Tulsidas & the Epics
Namaskar,
To paraphrase the great 16th / 17th century poet Tulsidas, when we come into this world as newborns, everyone smiles in joy and we cry. Yet throughout our lives, we are to engage in so many noble pursuits and benevolent endeavors, that when it is our time to leave this earth, we will smile knowing in our heart that we have done as much as possible to make the world a better place, and everyone else will cry knowing they are parting with a dear and trusted friend.
Note: Tulsidas (1532-1623) was a great mystic poet, philosopher, & bhakta (devotee) who is credited with penning the Ramayana, one of the two great epics of India – the other being the Mahabharata, which contains as a subsection the Bhagavad Giita. The Ramayana comes within the genre of purana, or mythology. While highly educative and of great moral and spiritual value, it is understood to be fictional; in contrast the Mahabharata is itihasa, or educative history, as it recounts real events that transpired on this earth.