Sage Valmiki
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Story on Sage Valmiki
Did you know there in a village in India, where the mound tells the villager where to dig to build a well. These mounds, also known as termite mounds, are also worshipped by some people.
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The Ramayana is considered to be the first epic poem, so Maharshi Valmiki is also known as 'Adikavi,' or the first poet. Ratnakara was his birth name. Valmiki was a thief before becoming a Rishi/ Sage, according to legend.
Long long ago, there was a sage with many children and one of them once got lost in the forest. This child was found by a hunter couple. They adopted the child as their own and named him Ratnakara. This child being brought up by the hunter learnt all his father’s skills. When times went tougher for them, he even went for robbing people travelling through the forest. Robbing and stealing became the profession of Ratnakara.
One day sage Narada, came to the forest. Ratnakara immediately threatened him. The sage asked him the reason behind robbing and hurting people. Ratnakara said that he did this to keep his people happy. Sage Narada told him that the people for who he was doing the wrong deeds would never approve of the idea of robbing as living. He also said that his family would never support him in this and insisted Ratnakara to check with his family about the consequences of all his mistakes.
Ratnakara rushed to his family and told them everything. The family in return said that it was the duty of Ratnakara to feed them and keep them happy and denied taking the share in the consequences of his wrong deeds. That moment Ratnakara realized his mistake and went back to sage Narada. He asked him for forgiveness and to show him the right way to live life.
Sage Narada advised him to sit under a tree and chant the sanskrit word for tree, “mara”. As he kept chanting, it sounded “Rama, Rama, Rama”. He continued his chanting and sat there still for thousands of year. He was so still that a termite mound grew over him. After many years, sage Narada came and got him out of the mound and named him Valmiki, since he came out of a Valmika.
Sage Valmiki is the one who wrote the great epic Ramayana and is considered the first poet of Sanskrit. He is also the same sage who took care of Sita when she had to abondon Ayodhya and live alone in the forest. Sita’s children Luv and Kush were also born in his ashraam.
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