Vālmīki calling Vālmīki ...

Anthills 🐜⛰🐍are spectacularly multifunctional works of splendid art, aesthetic architecture, brilliant science, cutting-edge engineering, immaculate technology, conscious commerce & much more. The only twist in the tale of this amazing feat of endurance being the replacement of Human Resources (HR) by AR. No, not Augmented Reality, but dedicated Ant 🐜 Resources (AR), or rather more appropriately ant potential. Poems ✍️ are such works of art 🖼 too. So, no wonder then that the one born in such an amazing work of art, namely an anthill, is celebrated as the world’s first & foremost primordial poet <ādi-kavi>. 

Whether we’ve paid enough attention to recognise it or not, the fact remains that it’s the same Mother Earth 🌏 out of whose womb arose the anthill, the one born in an anthill <Vālmīki>, all metals like iron & the original Ironman: Sardār Vallabhbhāi Patel, whose birthday we celebrate in Bhārat today as the National Integration Day. And it’s the very same Mother Earth 🌏 who eventually receives back our mortal remains too, be it an ordinary me or an extraordinary Mā Sītā, whose stay at Vālmīki’s verdant āśram had a huge role to play in the melodramatic culmination of the poetic magnum opus. 

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. And what better example of this than our own Ironman Sardar Patelji? In the same vein, great outcomes often arise even from grief, anger, disgust, curse etc., which can be instantaneously transformed to creative compassion by the spiritually evolved, leveraging their underlying physical, emotional & intellectual strengths at the opportune time. Classical examples of such a possibility are Vālmīki & his Rāmāyanā.

Yes, Vālmīki was born out of an anthill & the poetic metre of his Rāmāyanā, in turn, was born out of the primordial poet’s compassion towards copulating cranes, the male amongst which was shot dead by a hunter.  Vālmīki’s compassion morphed into a curse on the hunter who caused such suffering: "May you lose peace of mind forever as you killed one of the passionately copulating cranes!

<मां निषाद प्रतिष्ठां त्वमगमः शाश्वतीः समाः।

यत्क्रौंचमिथुनादेकम् अवधीः काममोहितम्॥

Mā niṣāda pratiṣṭhāṁ tvamagamaḥ śāśvatīḥ samāḥ. 

Yat krauñcamithunādekam avadhīḥ kāmamohitam.>"

Many of the readers may be aware of the story of a highway robber, Ratnākar, who was made to realise that even his own dear children, spouse & parents weren’t willing to partake in his kārmic bondage of highway robbery, though it was actually done to support their survival. Ratnākar's realisation dawns through the grace of his gurū, the very embodiment of Bhakti, Śrī Nāradā, whose Ivy League disciples include Dhruvā, Prahlādā & Hanumān, just for a small sampling! Accelerated by the Guru mantra, “mā-rā”(~killed/tree in Hindi/Tamil!), Ratnākar transformed into Vālmiki over years of penance is the only hi-story <itihāsā> that most of us are familiar with. However, that's not the only version that's found in our scriptures.

For example, according to the Śrīmad Bhāgvatam, the parents of brothers Vālmiki & Bhrigu II were Varunā & Chārśni while his step-brothers were Agastyā & Vaśiśtā, born of the celestial damsel Urvaśi. In Uttarakhāndā of Rāmāyanā, Vālmīkī himself mentions that he’s the tenth son of the Vedic waters, Varunā. Note that torrential rain or a flooding flow of water can wash out an anthill to re-present the tapasvī inside it. Vālmīki’s lineage thus retrospectively traces back to the creator himself: Brahmā-Marīchī-Kaśyapā-Varunā. Bhrigu II was the cursed reincarnation of Bhrigu I, another son of Brahmā, praised as the highest amongst all rśis by Krśnā Himself in the Śrīmad Bhagavad Gītā. 

As a derivative of the above description, Veda Vyāsā turns out to be the great-grandson of Vaśiśtā & hence great-grand-step-son of Vālmīkī.  Vāyu purānā on the other hand claims Maharśi Vālmīkī Himself to be Veda Vyāsā, which is thus a title/chair 🪑 rather than a name. The titular chair is renewed age after age to update & recompile the knowledge systems, while still being grounded in the ultimate truth of the śruti. 

The more basic conclusion from the above (superficially confusing relationship) is “the oneness of everyone!” If we don’t realise this oneness at least amongst the sages, how on earth are we to recognise the oneness of everybody & everything with ourselves?! So let’s stop hankering over the lineages at least of rśis, who’ve themselves realised their oneness not only with each other but with the whole of existence: sat-chit-ānandā, in conscious bliss. It’s no wonder then that it’s said to be equally futile to search either for the true source of a river <nadi mūlam> or that of a rśī <rśī mūlam>. Every saint has a past & every culprit has a future! 

What matters is the present. Action <karmā> determines the cost to be paid back at some time or the other in some life or the other… there's absolutely no way to escape that responsibility, even through suicide… leave alone relocation! The previous moment is already history, while the next moment is entirely a mystery. This moment alone exists as a true gift, & that’s why it’s called present. Accept it as it is to gain omnipotence in determining the next one!