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.
ब्यापकु एकु ब्रह्म अबिनासी । सत चेतन घन आनँद रासी ॥
byāpaku eku brahma abināsī | sata cetan ghana āna̐nd rāsī ||
बालकाण्ड - दोहा २३
Balkand - Doha 23
जिन्ह कें रही भावना जैसी । प्रभु मूरति तिन्ह देखी तैसी ॥
jinha ke̐ rahī bhāvanā jaisī | prabhu mūrati tinha dekhī taisī ||
बालकाण्ड - दोहा २४१
Balkand - Doha 241
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.
Ram Katha 947 - Manas Sadbhavna