Storytelling Week 4: Valmiki and Narada

            Valmiki was sitting quietly by the river, only opening his eyes to see the world around him.  By now, the anthill had covered the majority of his body.  The only body part that could be seen was his eyes.  Valmiki had planned to stay this way for another thousand years and possibly forever. 

            However, one day, Narada flew down from Heaven and asked, “Valmiki, will you help me?”

            “No, I’m too comfortable, and besides, the world offers me nothing that I cannot get by sitting within anthill,” Valmiki replied abruptly.

            “What can I say to you to make you do something besides live within that anthill?”

            “You really want to know what can make me move from this anthill?  Name one person, in the entire world, in the entire history of the world, who is honest,” Valmiki growled to Narada.

            “Rama,” Narada said smugly as he looked at the ground.

            “Rama?” Valmiki asked confused.  “Who is Rama?”

            “Rama is the ruler of Ayodhya.  He is the defeater of great Rakshasas such as Ravana and he is the only honest man the world has known.”

            “Why should I care about Rama?” Valmiki asked annoyed.

            “Perhaps you shouldn’t care about Rama, but you should care about his queen Sita, who has been abandoned by Rama.  If you do not comfort her when she arrives, she will surely commit suicide by throwing herself into the Ganga River,” Narada hastened in one breath.

            “Well, what did she do wrong?” Valmiki asked concerned.

            “Nothing,” said Narada shortly.  “She is the most virtuous and noble woman in the world who has been beside Rama through hardships such as exile and the death of his father.  She has done absolutely nothing wrong in her entire life,” Narada declared with pride.

            “Then why has she been abandoned?” Valmiki yelled, now even more confused.

            “Oh, well, the people of Ayodhya don’t like her so it is Rama’s duty as king that he abandon her.”

            “What?  You mean after all that, she gets tossed aside by the most honest man in the world, in the entire history of the world?”

            “Valmiki, I said he was honest, not a great husband.  So, will you help her?”  Narada begged.

            Without a word, Valmiki stood up and began to shake the dirt off that had previously covered his entire body.  He walked towards the river to rescue to Sita, thinking what mess this whole situation was to his search for peace.

Author’s Note

             I chose to tell the beginning of Buck’s version of the Ramayana.  I wanted to update the dialogue between Valmiki and Narada but I also wanted to focus on Sita’s situation, which is why I decided to leave out Valmiki’s duty of teaching the Ramayana to Rama’s sons.  My goal was to have a character who had a similar reaction about Sita’s abandonment to my own.  I just thought, “Really Rama? This is what you do to Sita after she has been beside you through everything?”  I know it’s only a story, but I liked the idea of Valmiki thinking that this situation doesn’t make much sense.  Other than leaving out Valmiki teaching the Ramayana to Rama’s sons, the rest of the story is true to the plot.

Valmiki.  Source: Wikipedia

Bibliography
             Buck, William (1976).  Ramayana: King Rama's Way.