A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

"Thou""No"What""""494 THE RAMAYANA.doing good or we are doing evil ;never leaves as even ;as love never pulls down ;as love knows no barter, noselfishness." And the sage taught him how jo worship.And then this man left everything ;went into a forest ;and there he went on praying and meditatingtill he forgothimself, until the ants came and built an ant-hill roundabout him and he did not know, was quite unconscious.Andafter years had passed, a voice came :Arise, sage !Sage,I am a robber." more robber. A purified sageart thou. Thy old name is gone. But now, since thymeditation was so deep and great that thou didst notremark even the ant-hills which surround you, henceforththy name shall be Yalmiki one born in the ant-hill. So,he became first a sage.As -br* how he became a poet: One day, this sage Valmikiwas going to bathe in the holy river Ganges, andthere was a pair of doves wheeling round and round, kissing each other. And the sage looked up, and he waspleased but in a second an arrow whisked past and killed;the male dove ;and as the male dove fell down on theground the female dove went on whirling around the deadbody of its companion and the poet in a moment became;miserable looked round, and there he saw the hunter.wretch, without even the smallest mercy, thyslaying hand would not even stop for love ! " *What wasthis, the poet thought. am I talking! I have neverspoken in that sort of And then a voice came : Beway."not afraid ;this is poetry that is coming out of your tongue.Write in this sort of languageiihat is how the firstpoem was begun.the life of Rama." AndThe first verse sprangout of pity, from the mouth of Yalmiki, the first poet.And then he wrote the beautiful Life of Rama."There was an ancient Indian town ;it exists even in