Goswami Tulasidas Jayanti is celebrated in honour of Sri Tulasidas, the author of Sri Ramacharitamanasa. It is observed on the seventh day after the amavasya in the month of Shravan (July-August).

When is Goswami Tulasidas Jayanti 2009?
Goswami Tulasidas Jayanti 2009 falls on 28th July 2009.

Sri Tulasidas was a 16th Century poet and a great devotee of Lord Rama. He composed the story of Ramayana in a book called Ramacharitamanasa. Ramacharitamanasa is written in Avadhi language which is a dialect of Hindi. The English translation of Rama Charita Manasa is “The Lake of the pastimes of Lord Rama”. He composed in quatrains called choupais, broken by dohas or couplets.

Ramacharitamanasa is considered as one of the greatest work of Hindi literature and a pool of great devotional songs for a common man to sing and perform bhajans. The whole Ramacharitamanasa is based on Bhakti or intense devotion towards Lord Rama. It is believed that Sri Hanuman, who is known as servant of Sri Rama, appeared before Sri Tulasidas in a temple and gave him instructions to write the pastimes of Sri Rama drenched in mellow of devotion to Sri Rama.

Ramacharitamanasa is written in twelve parts known as Kands. Every Kand details the pastimes of Lord Rama at different stages of His Life. Bal Kand, Ayodhya Kand, Arayna Kand, Kiskinda Kand, Sunder Kand, Lanka Kand and Uttar Kand are the Kands of Ramacharitamanasa.

The main activity on Goswami Tulasidas Jayanti is to read or hear Ramacharitamanasa. People visit the temples of Sri Rama and Sri Hanuman. On this occasion Brahmins are fed and seminars and symposiums are conducted on the life and teachings of Sri Goswami Tulasidas.

“The Supreme Self who is the embodiment of joy and ocean of Bliss, from which a small droplet fills the three worlds with happiness, He is ‘Rama’, the very home of bliss and the comforter of all the three worlds.” (Sri Goswami Tulasidas in Ramacharitamanas)