How did Valmiki become a ‘Kavi’ endowed with the exceptional poetic skills to author the Ramayana that captures the essence of the Vedas?
Legend has it that Valmiki, son of Prachetas is a Brahmin by birth , but owing to a curse leads the life of a hunter for some time. A transformation takes place when Narada intervenes and advises him to meditate on the sacred name of Rama.
It was perhaps his great devotion and dedication to Rama Nama that conferred on him the eligibility to write this magnum opus, rich in literary and poetic excellences to match the depth and significance of the Lord’s incarnation as Rama, said Sri R. Krishnamurthy Sastrigal in a discourse. Moreover, by the combined grace of Brahma, Saraswati and Narada, the Ramayana enjoys the status as the Adi Kavya and Valmiki that of the Adi Kavi.
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It is held that Narada visits Valmiki in his ashram and relates to him the gist of Rama’s story that Brahma had composed. The sage is deeply moved by the grandeur and the righteousness of the characters in the story and, when he goes for morning ablutions, he is a witness to the experience of the grief of a Krauncha bird that loses its mate to a hunter’s arrow. The pathos of the incident moves Valmiki to such an extent that he bursts into a curse on the hunter. The next moment he regrets his reaction, but also realises that his pity for the sorrow of the bird had taken the shape of a beautiful sloka.
Brahma then grants Valmiki a divine vision by which all the happenings in the life of Rama, Lakshmana, Sita, the rakshasas, etc, including those of an implicit, secretive and hidden nature, would be revealed to his consciousness. Not a single thought, word or deed in this exquisite poetic composition would be untrue.