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.
Bapu was born on the day of Shivratri in 1946 in the village of Talgajarda, close to Mahuva in Bhavnagar district of Gujarat and he still lives there with his family. He belongs to the Vaishnav Bava Sadhu Nimbarka lineage and spent much of his childhood under the care of his grandfather and guru, Tribhovandas Dada, and grandmother, Amrit Ma. While his grandmother would lovingly relay folktales to him for hours, his grandfather shared with him his knowledge of the Ram Charit Manas. By the age of twelve, Bapu had memorised the entire Ram Charit Manas and had begun reciting and singing the Ram Katha at fourteen.
कह कपि हृदयँ धीर धरु माता । सुमिरु राम सेवक सुखदाता ॥
kaha kapi hṛdaya̐ dhīra dharu mātā | sumiru rāma sevaka sukhdātā ||
सुंदरकाण्ड - दोहा १५
Sundarkand - Doha 15
अब कृतकृत्य भयउँ मैं माता । आसिष तव अमोघ बिख्याता ॥
aba kṛtakṛtya bhayau̐ mai̐ mātā | āsiṣa tava amogha bikhyātā ||
सुंदरकाण्ड - दोहा १७
Sundarkand - Doha 17
Through Asia, the Ramayana has served not only as poetry, but as the ideal of life and embodiment of principles, as the basis for festivals, plays and rituals, as the foundation for religion, and as an eternal tale of love and duty.
The Ramcharitmanasa is broken up into stanzas called chaupais, passages of which are interposed with dohas or couplets. It is filled with exquisite poetry and consists of seven chapters: Bal Kand, Ayodhya Kand, Aranya Kand, Kiskindha Kand, Sundar Kand, Lanka Kand and Uttar Kand.
All these sections cover the different periods of Lord Rama’s life, taking us right from his boyhood, through his exile and his life in the forest, to the abduction of Sita, the war which follows in Lanka and finally, what happens after the recovery of his wife. Preceding these seven sections, the story of Lord Shiva has also been narrated in the form of a prologue to Ram’s story.
Katha 928 - Manas Matoshree