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Adoration to Lord Rāma and his devotee Śrī Hanumān. Humble praṇāms to our Guru Paramparā and our Master. It is Tuesday, and as per Hindu tradition, it is the day of the week dedicated to Hanumanjī. So it is a very auspicious time again to speak about the holy Rāmāyaṇa. Last Tuesday we spoke about the introduction to this eternal topic. We saw that there are many variations of the Rāmāyaṇa, written by different authors at different times. After the lecture, a question repeatedly arose: what is actually Vālmīkījī’s Rāmāyaṇa and Tulasīdāsajī’s Rāmāyaṇa? To make it clear, the original Rāmāyaṇa was composed by Vālmīki in Sanskrit. It is said to have been composed in the Tretā Yuga, approximately 10,000 years ago. The other is Tulasīdāsa’s Śrī Rāmcaritamānasa, written in the 16th century in the Avadhī dialect of Hindi. The Rāmcaritamānas is approximately one-third the volume of Vālmīki’s text. Interestingly, where Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇa is very detailed, the Rāmcaritamānas is very concise. Conversely, what is only briefly outlined in Vālmīki’s work is expanded upon by Tulsīdāsajī. Thus, these two Rāmāyaṇas seem complementary. It is believed that Tulsīdāsajī was a reincarnation of Śrī Vālmīki. This is written in many old documents. For example, in the Bhaviṣyottara Purāṇa—a Purāṇa about the future—there is a dialogue between Lord Śiva and Pārvatī. Lord Śiva tells Pārvatī that Vālmīki received a boon from Hanumān that he would be born again in the Kali Yuga under the name Tulsīdās and would sing the glory of the Rāmāyaṇa in the vernacular language. That is quite interesting. Even more interesting is to look at the lives of these two sages, which document how often mahātmas have difficult lives and how their transformation happens through Divine Grace. Vālmīki was born into a poor brāhmaṇa family. His original name was Agni Śarma. When he grew up and married, he was the sole provider for his family. His method was to become a street robber and killer. He would wait on a seldom-used highway, jump on a traveler, demand all their belongings, and then kill them. One day, Nārada Muni was traveling that way. Agni Śarma jumped on him and demanded everything. Nāradajī remained peaceful and asked, "Oh man, why are you committing such a serious sin? You will suffer greatly." Agni Śarma was surprised and replied that this was the only way he could provide for his family. Nāradajī asked, "Is your family part of your sins? Will they suffer along with you?" Agni Śarma said he did not know and told Nārada to wait while he went to ask them. He tied Nārada Muni to a tree. He asked his mother, who replied, "Oh no, son, we have nothing to do with your sins. Yes, it is your dharma to support us, but it is your karma how you do it." Agni Śarma was shocked. He asked his wife and received the same answer. Desperate, he ran back to Nāradajī, fell at his lotus feet, and begged for help, saying he did not know he alone was responsible for his sins. Nāradajī said, "Yes, you can be helped if you stop what you are doing. Instead, repeat the name of Lord Rāma." Agni Śarma instantly left his work and his family, went to the jungle, sat in a lotus posture, and began repeating the Lord’s name. He forgot the external world and himself, not drinking, eating, or sleeping. After some time, ants built an anthill around his body. After a long penance, a divine light appeared and a voice spoke to Agni Śarma: all his sins were burned and he was liberated. From then on, he was to be called Vālmīki, meaning "the one who sits inside an anthill," and live as a sage. Vālmīki settled in a forest āśram, studied the Vedas, practiced yoga, and gained disciples. This leads to the story from last week, when he went with his disciple Bharadvāja to the river Tamasā and spoke the first śloka. It is called the first śloka because before Vālmīki, no Sanskrit śloka had been written down. Thus, Vālmīki is called the Ādikavi, the first poet. Through the darśan of Lord Brahmā, he was instructed to write the Rāmāyaṇa. Brahmājī promised that as long as the world endures and stars shine in the sky, the story of the Rāmāyaṇa would be famous among men. The story of Tulsīdāsajī is not very different. He was also born into an ordinary brāhmaṇa family. Legend says that at his birth, the first sound he uttered was "Rāma"—instead of crying. Thus, he was named Rām Bōlā, meaning "the one who spoke Rāma." However, he was born under an inauspicious constellation, which meant that if his parents kept him, his father would die immediately. He was abandoned and sent away with a female servant of the family, who cared for him for about five years until she died. Rāmbōlā became an orphan, living on the streets, begging for alms and sleeping in different places each night. He was then adopted into an ashram. The Gurujī recognized his potential and soon gave him Vairāgya Dīkṣā and the new name Tulsīdās, meaning "servant of Tulsī," the most holy plant for Lord Viṣṇu. At seven, he received Brahmacārya Dīkṣā and entered Gurukula studies. His Gurujī took him to Ayodhyā and taught him the Rāmāyaṇa. After some years, he was sent to another guru in Varanasi, where for 15 or 16 years he studied Sanskrit grammar and the Vedas. His Gurukula education lasted about 20 years. With his Gurudeva’s permission, he returned to his village to greet his parents, only to find they had long been dead. He started living in their house, walking the region and singing the glory of the Rāmāyaṇa. He married and had a son, who died within a few months. He remained deeply attached to his wife. Here comes a story Swamiji has told us. One evening, Tulsīdās went to Hanumān’s Mandir. When he returned at night, eager to see his wife, he found she had left with her brother to visit their father across the Yamunā River. So strong was his desire that he swam across the dangerous river. When he arrived at his wife’s father’s house, she scolded him: "If your love towards God were at least half of your attachment to my body, you would have been liberated long ago." This sparked a transformation in Tulsīdās. He left his wife forever and went to Prayag (Allahabad) to live as a sādhu. After some time, he decided to return to Varanasi to compose Sanskrit poetry, beginning this new phase of his life. He settled at a ghāṭ on the banks of the Gaṅgā. A curious thing happened: every śloka he composed during the day would disappear by the next morning. This continued for eight consecutive days. On the night of the eighth day, he had a dream in which he received darśan of Lord Śiva. Lord Śiva told him not to compose in Sanskrit but in a vernacular language. When Tulsīdāsajī woke up, Lord Śiva and Pārvatījī were standing before him. They instructed him to go to Ayodhyā and write the Rāmāyaṇa in the Avadhī language. Tulsīdāsajī did so immediately and completed the Rāmcaritamānas in about two and a half years. These are the stories of the origin of these two versions of the Rāmāyaṇa. Rāmāyaṇa means "the journey of Rāma." Most know that Lord Rāma was an incarnation of Bhagavān Viṣṇu. When Swamijī speaks about nimitta avatāras, the incarnations of God, he often mentions that God incarnates with a particular purpose. Lord Rāma performed thousands of divine līlās, but his main task was to kill the Mahārakṣasa Rāvaṇa. Rāvaṇa was a great yogī who performed intense tapasyā and had great self-discipline, but he lacked a Sadhguru. His sādhanā, done without a Gurudev, led to his own end. He was so powerful he thought no human could threaten him, though the gods could. To gain power over them, he performed tapasyā for a very long period until Lord Brahmā appeared. Rāvaṇa asked that no god, demon, or celestial being should be able to kill him. Lord Brahmā granted this boon. As soon as Rāvaṇa received this blessing, his atrocities reached unimaginable dimensions. He systematically tried to destroy every spark of divine light on earth, disturbing all yajñas, killing ṛṣis and munis, and demolishing āśramas. Seeing this apocalypse, the gods approached Lord Viṣṇu, the protector and sustainer of the cosmos, and begged him to stop Rāvaṇa. Lord Viṣṇu was merciful and promised, "Yes, I am going to incarnate soon in the Raghu-kula dynasty of the kingdom of Kosala, in the holy city of Ayodhyā." How all this happened, we shall see next Tuesday. Tomorrow is the 14th of December, and according to the Indian calendar, we will be celebrating Mahāprabhujī’s Mahāsamādhi. For us, the disciples of Swamijī and practitioners of Yoga in Daily Life, Mahāprabhujī is also an incarnation of Lord Viṣṇu. The story of his life, the book Līlā Amṛt, is for us the Rāmāyaṇa. So tomorrow we again have a great chance to read some chapters and be inwardly with our Lord. Here in Jadan, we will have a function with all-night bhajans, so hopefully you may see something on the webcast. Of course, we all hope and pray that the connection from Nepal will be okay and we will have darśan of our Gurudev. Then, through the internet connection, we can strengthen our inner connection and have the true darśan of the Master inside our heart.