Valmiki is celebrated as the poet harbinger in Sanskrit literature. He is the author of the epic Ramayana, based on the attribution in the text of the epic itself.He is revered as the Adi Kavi, which means First Poet, for he discovered the first śloka i.e. first verse, which set the base and defined the form to Sanskrit poetry. The Yoga Vasistha is attributed to him. A religious movement called Valmikism is based on Valmiki's teachings as presented in the Ramayana and the Yoga Vasistha. At least by the 1st century AD, Valmiki's reputation as the father of Sanskrit classical poetry seems to have been legendary. Ashvagosha writes in the Buddhacarita, "The voice of Valmiki uttered poetry which the great seer Chyavana could not compose." This particular verse has been speculated to indicate a familial relationship between Valmiki and Chyavana, as implied by the previous and subsequent verses.

The author was born in Britain in 1957 and joined ISKCON in London in 1975. Later that year, he was formally accepted as a disciple of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, the founder-ācārya of ISKCON, and renamed Ilāpati Dāsa. From 1977 to 1979, Ilāpati Dāsa was based in India, mostly traveling in West Bengal distributing Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books. He spent the following ten years helping to pioneer ISKCON’s preaching in Bangladesh, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand. In 1989 he was granted the order of sannyāsa, receiving the name Bhakti Vikāsa Swami, and again made his base in India. Since then he has preached Kṛṣṇa consciousness throughout the subcontinent, lecturing in English, Hindi, and Bengali. He also spends a few months each year preaching in the West. His television lectures in Hindi have reached millions worldwide. Bhakti Vikāsa Swami writes extensively on Kṛṣṇa conscious topics. His books have been translated into over twenty languages, with more than one and a half million in print. Additionally, he is involved in developing several gurukulas and also Vedic rural projects based on simple living and high thinking.