The Nine-Day Ram Katha of Pujya Morari Bapu
Mombasa, Kenya · 9–17 August 2025
Returning to Mombasa after thirty-four years, to a soil he called no less soft than the Raman Reti of Vrindavan, Bapu let the day itself name the katha. He had thought to sing Manas Saavan, then Manas Ram Darshan; but rakhis were tied that Shravan morning, it was Raksha Bandhan, and so the nine days became *Manas Ramraksha* — a search through the Manas for the one question that holds all others: who protects us? Who guards our mind, our body, our inner wealth, our very breath, from the enemies without and the enemies within? Bapu offered the whole anushthan at Hanumanji's charan as a prayer that this Ram-raksha might shield the entire vishwa in a time when the bugles of war have been sounding for years. The answer he unfolded over nine days is single and unwavering: the true rakshak is not without but within — the bhajan of Ram, the sarathi who never lets the chariot of life fall.
The katha was rooted in the samvad of Aranya Kand, where Narada at Pampa Sarovar asks why Prabhu blocked his marriage, and Ram answers not in anger but *sahrosa*, with joy: whoever abandons every other support and does My bhajan relying on Me alone, I protect them as a mother protects a child running toward snake or fire. This became the anchor Bapu returned to on almost every day. The gyani is the grown son who must guard himself; the bhakt, emptied of abhiman and living on bharosa alone, is kept like an infant. Trust, he insisted, needs no proof — when Shiva had Parvati tested through the Saptarishi it was only Vishwas examining Shraddha, for doubt has no right to examine anyone. Govardhan rested on Krishna's one finger while the gopas credited their staffs; the poor brother stayed rich eight generations on his bharosa in truth, love and compassion. And in Sundar Kand Bapu named five things to serve but never to trust — pad, pratishtha, wealth, the pran itself, even family — for trust belongs to Ram alone.
Weaving the Ram Raksha Stotra through the Manas — "may Raghava protect my head, may Sitapati protect my hands" — Bapu taught that the twenty-four tattvas of the body are guarded by Ram alone. He walked the panchtattva: the earth-element in us, our dhairya and kshama, is protected by Vivek as Bharat's vivek protects Ayodhya; the water-element is graced as Varuna was; the vayu-element is kept unscorched as Hanuman was in burning Lanka; and for the bundle of our karma there are four fires — gyan, yoga, viraha, prem — all present in katha itself. Hanuman's ocean-leap became the map of the inner path: Mainak the golden mountain is the temptation of comfort that whispers "rest"; Surasa teaches that one must not compete on the path of bhakti; Simhika the shadow-catcher is irsha, the jealousy that clutches at whoever flies higher — and when irsha dies, Ishwar is not attained but recognised, for He is already attained. Past all three, smaran carries Hanuman; and the final sutra, from Lankini's own mouth, is to keep the Raja of Kaushalpur seated in the Hriday — not remembrance alone, but the Protector dwelling within.
Our foremost protector, Bapu said, is Harinam. Dhyan in Satyug, yagna in Treta, puja in Dwapar — but in Kaliyug the Naam alone protects, the seed of sun, moon and Agni, the pranav, the pran of the Vedas, the Naam that Shiva himself japs. Gandhiji testified that in every crisis only Ram-nam protected him, drawing "Ram" three times from his lips even at the bullet. Bapu recalled his own first Africa yatra of 1976 — "wherever I went, in the end Ram-nam helped me" — and the traveler whose gathered pebbles proved diamonds at dawn. Where Ram protects, poison becomes amrit, the enemy becomes a friend as Vibhishan, the ocean shrinks to a cow's hoofprint, and fire turns cool: *anala shitalai*. One thing alone is asked — bharosa in Ram-nam, which can erase even the writing of destiny.
The tenderest turn came from a fifteen-year-old daughter's letter: if Ram protects everyone, who protects Ram? Bapu received it with delight. The mother protects the Lord — Kaushalya breaking a blade of grass over toddling Ram, Yashoda waving away the evil eye. The sevak protects the swami — Hanuman ever at his side, Lakshman circling his sleeping Lord through the night. The dharmapatni protects — Ratnavali who made Tulsi into Tulsidas. And above all the Guru protects, who is not a mere person but the whole existence — sky, earth and forest. Around this Bapu spoke with rare directness of guru-aparadh, and of the offenses Gurus themselves commit against shishyas: a Guru must be a nurturer, never an exploiter, living with less as Shiva manages the whole samsara with seven simple things.
On the final day Bapu carried the charit swiftly to its viram in the manner of the Bhusundi Ramayan, and offered the crown of the nine days: the Raksha Panchak. Five things of Ram protect us — Ram himself, who protected even Vali who wished to die; Ram-nam, which guarded Sitaji in Ashok Vatika, *naam paharu divas nish*; Ramkatha, which brought Vibhishan to sharan; the longing for Ram-darshan, which kept all Ayodhya alive through fourteen years of viraha; and Ram's paduka, which Bharat enthroned in place of himself. He distilled the whole Manas into three: satya, which renounces all possessions like a blade of grass as Harishchandra did; prem, which offers them as flowers as Chaitanya did; and karuna, in which everything simply flows away into the great ocean as with the Buddha. At Setu Bandh he dwelt on Ram's own ideology of connecting rather than breaking — that dharma alone is true which unites — establishing Shiva there as a bridge between Hari and Har.
- Bhajahi mohi ji sakal bharosa — one who does My bhajan resting on Me alone, abandoning every other support, I protect as a mother her child. - Bandau naam Ram Raghuvar ko — I bow to the Naam of Ram, seed of sun, moon and fire, the pran of the Vedas. - Bhaye pragat kripala din dayala — the compassionate Lord, friend of the humble, became manifest at Chaitra's ninth midday. - Naam paharu divas nish — the Naam kept watch over Sita day and night in Ashok Vatika. - Je Raghuvir rakhe te ubare — only those whom Raghuvir protects are saved.
Namo Krishnaya Vasudevaya — Bapu dedicated the nine days to the Shyam Sundar samaj of Mombasa and gave the only ashirvad he claims: be happy, be happy, be happy.