| Great Poets |
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| Biographies of Great Indians & Hindus |
TENALI RAMAKRISHNA |
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| A Care-Free Boy Ramakrishna was born in a village called Garlapadu in Andhra State during the early part of the sixteenth century. (Some people say that he was born in Tenali.) His father Ramaiah died when Ramakrishna was very young. The boy was deprived of his father's love. His mother Lakshmamma returned to her native place Tenali to live with her brother. Ramakrishna grew up in his uncle's town and so came to be known as Tenali Ramakrishna. Ramakrishna's mother was very anxious to educate her son. Those were days when the Vaishnavas were powerful. They thought one caste was superior and another inferior; they treated people according to their caste. There were many Vaishnava teachers in the place; they refused to teach Ramakrishna because he was a Shaiva. Ramakrishna was not at all grieved by this. He became carefree. From morning till night he was in the company of naughty boys; he was quite happy eating the mango, apple and tamarind he stole from gardens. Ramakrishna's mother was miserable because her son was utterly illiterate. She did odd jobs in many houses and fed- herself and her boy. |
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