Valmiki, being a sage of letters himself, listened to Sage Narada's words of wisdom attentively. Then that eminent sage
along with his disciples worshipped the divine Sage Narada. Sage Narada after being worshipped befittingly by Valmiki and his disciples, took leave of Valmiki and flew heavenward.

A little later after the departure of Sage Narada to heavens, Sage Valmiki went for a bath to the banks of river Tamasa, not very far from Jaahnavi.  Sage Valmiki on reaching the banks of Tamasa river, observed its waters clear and without mud, looked toward his disciple Bharadwaja by his side and addressed him thus, "Oh! Bharadwaja, look at these pleasant, tranquil waters. Crystal-clear waters they are, like the pure heart of a virtuous man. My dear Bharadwaja, take this Kalasam [a handy vessel to carry back potable water] and give me my jute robe. Here alone I enter these Tamasa waters that are the best."

Bharadwaja thus told by Valmiki, the great soul,  placed the robe in the hands of his mentor dutifully. Valmiki, the sage who controlled his senses, took the robe from his disciple's hands and walked towards the river. In the meanwhile he looked at the wide forest, appreciating the nature's beauty.

Walking thus towards the river while admiring the woods, that godly sage Valmiki saw a couple of krouncha birds. Those birds were moving thereabout together with no fear, chirping and cooing charmingly. Then suddenly, the male bird of that couple was killed by the arrow of a hunter, who by nature is an enemy of the forest fauna and always with an evil intent for his prey. Sage Valmiki was disturbed a lot, seeing that happen before his own eyes. That male krouncha bird with its wings blood-wet, fell on the ground and swirled in pain. Its female partner witnessing this cruel act lamented loudly and its wailing outcries were very piteous indeed. Affectionate couple they were, always moving together, but gone was the togetherness. With her husband slain, that lusty winged female bird with a crested red head, was left alone. Then, that bird felled by the hunter was seen by that kind hearted sage and compassion poured out of his heart. On seeing the wailing female krounchi bird, because of his compassion toward it, and with his knowledge that this action (killing of male bird) was unjust, the sage uttered these lines, "Oh  No! Hunter, you will get an ever lasting reputation for years to come, with your act of killing one bird of a couple in their mating game".

Speaking those words in that fashion made the sage thoughtful. He pondered over and over as to "Why was I so annoyed by seeing the falling bird and uttered thus in anguish? " Brooding thus in his thoughts, Sage Valmiki, the erudite, eminent scholar and the thoughtful one, questioned himself and also spoke to his disciples the following words, "The foot of this stanza is arranged very well with well-balanced letters that sound like notes of a string instrument, with a rhythmical rhyme. But it came out involuntarily when I was immersed in agony and annoyance. So it shall be called sloka because it evolved out of shoka, the sorrow".
 
The disciple grasped that excellent stanza from the sage as he was saying it and recited it, thus enhancing the happiness of his mentor. Then the Sage bathed in the waters of Tamasa river, on the banks of which all this happened. But he repeatedly thought about the purport of his utterance. Lost thus in those thoughts he started towards his hermitage. Bharadwaja, the scholarly and humble disciple, drew a vessel full of water from the river and followed Valmiki.

Valmiki entered his hermitage along with disciples at his side and sat down meditating on the poem. That virtuoso, while talking to his students about other things, found his mind recurrently reflecting the incidents that happened. Arrived then, Lord Brahma, Creator of Worlds and who Lords them over. The four-faced deity, radiantly glowing, arrived there longing to see Valmiki, the sage eminent. Valmiki on seeing Brahma arriving at his hermitage, got up joining his palms together reverently in great astonishment. Valmiki worshipped Him [ Lord Brahma], washed His feet, offered him arghya [water to drink] and a seat for him to rest on, saluted Him ritually and inquired about His undisturbed well-being. Brahma, settled on a high seat and being worshipped well, beckoned Valmiki, the great sage, to take a seat. Valmiki thus ordered by Lord Brahma took a seat fit for his stature in the august presence of Brahma.

Though seated thus before Lord Brahma, the Grandparent of all the worlds, gone elsewhere was the mind of Valmiki, recurrently contemplating those incidents that have happened thus, "That wicked hunter did a hurting deed by unnecessarily killing that krouncha bird. Those birds were picturesque, cooing sweetly." Valmiki thus saddened for that female krounchi bird, sang that verse without being conscious of outside world. His mood turned to a melancholic state by repeated uttering of the same verse.

Brahma then spoke to Valmiki the Sage eminent, smilingly "You need not ponder over that verse you composed, it was produced by you as per my wish. You shall author the epic of Rama in its entirety. Of that Rama, who is virtuous in mind, moralist in deed, upright in character and above all an intellectual. Hence you should tell the story of Rama as heard by you from Sage Narada. You will know now, Rama's history along with that of Lakshmana, Seeta, Bharata, Hanuma, Sugreeva and others and also that of the demons, and also that which you may not have been aware of earlier. There will not be a single untruthful word in this epic. You shall therefore render verses about the story of Rama in the meter and prosody of the verse you uttered just now. It shall be a heart appeasing epic and a beneficial one too. Ramayana story will exist as long as the mountains and rivers flourish on the surface of earth. As long as Ramayana story authored by you will flourish in this world, you as its author, will flourish in all the three worlds namely netherworld, this human world and mine too [Brahma's abode, the highest heaven]."

Thus saying, Lord Brahma disappeared from there, to the great astonishment of sage poet Valmiki and his students. Then all the disciples of Valmiki sang those verses repeatedly to one another being pleased at their hearts. This correctly worded, four-footed verse rendered by Sage Valmiki attained prominence in literature through repetitive recitation. Valmiki decided to compose the epic of Ramayana in its totality in similar verses. With free flowing prosody that was meaningfully worded, sage Valmiki composed reputed Rama's heart-pleasing story. Ramayana, the repute-enriching epic was thus rendered by that omniscient sage with hundreds of well formed auspicious verses. This epic thus came out with great combination of words, delicate conjunctions of letters; correct and meaningful were its sentences with inherent sweetness telling the story of Rama. This epic rendered by Saint Poet Valmiki includes the killing of ten headed Ravana. You all may visualise this story or listen to it, any of which is beneficial.

This concludes the second Sarga in Bala Kanda of Srimad Ramayana.