Vinaya Patrika: Complete Works of Goswami Tulsidas (Volume II)

In Vinaya Patrika Tulsi submits a mercy petition in the court of Rama. Ostensibly he is the plaintiff but evidently he represents humanity. His complaint is against Kaliyuga who has abetted with maya to cause turbulence on earth driving mankind inexorably in the net of delusion and inevitable life-death cycles. In such times discernment through knowledge, yoga, renunciation have receded and bounty of Rama’s causeless mercy is the only recourse for redemption. Ramacharitmanasa is a scripture of the Rama, Symbol of Divinity, Vinaya Patrika is a scripture of devotion in the Rama tradition. It is an important work for evaluating Tulsi’s religious viewpoint. His hymns analysing onslaught of ‘adversaries of virtue’. helplessness of mankind in withstanding passions, fervent prayers in the vinaya mode of devotion, cannot fail to reveal the infallibility of divine love, of which Tulsi was one of the most ardent exponents. Vinaya Patrika has no thematic content but has many mythological references. Asterisks (*) against verses in the text indicates availability of more information on these references in Explanatory Notes contained in the volume.