Prabhupada on Rama-carita-manasa by Tulsidas

[Guest guest]

I accept that Prabhupada has accepted Tulasidas as a great poet & devotee.

 

But I cannot accept that Rama-carita-manasa can be equated to the most

superlative book of Radha-Krsna's ashta-kaliya lila, "Sri Krsna Bhajanamrta"

by Srila Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakura who is one of the greatest

self-realized acarya poets in our bona-fide parampara. Valmiki has got

diksha from Narada so the Valmiki Ramayana is considered as the bona-fide

Ramayana by Srila Prabhupada. Whereas according to Prabhupada, Tusidas is

from the Ramananda sampradaya which is not a bona-fide sampradaya.

 

As quoted earlier, Prabhupada says:

 

"Therefore, the author (of Rama-carita-manasa) is not considered as pure

Vaisnava."

 

In some other places Prabhupada glorifies him as a great devotee of Lord

Rama, so we can conclude that he is indeed a great devotee but not the

purest of devotees because of his connection to the Ramananda sampradaya.

Prabhupada never says anywhere that he was a pure devotee. Like the demigods

are great devotees but they are mixed.

 

Rama-carita-manasa is also his genuine attempt to glorify Rama but

Prabhupada makes a point in his conversation with Jayapataka Swami that when

we have our purest Goswami literatures why should be go in for something

inferior like the Rama-carita-manas. This book is for those who don't have

the Gaudiya Vaisnava literatures.

 

> I have many vaishnava friends in India who grew up with Ram-carita manasa.

> By hearing this regulary they got so much love of godhead.

> When I heard their parents singing it, they often had tears in their eyes.

> And these were not sentimental tears but the ones I am praying for daily

> (nayanam galad asru dharaya)

 

If this book could enable you to come to the platform of 'nayanam galad asru

dharaya', why did our Goswamis or Lord Caitanya not read it.

 

Your above statement contradicts Prabhupada's following statement:

 

"By reading Tulasidasa's Rama-carita-manasa in my experience I've not seen a

single man has come to the spiritual platform. I have not seen a single

man."

 

And you are saying that you have seen many crying & getting love of Godhead

after reading RCM. I presume that Prabhupada has better experience about

India and RMC than any of us. So I would prefer to accept Prabhupada's

statement and I cannot accept that they got love of Godhead after reading

RCM.

 

Your servant,

Nayana-ranjana das