The World Of Valmiki
by N. Raghunathan
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This essay first appeared in the introduction to the Srimad Valmiki Ramayanam, Volume I, translated by N. Raghunathan. It is reprinted here by permission of the publisher, Vighneswara Publishing House, Bangalore, India, exclusive copyright holders of the book Srimad Valmiki Ramayanam.
THE WORLD OF VALMIKI
Valmiki, the tapasvi, meditating on the nature of things, asks Narada, 'Who is the perfect hero?' A rather unusual question for a tapasvi to ask, we might think. But he could have gone to
no one better qualified to answer it. For Narada has the freedom of the three worlds: he knows the past and the future as well as the present. And he answers the question without a moment's hesitation:
Many and rare are the qualities that you have mentioned, O sage, but listen. I will tell you of a The accent is on the ' nara '. There is no hint in the Samkshepa Ramayana of the avatar, though long before the poem is done the receptive reader feels that even if mere men could have done many
things which Rama did they could never be what Rama was. But the Rama of Narada is even for the Devarshi a unique phenomenon and a transforming experience. His reply is not improvised on the spur of the moment. He
has known Rama by his tapas ('budhwa') just as Valmiki had been prompted by his tapas to ask the question to which the answer was Rama. The searcher for Reality seeks it at all levels. And when
Valmiki asked his momentous question the Ekam Sat was functioning at Its most puissant on the human plane and in the person of Dasharathi Rama, as Narada with his spiritual antennae knew. And having found it, the seer
must needs proclaim It. It acted like a ferment on his mind and produced a strange exhilaration. And then the thing happened--the archer confirmed in cruelty destroying a world of felicity with his greedy arrow.
'But death and the greed that is the gateway to death shall not triumph,' said the dreamer, as a wave of cosmic compassion surged in his bosom, and issued in immortal music; 'did not Sri Rama triumph over the forces of
nescience?' On a mind thus conditioned descended the inspiration that makes the creator. Brahma told him, ' Enrich the human legacy with the sum of your realization. Tell them for all time the Rama-katha; match
the perfect verse with the perfect man.' And the poet said: In such verses I shall compose the Ramayana. (Bala 2.41) And so a poem was born.
The dominant notes Compassion and renunciation--these are the twin poles round which the universe revolves. And Sri Rama is the axis that upholds it in its essential truth (Satya) and in the integrity of its
undeviating order (Rta). Valmiki knew this in his bones, as the saying goes. But he had to figure it all out and to put it across. He had to show the Timeless functioning in time, to unweave the worlds worked into
the cosmic design and show them in their interconnection and modes of operation. If a profane comparison may be permitted, he looked at the microfilm of the Rama story enlarged by Dharma. It was our supreme good fortune
that he did so; for it revealed a pattern suitable to the author's mood, without which, as E. M. Forster has well said, no great work of art is born. Valmiki was in the mood to see Rama as a tree sprung from the bowels of of
Mother Earth and filling the space between Earth and Heaven in a passion of giving. To men stifling in their smallness, to the gods craving for security, to all things fleeing in fear of their own shadow he promises release
by standing forth as the exemplar of compassion and freedom from fear, even as does the Lord of the Dance in the Chid-akasha
(the void of the heart). And Valmiki saw his story polarised between compassion and renunciation. Tara, who is apt to strike the superficial as a pleasure-loving amoral woman, sees the truth of the Lord in a flash of
insight: He is the spreading tree under whose hospitable shade live good men in peril; he is the unfailing An
age-long tradition has fittingly included the woman who spoke those profound lines--simple, sensuous, impassioned--among the five great women (pancha kanyah) whom we must remember gratefully: for only the pure of
heart shall see God. Tara uttered what was not merely poetry but prophecy. Sri Rama at the time had given but partial promise of his fruition. He had indeed established himself as (artanam samsrayah), the
deliverer of the oppressed, by redeeming the Dandakas from the blight of Khara and comforting the rishis who had suffered in patience. But Sri Rama was yet to stand forth publicly as the refuge of those in the last extremity
(apannanam para gatih): Sugriva had met him as an equal. Vibheeshana was still in the womb of time. Only Sita and Lakshmana knew what Rama had taken upon himself as his life's mission. Sharanagati
In that famous colloquy between Sita and Rama in the ninth and tenth sargas of the Aranya Kanda Sita delicately poses a question of ethics in the old-fashioned terms of Varna and Ashrama. Sri Rama had told the
rishis that he would make it his business to destroy the Rakshasas who were harrying them. Sita suggests that the promise was more inclusive than it need have been and that a Kshattriya who had come to lead the life of
a vanaprastha could act in a pragmatic way and, without violating his professional conscience, be content to remedy oppression where it arose concretely. He was not required to go out, like Don Quixote, in search of
trouble; he should normally lay his weapons aside for the duration. Else, she points out, there is the danger of an implacable mind being cultivated, of cruelty without cause being practised.
'Love and esteem prompt me to remind you of the truth--I do not presume to instruct you...' Only she, the mother of compassion, could have uttered those
noble words, she who was to give Hanuman--our representative, the representative of you and me in Saketa--the message of humanity:
It is the duty of the noble-minded to display compassion; there is none in the world that does But the Devi does not forget that the Kshattriya cannot remit his primary duty, the raison d'etre of his existence, wherever he might be. The duty of arta-trana
(rescuing of the afflicted) is always there: no kshattriya
seeing somebody suffer at another's hands can look on as if it were no business of his. He must put an end to it. Sri Rama endorsing Sita's statement (as if to pin her to it) says:
You yourself have said that Kshattriyas carry the bow to see that cries of distress are not
He points out that the rishis are being oppressed before his very eyes. They can destroy the oppressors with a curse, but that would be to deviate from the paramount duty of a rishi. So they ask him to do his
duty. And he has promised he would. Should occasion arise he would have to kill, if only so he could succour the oppressed. So far Sita could follow him. But he goes further. He says, 'They have sought me
as their only refuge': Coming to me of their own accord they sought my protection--they who are the refuge of all
And they had added: 'You are the sole refuge of ascetics devoted to austerities in the forest.' (Aranya 10.16) When they put it that way; when they said that, if he should disappoint them
and prove unequal or untrue to his kingly responsibility--which is something far greater and more comprehensive than that of a rank file kshattriya--they must unresistingly die at the hands of the harrying Rakshasas,
Rama could only do the one thing that was consonant with his own nature and his kingly duty: (Aranya 10.17-20) Thus was the Saranagati Dharma first proclaimed: Vibheeshana was to obtain its
fine fruit. Sita said no further. But when Rama, victorious over the Khara horde, stood before her, she had no shastric doubts, no ethical qualms:
'Seeing him, the slayer of the foe who had brought comfort to the great sages, Vaidehi was in She saw that where there was a great cancer it had to be removed; a little lancing would not do. Khara and his crowd had not been caught in the act by Rama; their ostensible quarrel with him had
nothing to do with the redressal of wrongs. But they had killed thousands of inoffensive people, and they would kill again if they had a chance. They wanted little or no provocation for the cruelty that came naturally
to them. And they had burdened the earth sufficiently long. The first application of the Sharanagati Dharma proved a turning point in the history of the Dandakas. It was this promise of a new life that Tara had
sensed; she told Vali in effect. 'A new and redeeming power has come into the world; make haste to profit by it.'
man I know who unites in himself all these qualities. (Bala
1.7)
support of the distressed, the inheritor of all renown. Endowed with knowledge and wisdom,
he who is ready in his obedience to his father's will is as rich a storehouse of all excellent
qualities as the mountain Himavan is rich in ores. (Kish. 15.19-20)
(Aranya 9.24-27)
not offend against Dharma. (Aranya 9.26) (Yuddha 116.44)
heard. (Aranya 10.3)
the worlds.' (Aranya 10.4)
a transport of joy and she embraced her husband.'
(Aranya 30.39-40)