Brahma encourages Valimi to compose Ramayana.

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Bala Kanda in Prose

Sarga II

 

Valmiki, being a sage of letters himself, listened to

Sage Narada's words of wisdom attentively. Then that

eminent sage

along with his disciples worshipped the divine Sage

Narada. Sage Narada after being worshipped befittingly

by Valmiki

and his disciples, took leave of Valmiki and flew

heavenward.

 

A little later after the departure of Sage Narada to

heavens, Sage Valmiki went for a bath to the banks of

river Tamasa,

not very far from Jaahnavi. Sage Valmiki on reaching

the banks of Tamasa river, observed its waters clear

and without

mud, looked toward his disciple Bharadwaja by his side

and addressed him thus, "Oh! Bharadwaja, look at these

pleasant, tranquil waters. Crystal-clear waters they

are, like the pure heart of a virtuous man. My dear

Bharadwaja, take

this Kalasam [a handy vessel to carry back potable

water] and give me my jute robe. Here alone I enter

these Tamasa

waters that are the best."

 

Bharadwaja thus told by Valmiki, the great soul,

placed the robe in the hands of his mentor dutifully.

Valmiki, the sage

who controlled his senses, took the robe from his

disciple's hands and walked towards the river. In the

meanwhile he

looked at the wide forest, appreciating the nature's

beauty.

 

Walking thus towards the river while admiring the

woods, that godly sage Valmiki saw a couple of

krouncha birds.

Those birds were moving thereabout together with no

fear, chirping and cooing charmingly. Then suddenly,

the male

bird of that couple was killed by the arrow of a

hunter, who by nature is an enemy of the forest fauna

and always with

an evil intent for his prey. Sage Valmiki was

disturbed a lot, seeing that happen before his own

eyes. That male

krouncha bird with its wings blood-wet, fell on the

ground and swirled in pain. Its female partner

witnessing this cruel

act lamented loudly and its wailing outcries were very

piteous indeed. Affectionate couple they were, always

moving

together, but gone was the togetherness. With her

husband slain, that lusty winged female bird with a

crested red head,

was left alone. Then, that bird felled by the hunter

was seen by that kind hearted sage and compassion

poured out of his

heart. On seeing the wailing female krounchi bird,

because of his compassion toward it, and with his

knowledge that

this action (killing of male bird) was unjust, the

sage uttered these lines, "Oh No! Hunter, you will

get an ever lasting

reputation for years to come, with your act of killing

one bird of a couple in their mating game".

 

Speaking those words in that fashion made the sage

thoughtful. He pondered over and over as to "Why was I

so

annoyed by seeing the falling bird and uttered thus in

anguish? " Brooding thus in his thoughts, Sage

Valmiki, the

erudite, eminent scholar and the thoughtful one,

questioned himself and also spoke to his disciples the

following

words, "The foot of this stanza is arranged very well

with well-balanced letters that sound like notes of a

string

instrument, with a rhythmical rhyme. But it came out

involuntarily when I was immersed in agony and

annoyance. So it

shall be called sloka because it evolved out of shoka,

the sorrow".

The disciple grasped that excellent stanza from the

sage as he was saying it and recited it, thus

enhancing the happiness

of his mentor. Then the Sage bathed in the waters of

Tamasa river, on the banks of which all this happened.

But he

repeatedly thought about the purport of his utterance.

Lost thus in those thoughts he started towards his

hermitage.

Bharadwaja, the scholarly and humble disciple, drew a

vessel full of water from the river and followed

Valmiki.

 

Valmiki entered his hermitage along with disciples at

his side and sat down meditating on the poem. That

virtuoso,

while talking to his students about other things,

found his mind recurrently reflecting the incidents

that happened.

Arrived then, Lord Brahma, Creator of Worlds and who

Lords them over. The four-faced deity, radiantly

glowing,

arrived there longing to see Valmiki, the sage

eminent. Valmiki on seeing Brahma arriving at his

hermitage, got up

joining his palms together reverently in great

astonishment. Valmiki worshipped Him [ Lord Brahma],

washed His feet,

offered him arghya [water to drink] and a seat for him

to rest on, saluted Him ritually and inquired about

His

undisturbed well-being. Brahma, settled on a high seat

and being worshipped well, beckoned Valmiki, the great

sage, to

take a seat. Valmiki thus ordered by Lord Brahma took

a seat fit for his stature in the august presence of

Brahma.

 

Though seated thus before Lord Brahma, the Grandparent

of all the worlds, gone elsewhere was the mind of

Valmiki,

recurrently contemplating those incidents that have

happened thus, "That wicked hunter did a hurting deed

by

unnecessarily killing that krouncha bird. Those birds

were picturesque, cooing sweetly." Valmiki thus

saddened for that

female krounchi bird, sang that verse without being

conscious of outside world. His mood turned to a

melancholic

state by repeated uttering of the same verse.

 

Brahma then spoke to Valmiki the Sage eminent,

smilingly "You need not ponder over that verse you

composed, it was

produced by you as per my wish. You shall author the

epic of Rama in its entirety. Of that Rama, who is

virtuous in

mind, moralist in deed, upright in character and above

all an intellectual. Hence you should tell the story

of Rama as

heard by you from Sage Narada. You will know now,

Rama's history along with that of Lakshmana, Seeta,

Bharata,

Hanuma, Sugreeva and others and also that of the

demons, and also that which you may not have been

aware of earlier.

There will not be a single untruthful word in this

epic. You shall therefore render verses about the

story of Rama in the

meter and prosody of the verse you uttered just now.

It shall be a heart appeasing epic and a beneficial

one too.

Ramayana story will exist as long as the mountains and

rivers flourish on the surface of earth. As long as

Ramayana

story authored by you will flourish in this world, you

as its author, will flourish in all the three worlds

namely

netherworld, this human world and mine too [brahma's

abode, the highest heaven]."

 

Thus saying, Lord Brahma disappeared from there, to

the great astonishment of sage poet Valmiki and his

students.

Then all the disciples of Valmiki sang those verses

repeatedly to one another being pleased at their

hearts. This correctly

worded, four-footed verse rendered by Sage Valmiki

attained prominence in literature through repetitive

recitation.

Valmiki decided to compose the epic of Ramayana in its

totality in similar verses. With free flowing prosody

that was

meaningfully worded, sage Valmiki composed reputed

Rama's heart-pleasing story. Ramayana, the

repute-enriching

epic was thus rendered by that omniscient sage with

hundreds of well formed auspicious verses. This epic

thus came

out with great combination of words, delicate

conjunctions of letters; correct and meaningful were

its sentences with

inherent sweetness telling the story of Rama. This

epic rendered by Saint Poet Valmiki includes the

killing of ten

headed Ravana. You all may visualise this story or

listen to it, any of which is beneficial.

 

This concludes the second Sarga in Bala Kanda of

Srimad Ramayana.

 

 

 

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