वाल्मीकिना सीतायाः सान्त्वनम् आश्रमप्रवेशश्च

The sages' boys who were there saw Sītā weeping and ran to where the holy Vālmīki, a sage of fierce understanding, was staying; it was these boys and pupils of the hermitage who were the first to see her, and the epithet speaks of the intensity of Vālmīki's austerities. They saluted the sage's feet and all told the great seer of the sound of her weeping. "Lord," they said, "the wife of some great-souled man, a lady like Śrī herself, whom we have never seen before, is wailing in bewilderment, her face twisted with grief. Lord, please come and see her; she is like a goddess fallen from the sky. On the river bank some noble lady is in distress. We saw her weeping bitterly, sunk in grief, alone and wretched, as though she had no protector, and she does not deserve sorrow and suffering. We do not think she is a human woman. Let her be shown hospitality. She has come to you for refuge, close by the hermitage; the good lady is looking for a protector, and you should protect her, lord." The boys' words are full of wonder and pity. They did not know who Sītā was, but her godlike beauty and her grief moved them; the likenesses to Śrī and to a goddess fallen from heaven suggest both her beauty and her purity. They judged that such a woman was not meant for sorrow, and even boys knew the hermitage's rule of hospitality, that a guest must be honoured. Hearing them, the sage who knew dharma reflected and saw what had to be done.

With the vision his austerity had given him, Vālmīki hurried to where Maithilī was, and his disciples followed the great sage as he went. That inward vision matters: Vālmīki knew everything by divine sight, and to him Sītā's purity was plain. He went a little way on foot, which shows his humility and compassion, took a fine offering of water, and came to the bank of the Jāhnavī. There he saw Sītā, Rāghava's beloved wife, standing like one without a protector; she only seemed so, for she was in truth Rāma's wife. By bringing water for her welcome he honoured her as a revered guest and a queen, not as a destitute woman. Then Vālmīki, bull among sages, spoke sweet words to Sītā, who was bowed down by the weight of her grief, as though gladdening her with his radiance. Radiance usually burns, but a sage's radiance refreshes. Here the first poet of the Rāmāyaṇa himself enters the story as a character, and the poet becomes his heroine's protector. He saw her grief from a distance and began to console her without asking her anything.

"You are Daśaratha's daughter-in-law," he said, "Rāma's beloved queen and King Janaka's daughter. Welcome, faithful wife. I knew of your coming through my meditation, and in my heart I have perceived the whole reason for it. Everything about you, fortunate lady, is truly known to me; indeed, all that happens in the three worlds is known to me. By the vision that austerity has given me I know that you are without sin, Sītā. Be at ease, Vaidehī; you are in my care now. Not far from my hermitage live women ascetics devoted to austerity; they will always look after you, my child, as one looks after a child. Accept this offering, be at ease and free from care, and do not grieve. Think of it as coming to your own home." Vālmīki's words were Sītā's first comfort. By naming the three houses she belonged to, her father's, her father-in-law's and her husband's, he restored her dignity. His witness that she was sinless is weighty: what the citizens did not know, the seer knew through austerity. He told her the hermitage was now her home, and he called her "my child" with a father's tenderness.

Hearing the sage's wonderful words, Sītā bowed her head at his feet and said with joined palms, "So be it." As the sage went on, she followed behind him with her palms still joined. When the sages' wives saw him coming with Vaidehī, they came joyfully to meet him. "Welcome, best of sages," they said. "It is a long time since you came here. We all salute you; tell us, what shall we do?" He had not been there for a long while, and now it was Sītā who brought him. Vālmīki answered, "This is Sītā, wife of the wise Rāma, who has come here. She is Daśaratha's daughter-in-law and Janaka's daughter, a faithful wife; she is sinless, and her husband has abandoned her, and I must always protect her. Look on her with the greatest affection, and out of respect for me and for my word let her be especially honoured by you." Again and again the glorious sage of great austerity commended Vaidehī to their care, which shows how anxious he was for her safety, and then, surrounded by his disciples, he went back to his own hermitage. Vālmīki declared her sinless again and again: he is the first witness to Sītā's purity, and later, in Rāma's assembly, he will proclaim it on oath. So at the end of the sarga Sītā is settled in a new home, in the affection of the women ascetics and under the protection of the seer, the place where her two sons will be born.