Devotional practice
Shri Ram Shalaka Prashnavali
Shri Ram Shalaka Prashnavali is a much-loved devotional oracle associated with Goswami Tulsidas’s Shri Ramcharitmanas. Its 225 squares hide nine chaupais from the Manas. You hold a question in your heart, choose a square, and the verse that emerges is read as Shri Ram’s gentle guidance on your question.
How to ask
- Sit quietly, remember Shri Ram, and form one clear, sincere question.
- With your question in mind, click any one square in the grid below.
- From that square, every 9th akshar is read in turn, wrapping round the grid, until a chaupai is complete. It appears below the grid with its meaning and traditional answer.
- Tradition advises asking each question only once, with a calm mind, and not testing the oracle repeatedly.
Think of your question, then choose a square
The grid follows the traditional Gita Press layout. A square showing only “ा” holds the vowel sign of the original table.
The nine chaupais
Every square leads to one of these nine verses from the Ramcharitmanas. Five are read as encouraging, two ask you to wait and reflect, and two suggest that the time is not right as things stand.
सुनु सिय सत्य असीस हमारी। पूजिहि मन कामना तुम्हारी॥
Listen, Sita, my blessing is true: the wish you hold in your heart will be fulfilled. (Bal Kand · Favourable)
प्रबिसि नगर कीजे सब काजा। हृदयँ राखि कोसलपुर राजा॥
Enter the city and do all your work, keeping the King of Kosala, Shri Ram, in your heart. (Sundar Kand · Favourable)
उघरहिं अंत न होइ निबाहू। कालनेमि जिमि रावन राहू॥
In the end the truth comes out and pretence cannot carry on, as happened with Kalanemi, Ravana and Rahu. (Bal Kand · Not favourable now)
बिधि बस सुजन कुसंगत परहीं। फनि मनि सम निज गुन अनुसरहीं॥
By destiny good people sometimes fall into bad company, but like the jewel on a serpent’s hood they keep to their own good nature. (Bal Kand · Wait and reflect)
होइहि सोइ जो राम रचि राखा। को करि तर्क बढ़ावै साखा॥
Whatever Ram has ordained is what will happen; who would add more branches to the argument? (Bal Kand · Wait and reflect)
मुद मंगलमय संत समाजू। जो जग जंगम तीरथराजू॥
The gathering of saints is full of joy and blessing; it is a moving king of pilgrimages in this world. (Bal Kand · Favourable)
गरल सुधा रिपु करहिं मिताई। गोपद सिंधु अनल सितलाई॥
For the one Ram favours, poison becomes nectar, enemies turn friendly, the ocean shrinks to a calf’s hoofprint and fire grows cool. (Sundar Kand · Favourable)
बरुन कुबेर सुरेस समीरा। रन सन्मुख धरि काहुँ न धीरा॥
Varuna, Kubera, Indra and the Wind god: none of them could hold steady facing you in battle. (Lanka Kand · Not favourable now)
सुफल मनोरथ होहुँ तुम्हारे। रामु लखनु सुनि भए सुखारे॥
May your heart’s wishes bear fruit; hearing this, Ram and Lakshman were filled with joy. (Bal Kand · Favourable)
Why the grid works
The 225 squares are nine verses of 25 akshars each, interleaved so that squares 1, 10, 19 and so on carry the first verse, squares 2, 11, 20 the second, and so on. Because 225 is exactly 25 times 9, stepping 9 squares at a time from any starting point always stays within one verse and visits all 25 of its akshars before returning to where you began.
A note on approach
Shri Ram Shalaka Prashnavali is a devotional practice associated with Goswami Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas. It is a way to reflect prayerfully on a question, not a forecast. For decisions about health, money, law or safety, please take qualified advice as well. Many families treat the answer as a prompt for prayer and honest reflection, and as a reminder to keep doing their own part.