an open-air ramayana. 129
serpent Shesha, with Lakshmi massaging his legs and Garuda at his feet, floats out
under a black starry sky on a great pool that serves as the Milky Ocean.
These jhanki—glimpses of a cosmic, eternal divinity—are like crystallizations of
the actions that we see unfolding in space and time. The actions take us a step far-
ther toward the “secret” that the Lila and Tulsidas are presenting.
CHARIT
“Yes, yes, God is in the temple too,” replied a woman when I pressed her to explain
why the Ramlila swarupsseemed to offer such a special presence of God, even more
powerful than a temple image. “Oho! God is in a stone, a tree, in you, in me, every-
where.” She paused to reflect, then went on, “But here it is a walking, talking God.”
And asadhu,growing a little impatient with my questions about how five boys from
Varanasi could suddenly become God incarnate, boomed: “Form! Form! We believe
in the form, the dress! We also know that these are boys, this is someone ’s son.”
The charitin Ramcharitmanasmeans “acts.” Again the word has the same double
meaning in English as in Hindi/Sanskrit: “deeds” and “performances.” Tulsidas in-
sists that the best way to know the infinite God is through his finite acts. He even cre-
ates an important character to challenge this view and systematically demolishes her
position. In the most elaborated of four frames that surround the narrative, Shiva
tells Ram’s story to Parvati, and Parvati plays the skeptic, saying it is impossible to
believe that the transcendent Ram, who is beyond attribute or quality (nirgun),acted
out such trivial dramas and expressed such puny human emotions as the avatar Ram
did.^10 How could the nirgunLord be prince of Ayodhya, play in Dasaratha’s court-
yard, go mad over the loss of his wife? Shiva ferociously assails her doubt, insisting
on the sagunRam, the actor, and declaring that only a blind fool and a sinner could
think ofsagunand nirgunas separate. It is through Ram’s acts, his human lila,that
his great secret can be known. Several times Parvati seems to be convinced, then
again raises her doubt. This dialogue goes on in a long prelude and postlude to the
actual story of Ram. By the end Parvati’s doubts are gone; she is a pure devotee
whose greatest delight is to listen to tales of Ram’s deeds.
The clearest statement in the Ramlila that the world is a dramatic performance
with God as writer, director, star, and audience is put into the mouth of Valmiki,
Tulsidas’s ancient model in telling the tales of Ram’s deeds.^11 Traveling through a
forest in the early part of their exile, Ram, Sita, and Lakshman arrive at Valmiki’s
ashram. The sage begins an eloquent speech on Ram’s nature and relationship to his
devotees with this address to the Lord: