Page:Myths of the Hindus & Buddhists.djvu/46

Myths of the Hindus & Buddhists men so long as the mountains and the seas endure." So saying, Brahma vanished.

Then Vālmīki, dwelling in the hermitage amongst his disciples, set himself to make the great Rāmāyan, that bestows on all who hear it righteousness and wealth and fulfilment of desire, as well as the severing of ties. He sought deeper insight into the story he had heard from Nārada, and thereto took his seat according to yoga ritual, and addressed himself to ponder on that subject and no other. Then by his yoga-powers he beheld Rāma and Sītā, Lakshman, and Dasharatha with his wives in his kingdom, laughing and talking, bearing and forbearing, doing and undoing as in real life, as clearly as one might see a fruit held in the palm of the hand. He perceived not only what had been, but what was to come. Then only, after concentred meditation, when the whole story lay like a picture in his mind, he began to shape it into shlokas, of which, when it was finished, there were no less than twenty-four thousand. Then he reflected how it might be published abroad. For this he chose Kusi and Lava, the accomplished sons of Rāma and Sītā, who lived in the forest hermitage, and were learned in the Vedas, in music and recitation and every art, and very fair to see. To them Vālmīki taught the whole Rāmāyana till they could recite it perfectly from beginning to end, so that those who heard them seemed to see everything told of in the story passing before their eyes. Afterward the brothers went to Rāma's city of Ayodhyā, where Rāma found and entertained them, thinking them to be hermits; and there before the whole court the Rāmāyana was first recited in public. 24