Vijay Singh
Cambridge, Massachusetts [USA], August 23: Morari Bapu’s Ram Katha, Manas GuruPrasad, concluded on Sunday at Sanders Theatre, Harvard University, bringing to a close an unprecedented gathering that brought together the Ramcharitmanas tradition, Indian classical thought and the academic world.
In his concluding remarks, Bapu made a special request to Harvard University to preserve and house copies of all four Vedas, the Ramcharitmanas and the Valmiki Ramayan, making these foundational Indian texts accessible to students and scholars for generations to come.
The request reflected the spirit of the Ram Katha, which sought not only to share the spiritual and literary traditions surrounding the Ramcharitmanas with a global audience, but also to create a deeper dialogue between India’s classical knowledge traditions and contemporary academic inquiry.
On 19 August, Tulsi Jayanti — the birth anniversary of Goswami Tulsidas — was marked at Sanders Theatre with the Tulsi Janmotsav and Global Awards Ceremony, conferring the Tulsi, Vyas, Valmiki and Ratnavali awards outside India for the first time in the tradition’s 16-year history. Eight awards were presented to nine scholars and cultural contributors, including the Valmiki Award to UC Berkeley’s Prof. Sally J. Sutherland Goldman and Prof. Robert P. Goldman, and to Osaka University’s Prof. Madoka Fukuoka; the Vyas Award to Columbia University’s Prof. John Stratton Hawley, Dr. Ashwin Bhai Kantilal Rajgor and Devi Chitralekha; and the Tulsi Award to UT Austin’s Prof. Rupert Snell and community leader Piyush Bhai Mehta. Harvard’s own Prof. Diana L. Eck received the Ratnavali Award for her work in comparative religion. She was also instrumental in facilitating the gathering at Harvard.
The kathakars, scholars, musicians and artists from India came together with members of Harvard’s academic community. The programme was complemented by a three-day scholarly talks from August 16 to 18, bringing scholars and practitioners from Japan, the Netherlands, UK and across the USA together to explore different dimensions of India’s literary, philosophical and cultural traditions.
The nine days at Harvard therefore marked not simply the conclusion of a Ram Katha, but the beginning of a wider conversation between the Ramcharitmanas tradition and the global academic community.
Bapu said, “Someone asked me why I came to Harvard. I said, ‘Main padhne nahi aaya, main padhane nahi aaya; main prasad baatne aaya hoon.’”
Paavan Popat OBE, the lead organiser for the Ram Katha, said, “As we conclude these nine days here, our hearts are filled with gratitude. We have seen scholars, devotees and members of the wider community come together in a spirit of openness, learning and enlightenment against a backdrop of the universal values, Truth, Love and Compassion.”
Manas GuruPrasad Katha brought together devotion, scholarship, music and cultural exchange in a setting where India’s classical traditions could be encountered by an international audience. It extended the journey of the Ramcharitmanas beyond its traditional setting while retaining the central ethos of Bapu’s teachings — truth, love and compassion.
About Morari Bapu
Morari Bapu is a renowned exponent of the Ramayana and has been reciting Ram Kathas for over sixty years throughout the world. The overall ethos of his Katha is universal peace and spreading the message of truth, love, and compassion. While the focal point is the scripture itself, Bapu draws upon examples from other religions and invites people from all faiths to attend the discourses. The remarkable journey of reciting the Ram Charita Manas (a popular version of Ramayana written by Goswami Tulsidas) began in front of three village folk when Bapu was fourteen and has now taken him to all corners of the world, from all major cities and pilgrimage sites in India to countries like Sri Lanka, Indonesia, South Africa, Kenya, United Kingdom, United States, Brazil, Australia, Israel, and Japan, drawing millions in audiences. Bapu has often gone beyond stereotypes, holding Ram Kathas for sex workers, transgenders, and those living on the margins of society. He has also been in the forefront in providing aid to any area that has been disaster-hit, whether within India or countries abroad like war-torn Ukraine.
