Tulsi Das - mystical poet, probably born around 1543 in Rajapur, Uttar Pradesh, India, and died in 1623 in Benares.

Tulsi Das was a Brahmin who renounced the world early in life and spent his days as a religious devotee. He wrote many works, mostly in Awadhi, an Eastern Hindi dialect, and focussed Hinduism on the worship of Rama. His most important work is the Ramacaritmanas - "The Mountain Lake of Rama's Deeds" - which is based on the Sanskrit epic Ramayana. The Ramacaritmanas expresses the religious sentiment of bhakti ("loving devotion") to the Vaisnava avatar Rama, who is regarded as the chief means of salvation.

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Bhakti Marga (The Path of Devotion)

Much has been written concerning the comparative merits of the two great Mârgas or Mystic Paths - Bhakti Mârga and Jnâna Mârga - that of Aspiration and Devotion and that of Knowledge: the way of the "heart" and the way of the "head".  These are sometimes compared with Karma Mârga - the Path of Action and Works, the way of the body dominated by the will.

In essence, all true pathways are equal inasmuch as they lead to God. "The path men take on every side is Mine", saith Sri Krishna...

Bhakti means devotion, a surrendering of oneself to an ideal with love and faith. It is a real and ardent aspiration for union with the Divine: an intense yearning to be absorbed in the Object of one's love...

But although, when once the heart is truly awakened, Bhakti Mârga is the easiest and most natural path to follow, nevertheless, its very simplicity may become a great disadvantage, because, since in its initial stages, at least, it requires no special knowledge, it may easily and quickly become diverted, through innocence as well as ignorance, into undesirable by-paths, when it lacks any enlightened guidance to weave its way through the labyrinth of obstacles that bar the path to the Goal.

"Love without knowledge is blind, even as knowledge without love is lame." In real mysticism these two cannot safely be isolated. But both depend upon action in order that they may pass on to their consummation.

"The mystic, whose soul is one with knowledge and truth, abiding on high, with senses subdued, who accounteth a clod of earth, a stone, or gold, the same, he is called devoted."

"Tranquil in soul, exempt from fear, steadfast in the vow of a worthy aspirant, restraining his mind, let him sit in devotion, meditating on Me, on Me intent."

(extract from the Shrine of Wisdom publication "The Synthesis of the Bhagvad Gita")

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