Tulasidas's eyes fell
upon Him. Rightly, He sat in a corner where nobody sat around, and where nobody
would be interested to look, and he was listening to the discourse, diving deep
into the transcendental mellows of Sri Sita Ram's pastimes. The waves of the
eight satvic symptoms spreading all over His body. Thrilled, He was so happy
that He didn't notice that somebody was watching Him today.
At
last when the discourse was finished and everybody had left the hall, Hanumanji
stood up, acting like a sick person and walked out.
Tulasidas followed Him
very vigilantly, and when He reached to a lonely place, he fell down at His
feet, clasping them very tightly but lovingly.
"Pooh, Oh Holyman,
leave Me. Leave Me alone. What on earth are you doing? Quickly leave Me, I am a
leprosy patient, don't you see sir? Take a bath in the Holy Ganga. See how much
pus has stuck to your palms and clothes." Hanumanji wanted to frighten
him.
"You
are almighty and I am weak and insignificant. You can kick me off and go Your
way." Tulasidas was crying, because he had a great longing to see Lord
Ram. "Please do not try to fool me, I recognize You. You are Sri Hanumanji
Himself. Please, come into Your original form, otherwise I am going to do away
with my life," Tulasidas requested.
This is the last extremity,
when someone wants to attain something at the cost of his life. It takes no
time, he attains it. In this situation what ever he will attain will be God.
People all around the
world go to India and meet all sorts of saints and sadhus. They receive initiation
into this kind of meditation and that kind of Vedanta system and return empty
handed, saying that all saints are hypocrites and that there are no
God-realized souls. Actually, this condition is only the reflection of their
own psychological state.
As long as one wants God
to add to his achievements in life, or wishes to attain God as another
accomplishment like wealth, wife, cars, friends, and credit so long he is bound
to come up against hypocrites. As much as one values his body, his money, his
credit to that extent the shrine of God is far away, and one will meet
meditation-sellers, peace-sellers, or God-sellers only.
As long as you have not
put all accomplishments of your life at stake for God realization or a visit to
a real saint, so long much possibility is you will be meeting only religious
business men, even if you will meet Buddha. You will try to buy some
enlightenment, in which you will not succeed so you will return criticizing,
condemning, broken-hearted and agitated. Then, either you adjust to such
people, or you console yourself and thus suppress your true quest and deceive
yourself as most of the institutionalized people are doing.
God
consciousness, God realization, requires an intense craving for only for God
alone, and it has to be at the cost of one's life, at the cost of all the
pleasures of life, at the cost of one's husband or wife and family, one's bank
account, and at the cost of all the respect and approval for you in the eyes of
society. When all of these become shallow and insignificant and the seeking
becomes most important, most valuable, then a real Realized soul will meet you
and then Realization is not very far off. Then strenuous meditation and yoga
techniques are no more required. The state of consciousness itself deepens
into Lovetrance, and by the grace of a Realized-soul, you can encounter the
form of the formless right there and then.
When
Goswami Tulasidas wanted to see Hanumanji at the cost of his life, Hanumanji
could not hide Himself anymore. He appeared in His original form and it highly
enlivened and enraptured the heart of Tulasidas limitlessly. Hanumanji ordered
him to go to Chitrakuta and meditate upon His pastimes in a particular place,
Yajnavedi, on the bank of river Mandakini.
"My
Lord, please be available to Tulasidas," Hanumanji requested to Lord Ram
one day.
"Whomsoever You
request Me to come to, I have already come to him. For Tulasidas I would come
not only once, but twice. I will appear, but it should be Your responsibility
to see that he recognizes Me," Sri Ram said. Actually the main role in
Realization is to recognize Him. The moment you start the Vedic way of life,
God and high beings begin to come, but due to the obscuring energy of the
infatuation of physical attachment, one's narrow prejudices, one fails to
recognize them. Even if they come to the door, we would pay no attention to
them and fail to recognize them. It takes the greatest ability and refined
intelligence to recognize them. Therefore, a guru is re-quired.
Now
Lord Ram had given His word to appear before Tulasidas and Hanumanji was made
responsible for his being able to recognize Him.
It was the winter season
and Goswami Tulasidas was in his long meditation. From sunrise to midday he was
absorbed in meditation. At twelve he used to come out to wash in the Mandakini
river. One time he was standing on the bank of the river relaxing-the blue
transparent water was flowing through the rocks, green trees were moving in the
mild breeze. There he saw two handsome youths on horseback passed that way.
They were princely looking, charming, a Shyam and Gour couple.
After
sometime, Hanumanji came to him and asked, "Did you see Sri Ram and
Lakshmana?"
"Where were
they?" Tulasidas was shocked, and then Hanumanji told him that they were the
handsome youths who just passed on horseback.
Tulasidas
then wept and wept to think that he had not recognized them. He repented.
Hanumanji consoled him
and said, "They will come again."
Now
Tulasidas became more alert. Every moment, vigilantly waiting and looking for
their arrival. Then one day in the early morning, Tulasidas was grinding
sandalwood paste for his worship. Two most delicate, charming, lotus -eyed
youths arrived.
"Sir,
could you please give us some sandal paste?" A musical soft voice echoed
from one of the youths.
Tulasidas lifted his
eyes upon hearing the soothing soft tone. He could not recognize them.
Work
is a hostile process. When you are working, you are under a certain influence
of hostility, a certain intoxication of a strong, insensitive, approxi-mately
inert state. That's why Shankaracharya has said that action is detrimental to
liberation Because work makes you very gross, body conscious; and Realization
is very subtle, delicate. It needs sensitivity. Extreme sensitivity grows in
the deeper levels of experience in yoga of Lovetrance, and it is always
farsighted and penetrating. That's why all actions must be colored in the
colors of Lovetrance.
Tulasidas, even this
second time, could not recognize the Lord, and he gave a little sandalwood
paste to these nice boys. Sri Ram and Lakshmana began to paste sandalwood paste
on each other's foreheads.
Hanumanji
was careful when He saw that Tulasidas was again going to miss. He assumed the
form of a pair of parrots sitting on the bough of a nearby tree and sang loudly
--
chitrakuta ke ghat pe bhai santan ki
bhir tulasidas chandan ghise tilak deta raghuvira
"On the beautiful
bank of Mandakini in the Chitrakut, in the valley of saints and sages,
Tulasidas is grinding sandalwood and Sri Ram is pasting it on His fore-head. Do
not miss. Please." The Parrot sang.
Tulasidas heard it and
threw away his sandalwood grinding, threw away everything which was making him
so insensitive and forgetful, and fell down at the lotus feet of Lord Ram and
Lakshmana and wet them with the tears from his eyes.
After this incident,
Tulasidas became a great lover of Hanumanji. He com-posed many poems and
invocations, which Hanumanji out of love, has energized, empowered, made alive
and potent, so that anyone who reads and sings them, will attain communion with
Him and receive special help in the time of troubles and dangers.
For
the last four hundred years, Goswami Tulasidas has been a shining star in the
galaxy of Sri Ram's love sky and has been continuously inspiring all throughout
northern India.
Certainly anyone can
touch the heart of the villagers of India, who are the real Indians, not
necessarily by Vedanta or yoga or other philosophies, but simply by the Holy
Name and pastimes of Shri Hanumanji.
I
am confident that the true India, the real philosophy of India, and the real
conception of the human goal, the ultimate Realization, are successfully
unified in Sri Hanumanji's role in Intergalactic history.
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