Tulasidas and His Wife

An abridged retelling from Mahipati's Bhaktavijaya, in Justin E. Abbott and N. R. Godbole's English translation.

The poet who was sent

While Narayana lay on the serpent Shesha in the sea of milk, some of his devotees came to him: Uddhava, Akrura, Valmiki, Dhruva, Prahlada and Shuka. The Lord spoke to Valmiki. In the Kali age, he said, sin had become unbearable. Valmiki's Ramayana, in which he had sung the Lord's name and deeds, was in the Sanskrit language, which the ignorant people of this age could not understand. Let him become an avatar among mortals, and set the people to worshipping the Lord. Valmiki bowed.

A house in Hastinapur

In the northern country, in the city of Hastinapur, which is Delhi, lived a Kanoja Brahmin named Atmaram, devoted to his religion, who served King Akbar and enjoyed the king's favour. In his house the sage Valmiki took birth of his own will, and the boy was named Tulasidas. His father played with him lovingly. He grew, wore the sacred thread, and kept his twelve years of study as a celibate. He bathed every day, did his devotions, and studied the Vedas by the rule. Then a bride was found for him, and he was married.

As the years of his boyhood passed, the two came together in love. They could not bear to be apart. They gave themselves to fine clothes and ornaments, pearls and jewels, saffron, musk and sandal, flowers and betel leaf, cardamom, cloves and nutmeg. Her name was Mamata, and she served him with great reverence as a dutiful wife. But Tulasidas could not endure to be without her.

The false message

One day King Akbar set out on a tour, and Tulasidas went with him. While he was away a messenger came from Mamata's mother's house. "Your mother is seriously ill," the man said. "Let her see you, and then you may come back." Mamata wept aloud, and in her distress she was beside herself. The messenger then confessed that he had told an untruth. Many days had passed since she had visited her mother, he said, and Tulasidas would not send her, so they had told her a lie.

Mamata answered that her husband was away with the king, and that she would go to her mother's house in the meantime and return at once after seeing her. She took leave of her father-in-law and mother-in-law and went. That very day, by evening, Tulasidas came home.

The night walk

He asked his mother for the news, and learned that his wife had gone. "My dear one," he said to himself, "why have you left me?" That night he lay on his bed and could not sleep. He got up and set out at once, and by walking ten miles in the dark he reached the house of his wife's father. Two watches of the night had gone. Every door was shut. Tulasidas looked about him.

Just then he saw a great poisonous serpent hanging down from above. He caught hold of it with his hand and climbed up into the upper storey. The servants woke as he came in, and saw him. Mamata, that mine of beauty, woke in the same moment. Seeing her husband there, she rose, astonished.

"Why did you leave me and come here?" he said. "I have had to walk ten miles to fetch you."

"The Yamuna is in flood," she answered. "I cannot think how you got into the house."

"Your love for me is so great," he said, "that you let down a rope from above, and I crossed holding on to it."

"Why do you tell an untruth?" said Mamata. "I never let down a rope from the upper storey." She did not know what to believe. "Show me the rope," she said.

She took a servant, lit a lamp, and the two looked for it. Then they saw the great, huge serpent hanging down from above. All of them were frightened. It seemed a strange thing.

What she said

Mamata took her husband by the hand, led him into the house and spoke to him. "You call yourself wise and clever, and you have no common sense. You are always drunk with your own ignorance. Why did you leave your mother, your father, your brother, your friends, your wealth and your property, and come after me at such an hour of the night? If that serpent had bitten you, you would have lost your life. You know nothing of the passing concerns of this world.

"You came running in the night, wanting to see me. Many have lost their lives running after women. Indra saw the beautiful Ahalya and was overcome by her charms. Ravana lost his life running after Sita. The moth sees the brightness of the light and loses its life. Men do not see God in their own hearts, and they go seeking to satisfy their senses. These foolish ones do not know Shri Rama, who is the resting place of everyone. Men love their sons, wives, wealth and property more than their own lives. If they remembered the feet of Shri Hari, their lives would have worth."

At her words, Tulasidas felt a change of heart. "What you say, mother, is true," he said, and he bowed to his wife. "When a child puts out its hand to take hold of a burning coal, its mother stops it at once. Today you have done me a great kindness."

With those words he left immediately.

The road to Benares

As he went, he remembered all that he had done in his earlier births. "I am the Vaishnava Valmiki," he said. "I have taken birth in this world of mortals so that I may sing of Rama with my own lips, and turn men to devotion to him. I was caught in the joys of the senses, which do not last."

He came to Anandavana, which is Benares. He bathed in the Bhagirathi and took up severe austerities. He gave up cooked food and fruit and lived on fallen leaves. After bathing in the early morning he prayed to Shri Rama. "Dweller in Ayodhya," he would say, "husband of Janaki, show yourself to me." When he went into the forest, if any water was left in his pot after washing, he poured it on the roots of the trees. For twelve years he went on like this, and he did not stop repeating the Lord's names for a single moment.