Ratnakar to Valmiki!!

My parents especially my mom would always call anyone younger than her by their good name. She would never change or deviate it a bit because she would say" this name is so good, why do I need to change it?"

My father was a good player of chess and  caroom. He would never ever loose a game even for the happiness of his kids. Defeating him used to be a tedious task for us. When I was in std 2, our neighbour whom I used to called Papu nana had a friend called Ratnakar. He used to come to play caroom with my father. And my father would tell us story of Ratnakar to Valmiki while playing caroom. Oh! I deviated a lot from the topic. Let's just get on to this story.

In a Jungle, lived a bandit whose name was Ratnakar. He used to loot people while crossing this jungle. He had a big family in which lived his parents, wife and kids. He used to do this to feed them. 

Oneday Narada Muni happen to pass by this jungle and Ratnakar caught hold Narada. He asked him to give what ever he possessed. Narada Muni said, look I am a sage I have nothing with me that I can give you. 

Ratnakar - I will take away your clothes then. 

Narada - What will get out of it. Looting any passerby is not a good conduct/karma why do you do this? 

Ratnakar -I am born as a Bandit and I do this for feeding my family.

Narada- But tell me who would take a piece of the bad karma that you are doing?

Ratnakar - My family will take it.

Narada- Go and check it with them will they?? 

Ratnakar - You look like a sage if I will go you will run away. I will tie you in a tree. 

Narada- Don't worry I will be here till you return.

But, Ratnakar had little faith on Narada so he ties Narada Muni and goes to check with his family. 

He goes to his parents and explains them that he is a bandit and the food he is bringing home is because of his bad karma. Will they also take a portion of his bad karma? His parents deny. They say, we are taking the food because our son is bringing home food for us not because of what he does so we won't take any share of your bad karma. 

Then he goes to his wife and kids and he receives similar answer from all.  He became very sad and goes back to Narada Muni. 

Upon hearing him Narada Muni says him to chant "Rama" however Ratnakar was unable to pronounce Rama and he would say "Mara". Hearing him Narada Muni says "ok keep chanting Mara mara... " And thus Ratnakar starts chanting "Mara mara... " He keeps on meditating so deeply that anthill starts forming around him. 

Valmika in Sanskrit means Anthill. Thus, his name Valmiki comes from that. 

Once he went to bathe in the river Tamasa. While bathing, his eyes fell on a pair of birds by the riverside. As Valmiki was watching the birds, an arrow from a hunter struck and killed the male. The female bird cried out in sorrow at the sight of its dead companion. Pained and angered by what happened to the birds, Valmiki uttered the first shloka.

मा निषाद प्रतिष्ठां त्वमगम: शास्वती समा।

यत्क्रौंचमिथुनादेकमवधी: काममोहितम्।।

Oh hunter! May you never get peace or stability for endless years, since you killed one of the pair of birds in love with each other. 

Then Valmiki realises that he actually cursed another living being (hunter) out of his sadness and he goes back to meditation. Bhramha then blesses him to write Ramayan and he becomes Adikavi Valmiki.

 His composition he then passes to Sita's sons Luv and Kush who goes back to Rama and recites before him. 

Valmiki's story is one of inner transformation. The journey from being a bandit to becoming a Brahmarishi, is a testament to the human capacity for differentiating right from wrong and making most of the opportunity offered to redeem oneself.