Raama's Beauty

From the Bhakti List Archives

• March 12, 1999


Dear Bhagavatas,

The TyAgarAjA kritis mentioned by Sadagopan describing the beauty of Lord Raama and his kalyana gunas are wonderful.  In this connection, I would like to highlight thebeautiful song of  Saint Tulsidas "Tumak chalat Ramachandra."  In this song Tulsidas  describes the beauty of child Raama as follows.  The ankle bells adorning the anklets of the child Raama, who is barely able to walk, make a beautiful sound every time he tries to walk.   Every time he plays, he falls down on the earth; the queens of Dasaratha lift him up and hug him and put him on their laps; they fondle him in different ways.  When he tries to talk, with his beautiful reddish brown lips, the hanging Latkaniyan adorning his nose look beautiful and so on**

Finally,  in the last stanza, the poet, who is in a blissful state, immersed in the beauty of Raama,  tries to draw an analogy to describe his beauty.  He fails in his attempt, and exclaims  "tulasidas ati aanand dekh ke mukhara vind Raghuvar chabi ke saman raghubar chabi baniyan "How can i compare the beauty of Raama to anything else.*  Raama's beauty can only be compared to itself; nothing even remotely resembles his beauty.

Adiyen,
Vasumathy Nagarajan