K.Venugopal
Immobile Wanderer
Ashtavakra's dialogues with emperor Janak are known as Ashtavakra Gita. Not much is known about Ashtavakra and very little historical records exist. Only few incidents are known which signify the flavour of the being whom society had labelled Ashtavakra.
One such was when Ashtavakra was still in his mother’s womb. His father, who was a well known Vedic scholar, would recite the Vedas everyday.One day came a voice from the womb. "This is all nonsense. Mere collection of words, no wisdom.Is wisdom found in scriptures? Is truth found in words? Wisdom and Truth are only in oneself." Enraged at being challenged, he being the great erudite scholar, the father cursed that the boy will be born deformed in eight places. Ashtavakra was born deformed, body bent in 8 places (hence the name Ashtavakra).
The second incident was as a 12 year old boy. Ashtavakra goes to call his father from a debate which was going on for very long at the court of the emperor Janak. His father was debating with other scholars on the meaning of Truth. Entering the court to look for his father, the scholars looking at the hunchback, bent in 8 directions, many burst out laughing. Looking at them Ashtavakra in turn burst out laughing. Such was the force of Ashtavakra's laugh that the court is rendered silent. Emperor Janak asks why is he Ashtavakra laughing? Answers Ashtavakra, "I am laughing because Truth is being decided in this conference of cobblers." To call Vedic scholars and Pundits mere cobblers was to invite the death penalty in those days. In that shocked silence in the court, Emperor Janak asks Ashtavakra to explain what he means. Says Ashtavakra, “Like cobblers who only know the skin, this gathering only sees my deformed body, not me. Your majesty, in the curve of the temple is the sky curved? When a pot is smashed, is the sky smashed? My body is twisted, not me but these cobblers cannot see that. What Truth can they see?"
One such was when Ashtavakra was still in his mother’s womb. His father, who was a well known Vedic scholar, would recite the Vedas everyday.One day came a voice from the womb. "This is all nonsense. Mere collection of words, no wisdom.Is wisdom found in scriptures? Is truth found in words? Wisdom and Truth are only in oneself." Enraged at being challenged, he being the great erudite scholar, the father cursed that the boy will be born deformed in eight places. Ashtavakra was born deformed, body bent in 8 places (hence the name Ashtavakra).
The second incident was as a 12 year old boy. Ashtavakra goes to call his father from a debate which was going on for very long at the court of the emperor Janak. His father was debating with other scholars on the meaning of Truth. Entering the court to look for his father, the scholars looking at the hunchback, bent in 8 directions, many burst out laughing. Looking at them Ashtavakra in turn burst out laughing. Such was the force of Ashtavakra's laugh that the court is rendered silent. Emperor Janak asks why is he Ashtavakra laughing? Answers Ashtavakra, "I am laughing because Truth is being decided in this conference of cobblers." To call Vedic scholars and Pundits mere cobblers was to invite the death penalty in those days. In that shocked silence in the court, Emperor Janak asks Ashtavakra to explain what he means. Says Ashtavakra, “Like cobblers who only know the skin, this gathering only sees my deformed body, not me. Your majesty, in the curve of the temple is the sky curved? When a pot is smashed, is the sky smashed? My body is twisted, not me but these cobblers cannot see that. What Truth can they see?"
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