"Away with the
worlds, where a little pleasure costs a lot of pain." --Valmiki
He travelled over the
world and everywhere he saw sadness and grief. Those moments where he witnessed
people with smiling faces and a sweet gleam in their eyes lasted only a brief
time before vanishing into thin air.
Walking through the dark
streets of the town, the rain poured down hard on the ground. He spotted an old
man resting against a tree and people passed by him, rushing to get home. They
did not offer him a home, they did not offer food, and they did not even bother
to provide him with any bit of help. He simply sat there with sorrow in his
eyes, his hands quivering from the cold as he squeezed his arms to warm
himself. How could one simply stroll on by when someone is lying helpless under
the great skies, having nothing in this world but the clothes on his back? It
worried the sage greatly.
It wasn’t shortly after he
noticed a man giving the poor old soul on the ground some bread to eat before
continuing on his way. Feeling a little optimistic, the sage followed this man
to his home where he spent some time with his family. He watched the man till
morning, where he saw how the man leaving for his usually day of work. But the
sky was still dark and there was no one out on the streets. Curious, the sage
quietly followed the man once again to see where he was going at such an early
hour where the sun hadn’t even lit the horizon. And shortly after, his optimism
died and the sorrow came back. The man had entered a whorehouse.
What is this world? Where
men and women live in lies and sorrows and there is pain everywhere. Where one
can’t trust another’s promises anymore? Where there is no trust. Where there is
war. Where people are selfish and greedy and think only of themselves. What is
this world where there is no happiness?
The sage grew more sad by
the minute and soon enough was tired of seeing the same things over and over
again. He walked away into the forest, forgetting everything else and isolating
himself for years.
"Away with the
worlds, where a little pleasure costs a lot of pain." --Valmiki
Valmiki
Author's Note: For this story, Valmiki, the sage presented at the beginning of Buck's Ramayana, was traveling the world and everywhere he went he experienced sadness and sort of lost faith in people. It wasn't really told where he went or what he did, just gave a brief understanding that he went many places but didn't find the happiness he was looking for. So for this moment, I wanted to expand on what was going on during this time when we went around traveling. I wanted to explain in detail what he saw, just a snippet of his travels, but it kind of gave an idea of why he was sad and what lead him to isolate himself into the forest.
I chose to write this story because I can sympathize with Valmiki and I can understand his sorrows because I too travel a lot, especially overseas to third-world countries and I see a lot, lot, lot of people who are homeless, on the streets, beggars, just people who have no one in this life and are helpless and there are people who are just walking right on by without doing anything or caring at all. And it is really sad to see that, sometimes sad enough to make you depressed and just want to shut yourself away from such people and such a world. So my story came out of how much I could relate to this sage and hopefully you all felt what I and sage felt through my story.
Bibiliography: Buck,
William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way.
