Goswami Tulsidas was a great saint and the writer of the epic Ramcharitmanas. But, the legend goes that he was like any other ordinary person in his childhood, and that the turning point in his life came a few years after his marriage. He was madly in love with his wife. One day, he went out leaving his wife at home. When he returned, his wife Ratnavali had gone to her father’s place with her brother. Tulsidas was unable to bear the separation. He at once set out for his father-in-law’s house. He walked ten miles at night time in the dark, through wind and rain. On the way, he jumped into the flooded Yamuna river and swam across it. He mistakenly used a dead body, thinking it to be a boat, to cross the swollen river. When he reached at his father-in-law’s home, all the doors were closed there. He had to climb to the upper floor in order to reach his wife’s room. To do this, he took a python thinking it to be a thick rope; he scaled it and slipped into his wife’s room. But instead of being happy, his wife felt ashamed of his insane attachment to her. On being asked how he could enter the house, Tulsidas replied “Your love for me is so great that you threw a rope.” Ratnavali was surprised to hear that. She asked Tulsidas to show her the rope. Both of them were surprised to see an enormous snake hanging down instead of a rope. Ratnavali chided Tulsidas for this, and told him that if he was even half as devoted to God as he was to her body of flesh and blood, he would have been redeemed and would have attained immortality and eternal bliss like a great saint. These words came as a shock to Tulsidas who felt ashamed of his attachment to her body. He left her instantly and left for the holy city of Prayag. He renounced the Grihastha stage (householder’s life) and became a Sadhu. The rest is history. He wrote Ramcharitmanas and several other great works.