The Sage Poet and Author Valmiki is called the Adikavi of India having composed the epic Ramayana, the story of Rama, the prince of Ayodhya.  While the story of the plot possibly existed in legends, he invented the shloka meter such that a verse can be sung to rhyme.  Valmiki created verses and episodes connoting different emotions in life.  It is said that he taught his poetry to Rama’s children who sang them for their father.  The Ramayana is a storehouse of emotion-filled poetry that has remained as the jewel in Indian literature.

The person who brought Rama’s legend to everyday life was the Saint Poet Goswami Tulsidas of sixteenth century India.  Having observed the deterioration of moral values and degradation of religious structure through artificial restrictions, Tulsidas created the retelling of the Ramayana in SriRamacharitamanasa.  He started working on it at his late age and in his avocation in music made it melodious such that it can reach people.  The sweetness of Awadhi language made the poetics popular, but the popularity unfortunately landed him Emperor Akbar’s jail in Fatehpur Sikri.  Here he composed the more popular Hanuman Chalisa to seek the help of mythical monkey-god Hanuman to get him out of jail.  Apparently monkeys invaded the jail and there was drought in the region forcing Akbar to release Sri Tulsidas.  Subsequently, Akbar granted freedom to the worship of Rama from all religious persecutions practiced under the Moghul rule.  Sri Rama and SriRamacharitamanasa have been the core of Hindu faith in north India ever since.  

For Valmiki, Rama was a principled hero, who believed in himself and his duties, a person of good intentions winning his ordeals through his perseverance and valor.  For Tulsi, Rama is an incarnation of Vishnu, or in some manner higher than Vishnu.  Rama as a person can take birth on earth and operate in divine ways, called as lila in Hindi or Sanskrit.  In parallel, Rama as a concept can be with us all the time which could go back even before the universe came into being.  He called these two views as saguNa (with guNa) and nirguNa (without guNa), guNa being a feature that we acquire in our bodily form.  Tulsi declared that it is the sound of the word Rama that is higher than either of the views. This powerful enunciation has made the worship of Rama as the daily ritual in the majority of Hindu homes, and has made it the symbol of faith protection in the Hindu minds.

Since the time of Tulsidas, Rama as a symbol has been the companion of India in her march to freedom and in her discovery of her own identity.   It is the final refuge for the Hindus as was aptly uttered by Gandhi at his last breath.  All people in distress call for SriRama’s help and many in prosperity wish to maintain their good times with SriRama’s support.  The recitation of SriRamacharitamanasa has been a religious tradition which is celebrated as a socio-cultural musical event.  The composition has been printed into many Indian scripts and transliterated and translated texts in English are also available.  Hanuman Chalisa is recited in most homes and temples throughout India in all major Vaishnava festivals.

The first Ramacharitamanasa to the west was possibly smuggled in the mid-nineteenth century by the bonded sugarcane workers who were rounded up by the British soldiers from the State of Bihar and sent out to the West Indies and Guyana for labor.  A single smuggled book was their hope of freedom from the oppressions and solitary life.  Anglicized versions of Manasa are worshipped and recited in Guyanese homes, the book being revered as the Christian’s Bible.  Migrants to Fiji also had similar technique to smuggle the book as a love poem bypassing the strictures against any import of religious books.  

Formal immigration from India to the US was accelerated after the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.  The increased population of Indian descent in the US had their escape in religion through home worship services and eventually with the recitation of SriRamacharitamanasa.  The first twenty four hour continuous relay reading of the book was hosted by a couple from Sindh, Pakistan, who were staunch in their Hindu belief system.  Sri Prabhu and Smt Drupadi Rathi were unfamiliar with the Devanagari script and learnt learning Avadhi through the continuous practice of reading the book.  In this effort in 1975, they were joined by a young widow from Delhi who had left India with her son and was a devout fan of Tulsidas.  Smt Sarla Devi Dayal, as she is affectionately called Mataji, is past ninety years of age and has been the principal supporter of all Ramayana readings in the Boston area ever since.

I joined the effort in 1982 with a view to have my personal liking to literature and faith understanding and became a partner to the Rathi family and Mataji creating a support system.  We imported books from India, helped people read and also encouraged people to host religious events.  Like in India, SriRamacharitamanasa became the bond between the groups of people from different regions of India who were looking for common faith and friendship. Sri Rashmikant Acharya, a compatriot of Gandhi, and his wife Smt Rameshbala Acharya, though in their advanced age, showed determination and energy derived by immersing themselves in the reading of the Manasa.  They remained an inspiration in the Boston area until Sri Acharya breathed his last in 2005.  Mrs Acharya  moved to California and did pass away in 2012.

The idea of hosting the Ramayana reading at the Sri Lakshmi Temple was floated by Sri Bharat Davé in 1993, who served as a Trustee in the Temple during the time.  With the support of the New England Hindu Temple Board of Trustees (BOT) the first open public reading of SriRamacharitamanasa was held on April 16, 1994.  It was decided that the Ramayana reading would be held during the preceding weekend of SriRamanavami.  The set of nine days leading to the birth of Sri Rama is called Navaratri and the Temple decided that the recitation of the Sundarakanda of Valmiki Ramayana also would be held on each of the days until the final culmination.   This was the first time the Temple was made open for the devotees to stay overnight in the premises and to participate in the continuous reading as happens in India.  

Our first year in the Temple was a magnificent celebration and the event has continued to be hosted in the Temple ever since.  It is a unique assembly of all language ethnicities joining together reading a common literature and participating in the devotional ecstasy of Tulsidas’s compositions.  Many individuals and businesses have supported the event through cash and food.  Most respectful are the readers who have maintained their energy through the wee hours of the night to recite the deep devotional literature set in melody and music.  The Temple priests every year have brought forth new decorations to create the visual delight and have exhibited their own creative compositions in ornamentation and in flowers.  The devotees have returned year after year to join together to gain energy from each other and to be blessed by participating in the traditional “Welcome Spring” event.

Given the mythological tradition of Rama’s success with Devi’s blessings, various groups celebrate the  SriRamacharitamanasa reading also in the Fall.  Sri Rathi arranged such a group about ten years ago and they met at Sadhu Vaswani Center in Dracut, MA.  Since 2010, the group meets in Dwarkamai Vidyapeeth Sai Temple in Billerica.  Ramayana reading in Sri Ramanavami has also begun in Satsang Center in Woburn since 1997 and at Sarva Dev Mandir in Oxford, Ma since 2007.  A group at the Maruti Temple in Andover meets on the first Saturday of the month to recite Sundarakanda from SriRamacharitamanasa and a full reading in the Spring is being held for the past three years.  

At the risk of undue confidence on our memories, the following individuals and families deserve our appreciation for their dedication, energy and devotion in this journey:  Awadh and Malati Pandey, Jugal and Sumitra Malpani, V. S. Ramapriya, Gopal Gupta, Renu Gupta, Satyendra Sharma, Jitendra Sharma, Mahesh Goyal, Mihir Munshi, Surendra Vaidya, Satya Kanakagiri, Deepak and Vibha Tanden, Amit and Geeta Singh, Mona and Viswanath Khaitan,  Yogesh Mishra and family, Ram Gupta, Ashwani and Namrata Sharma, Raju and Geeta Popat, Rekha Palriwala, Praveen and Rucha Misra, Sandeep and Preeti Srivastava, Sanjeev and Manju Tripathi, Ravindra and Mohini Tripathi, Abhishek and Tina Sharma, Vineeta and Pankaj Agrawal, Neeta Rathi,  Rajesh Daga, Abhilasha Rathi, Sudhir and Tej Bansal, Jagjit and Ritu Gaind,  Ashwani and Pratibha Mishra,  Neeta Purohit,  Nilesh and Jaishri Gunda,  Neelkanth and Rekha Mishra, Akhilesh and Shanti Pandey, Jay and Kruti Pandit,  Ram Pravesh and Anju Prasad, Sita Raman and Subhaga singh, Sameer and Leena Sighal, Ram and Munib Gupta, Tinneti and Vijaya Lakshmi Rao, Sanjay and Sangeeta Saxena, Tej and Prem Tanden, Prema and Vithal Rathi, Sushil and Rita Tuli,  Ram Bhaskar Nouduri,  Srinivasan Meka, and our devotional singers Mohan Shyamlal and family.   Krishna Bhattar, Rama Bhattar, Balaji Bhattar, Bairavasundram, Sunder Rao, and Ragini Krishnamurthy among the Temple employees have extended their full support and cooperation for the services and the hospitality to the devotees during their stay in the Temple.  Food has been provided at various times by the local Udupi Restaurant, Dosa Temple, Rasoi Restaurant, and Little India.  We thank all for their contributions to the cause of Ramayana.

This year’s event in the Temple is scheduled to begin Saturday, April 13 at 11 AM with Srinivasa Abhiseka and Sri Vishnusahasranama.  This would be our twentieth year of hosting the event.  We need younger people to join and support.  Please contact any of us if you can help.  We need support to feed all in the Temple and to do the Temple decorations for the event.  We hope that you would offer your sponsorship for the effort.  Please do join April 13, 11 AM until April 14, 1 PM, in order to participate in the reading of the book.  We invite you to be our guests in the Temple for the prasada on April 14.

As we say in these occasions “Jai Siyaram”.

Contacts for this event:

SriLakshmi Temple website: www.srilakshmi.org or contact events@srilakshmi.org

SriLakshmi Temple Phone #508-881-5775

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