, Tulasidas's 'Ramacharitamanasa' preaches the traditional values of truth and righteousness, but presents them in greater splendour in a new context. When people had lost courage and were groping in darkness, Tulasidas's 'Ramacharita manasa' appeared as a guiding light of culture; it showed them the divine figure of Sri Rama in the bright light of Bhakti.