There are more books written and Ph. D.’s awarded for works on Tulaseedaas and the Shri Raamacharitamanas than probably on any other subject in India or probably in the world! Then, why embark upon writing another book to deal with Tulasee or his magnum-opus, “Shri Ramacharitamaanas”?
I had to deal with the above question before I started on this project! This project came around due to several reasons. One of the main reasons has been that I wanted to remember some selected pieces of wisdom from the Raamaayan (the Raamacharitamaanas) by Tulasidaas. I read the Raamacharitamaanas again some years back and collected many Dohaas/ Choupaaees or Chhands that I liked and then in the second go around minimized them to about 100 of them only. The number 100 came from the Hindu/Indian tradition of books from Saints like Bhartahari: “The Bhartahari Shatak” etc. Another main reason to write this work is our living abroad in USA and dealing with the situation that the children born to the first generation Indian-American do have access to Hindu temples but not similar exposure to our literature as we had to the great pieces of wisdom from great Hindi poets like Tulasidaas, Kabeer, Soor, Meeraa, Raheem and others. And then worse than that is probably they will never read them here in US or like kids born in any other country outside India! The only possibility I could see is that kids over 18 years of age or even young people over 25, may read some book which is lot smaller than Raamaayan and that too in English or in semi English, i.e. in English with the option of the same material with Hindi text from Raamaayan.
Therefore, I have given here the original text in Hindi with Hindi translation, with a small dictionary of some selected difficult (that I thought) words at the end of the book. Included here are also my thoughts in the form of comments as they arose when I was reading the verses! I am sure, knowledgeable people could always express these thoughts in lesser words or could do a better or more elaborate explanation than done here. There is also a possibility that people over the age of 25 years may also find this work as useful to them depending upon their nature, interest, and life experiences.
The small dictionary is also added here because every reader of this book may not have easy access to a dictionary and even if they do carrying it everywhere they sit and read may be difficult or cumbersome! As I mentioned above, this work is basically meant for English speaking young folks above the age of 18 years when they are college age or above and living outside India who may know a little Hindi. However this can easily benefit any one who does not understand Hindi as Hindi transliteration of the verses and their translation is also given in English! The comments here, however, are in English only. This modest work can also benefit millions of young Indian people in India who got pieces of wisdom in Hindi literature in general and the Raamacharitamaanas in particular.
However, a gentle reminder that I put together this work for “swaantah sukhaaya” i.e. for my own learning pleasure and am sure other people may also benefit who are more mature in their age than a young person of 40
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