Baal Kaanda
7 - Tulasidasas humility and the glory of poetry describing Sri Rama's greatness
Chaupais
Description
The laughter of the evil-minded will benefit me; crows call the cuckoo hoarse. Herons ridicule the swan, frogs make fun of the Cataka bird and malicious rogues deride refined speech. To those who have no taste for poetry nor devotion to the feet of Sri Rama, this undertaking of mine will serve as a subject for delightful mirth. My composition is couched in the popular dialect and my intellect is feeble; hence it is a fit subject for ridicule, and those who laugh shall not incur any blame. To those who cherish no love for the feet of the Lord and have no sound reason either, this story will sound unattractive to the ears. To those, however, who possess devotion to the feet of God Visnu and Siva and whose mind is not perverse, the tale of the Chief of the Raghus will taste as sweet. Knowing it in their heart as adorned with devotion to Sri Rama, the virtuous will listen to it with bland words of praise. I am no poet nor an adept in the art of speech and am a cipher in all arts and sciences. There are elegant devices of letters, subtleties of meaning, various figures of speech, metrical compositions of different kinds, infinite varieties of emotions and sentiments and multifarious flaws and excellences of poetic composition. Of these details of poesy, I possess critical knowledge of none. I vouch for it in writing on a blank sheet.(1-6)