{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry001.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry001.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry001.htm","text":"Praise to V\u00e1lm\u00edki,\u00a02 bird of charming song,\u00a03\n \u00a0\u00a0 Who mounts on Poesy's sublimest spray,\n And sweetly sings with accent clear and strong\n \u00a0\u00a0 R\u00e1ma, aye R\u00e1ma, in his deathless lay.\n \n \n Where breathes the man can listen to the strain\n \u00a0\u00a0 That flows in music from V\u00e1lm\u00edki's tongue,\n Nor feel his feet the path of bliss attain\n \u00a0\u00a0 When R\u00e1ma's glory by the saint is sung!\n \n \n The stream R\u00e1m\u00e1yan leaves its sacred fount\n \u00a0\u00a0 The whole wide world from sin and stain to free.\u00a01b\n The Prince of Hermits is the parent mount,\n \u00a0\u00a0 The lordly R\u00e1ma is the darling sea.\n \n \n Glory to him whose fame is ever bright!\n \u00a0\u00a0 Glory to him, Prachetas' \u00a02b holy son!\n Whose pure lips quaff with ever new delight\n \u00a0\u00a0 The nectar-sea of deeds by R\u00e1ma done.\n \n \n Hail, arch-ascetic, pious, good, and kind!\n \u00a0\u00a0 Hail, Saint V\u00e1lm\u00edki, lord of every lore!\n Hail, holy Hermit, calm and pure of mind!\n \u00a0\u00a0 Hail, First of Bards, V\u00e1lm\u00edki, hail once more!\n \n \n \n1:1 The MSS. vary very considerably in these stanzas of invocation: many lines are generally prefixed in which not only the poet, but those who play the chief parts in the poem are panegyrized. It is self-apparent that they are not by the author of the R\u00e1m\u00e1yan himself.\n1:2 'V\u00e1lm\u00edki was the son of Varuna, the regent of the waters, one of whose names is Prachetas. According to the Adhy\u00e1tm\u00e1 R\u00e1m\u00e1yana, the sage, although a Br\u00e1hman by birth, associated with foresters and robbers. Attacking on one occasion the seven Rishis, they expostulated with him successfully, and taught him the mantra of R\u00e1ma reversed, or Mar\u00e1, Mar\u00e1, in the inaudible repetition of which he remained immovable for thousands of years, so that when the sages returned to the same spot they found him still there, converted into a valmik or ant-hill, by the nests of the termites, whence his name of V\u00e1lm\u00edki.'\nWILSON. Specimens of the Hindu Theatre, Vol. I. p. 313.\n'V\u00e1lm\u00edki is said to have lived a solitary life in the woods: he is called both a muni and a rishi. The former word properly signifies an anchorite or hermit; the latter has reference chiefly to wisdom. The two words are frequently used promiscuously, and may both be rendered by the Latin cates in its earliest meaning of seer: V\u00e1lm\u00edki was both poet and seer, as he is said to have sung the exploits of R\u00e1ma by the aid of divining insight rather than of knowledge naturally acquired.' SCHLEGEL.\n1:3 Literally, Kokila, the Koil, or Indian Cuckoo. Schlegel translates 'luscinium.'","title":"Invocation: Invocation","type":"page"}