VALMIKI

One day, a robber told his family that he brought money by robbing people. His family got furious and threw him out of the house. On sage Narada’s advice, the robber prayed for many years, and the Lord gave him a new name, Valmiki. On morning, he set out for his bath on the banks of a river. There, he saw a couple of cranes. Just then, a hunter shot the male crane with his arrow. Seeing the wounded creature and hearing the piteous cry of its mate, Valmiki was swept away by a flood of emotions. He was filled with rage at the hunter and grief for the crane couple. He inflicted a musical curse upon the hunter to die soon. Returning to his ashram, Valmiki was visited by Lord Brahma, for whom he once more sang his curse. Lord Brahma told him that it was through his divine inspiration that Valmiki had been able to create the poetry. The god then commissioned the sage to compose a great epic poem to celebrate and popularize the history of Rama and his long-suffering wife, Sita. Valmiki wrote this epic that became famous by the name of ‘Ramayana’.