amayana which is an original composition and not a translation of
Valmiki's work is one of the great religious poems of the world and
not unworthy to be set beside _Paradise Lost_. The sustained majesty
of diction and exuberance of ornament are accompanied by a spontaneity
and vigour rare in any literature, especially in Asia. The poet is not
embellishing a laboured theme: he goes on and on because his emotion
bursts forth again and again, diversifying the same topic with an
inexhaustible variety of style and metaphor. As in some forest a
stream flows among flowers and trees, but pours forth a flood of pure
water uncoloured by the plants on its bank, so in the heart of Tulsi
Das the love of God welled up in a mighty fountain ornamented by the
mythology and legends with which he bedecked it, yet unaffected by
them. He founded no sect, which is one reason of his popularity, for
nearly all sects can read him with edification, and he is primarily a
poet not a theologian. But though he allows himself a poet's licence
to state great truths in various ways, he still enunciates a definite
belief. This is theism, connected with the name Rama. Since in the
north he is the author most esteemed by the Vishnuites, it would be a
paradox to refuse him that designation, but his teaching is not so
much that Vishnu is the Supreme Being who becomes incarnate in Rama,
as that Rama, and more rarely Hari and Vasudeva, are names of the
All-God who manifests himself in human form. Vishnu is mentioned as a
celestial being in the company of Brahma,[613] and so far as any god
other than Rama receives attention it is Siva, not indeed as Rama's
equal, but as a being at once very powerful and very devout, who acts
as a mediator or guide. "Without prayer to Siva no one can attain to
the faith which I require."[614] "Rama is God, the totality of good,
imperishable, invisible, uncreated, incomparable, void of all change,
indivisible, whom the Veda declares that it cannot define."[615] And
yet, "He whom scripture and philosophy have sung and whom the saints
love to contemplate, even the Lord God, he is the son of Dasarath,
King of Kosala."[616] By the power of Rama exist Brahma, Vishnu and
Siva, as also Maya, the illusion which brings about the world. His
"delusive power is a vast fig-tree, its clustering fruit the countless
multitude of worlds, while all things animate and inanimate are like
the insects that dwell inside and think their own particular fi