The Nine-Day Ram Katha of Pujya Morari Bapu
Davos, Switzerland · 19–27 July 2025
For nine days in the Congress Center at Davos — the town Morari Bapu playfully renamed "Devas," the Vaikuntha of the earth — Ramkatha stood at the center of a single search: the great mantra hidden within the Ramcharitmanas. The theme rose from the Balkand's Naam-vandana, where Goswamiji sings that Mahadev himself forever chants the Mahamantra. But Bapu, faithful to his own contribution, unfolded the title in two directions at once. There are mantras for jap, sacred formulae to be chanted, and there are mantras by which a life is actually lived. Across the seven sopan — Balkand mantratmak, Ayodhya satyatmak, Aranya sutratmak, Kishkindha snehatmak, Sundar sevatmak, Lanka shastratmak, Uttar smaranatmak — he gathered nine living-mantras, his own Navkar, while Ram-nam remained the note that Shiva's lips never cease to sound.
At the katha's root stood Shiva's own japa at Kashi, "jo japat Maheshu" — the Mahamantra that Mahadev repeats without pause and by whose teaching liberation is granted at Kashi. Around this Bapu wove the whole mahima of Naam. He sang its glory across the four yugas — dhyan in Satyug, yagna in Treta, puja in Dwapar, and Naam alone in Kali — and told again the tender proofs: Ganesha writing "Ram" and so earning the first worship, Valmiki made pure by the reversed "Mara Mara," Parvati taught that one utterance of Ram equals the thousand names, and Shiva's hundred-crore-shloka Ramayan distilled, syllable by syllable, to the two aksharas. To those who insisted only a Ram-mantra belonged here he answered from the Gita, "Ye yatha mam prapadyante" — whatever nishtha a sadhak holds, that very form manifests; even chanting Radha or Krishna, if the heart rests in Ram, Ram will come. From Krishna-nam comes vishram, from Ram-nam param vishram, from Shiva-nam the sahaj samadhi of Kabir.
The living Navkar unfolded day by day. The first was Swikar, acceptance — "let some call me good, let some call me bad; we have become Raman Bihari's" — deepened later through Neti, na iti, "not only this": let acceptance never close, let there be always more to accept and to endure. The second was Samvad, dialogue as Mahadev and vibhuti, a bridge of amrit that is nishkalam and nishkriyam, distinct from idle jalpavad and ruinous vitandavada. The third was Santosh, contentment in karma, in wealth, and in the size of the crowd, "na prajaya dhanena." The fourth was Sahas, courage — a path not for the weak, carried by Narsi Mehta, Meera, Prahlad, Namdev — yet warned against its reversal, sahasa, the impulsiveness that ends in pachhtava. The fifth was Maun, silence, in its four depths from sthul to sukshma-tam, reaching toward a gunatit stillness that keeps a smile. The sixth was Savdhan, alertness, whose acharya is the ever-vigilant Lakshman: be alert in speaking and in listening, alert that praise not curdle into flattery. The seventh was the Sadhu himself, the word that appears some seventy-five times in the Manas, whose character is "like cotton," spotless and enduring suffering to hide another's flaw. The eighth was Ram-nam, and the ninth and last was Shanti, peace — counted eleven times in the Manas as in the Gita, sought in the five jnanendriyas, the five karmendriyas, and the mind.
Running beneath the mantras was the labour of loosening. Bapu named the granthis the Ramayan comes to untie — prejudice in Sati, fear in Sugreev, ego in Vali and Ravan, the knot of sin in Ahalya — each loosened only by a Sadhu or by Hari. Following Vivek Chudamani, he named the two wings for flight in the sky of Naam, atyant vairagya and bodh, and unfolded the supports a sadhak gently releases — of wealth, of inert matter, of jiva, of karma, of dharma, of gyan, of one's own strength — until the total nisadhanata Vallabhacharya praises. This is not the sannyasi's rupture but rupa-vairagya, a beautiful renunciation: one goes not by breaking away but when called. And where a jiva falls wholly helpless, as the stone-woman Ahalya could perform no devotion, the Lord Himself performs all nine bhaktis on the devotee's behalf — "Hari bhajans us," the Lord does the devotee's bhajan.
The katha honoured shravan as the first of the nine bhaktis — "listen, listen" — and taught that we listen not to become something but to understand what we already are. Bapu laid out the four ghats of dialogue in the Manas — Gyan, Karma, Upasana, Sharanagati — and the Ganga of speech choosing its vessel: mukh-nirgata from Shiva, sukha-nirgata from Yajnavalkya, dukha-nirgata from Kakbhushundi, and for us shikh-nirgata through Goswami Tulsidas. He taught the nine Vishrams of the listener and the psychology of the Manas: questions arise in the man, solutions in the buddhi, but sharanagati belongs only to the chitt — as the Braj gopis' chitt was forever offered at Murari's feet even while their hands sold curd.
The narrative itself was carried on the Shiva current, fitting for a katha born of the Shiva-Uma samvad. Bapu confessed the twelve Shivlingas at the heart of his own sadhana — the sand Parthiv linga of his childhood on the Rupavat's bank, the Tribhuvneshwar of his grandfather's lota, and the twelfth linga who is the Guru, "vande bodhamayam nityam gurum shankararupinam." The tale moved through Shiva and Sati hearing Ramkatha, Sati's doubt and self-immolation, her rebirth as Uma and tapa, the wedding baraat of ghosts where all are accepted; then the five causes of the avatar, the distressed Earth's plea, the Putrakameshti yagna, and on the fifth day in Davos, "Bhay pragat kripala deen dayala" — Ram was born, and the sabha rang with aarti. Vashishtha's namkaran, Vishwamitra's arrival, Tadaka and Ahalya, the breaking of Shiva's dhanush and the fourfold marriage at Janakpuri closed the Bal Kand — sung, as Tulsi says, to purify one's own speech.
- Maha mantra jo japat Mahesu, Kashi mukuti hetu upadesu — the great mantra which Mahadev himself chants, by whose teaching liberation is granted at Kashi; the two anchor lines of the whole katha. - Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya — the twelve-syllabled mantra gathered alongside Ram-nam. - Ye yatha mam prapadyante — as one approaches Me, in that form I manifest. - Santat suniye Ram gunagram — listen ceaselessly to the treasury of Ram's virtues. - Sadhu charit subh charit kapasu — a sadhu's character is auspicious, like cotton, enduring to hide another's flaw. - Shantirashantasya kutah sukham — for the unpeaceful, where is happiness?
The nine days were laid at Goswamiji's feet for Tulsi Jayanti — be happy, everyone; Jai Siyaram.