Ashtavakra - The Deformed Sage Who Shamed a Court (Jnana Yoga)

Dadi: "Beta, if you saw someone who looked very different - maybe they walked differently or their body was bent in unusual ways - what would you think?"

Guddu: "I... I might think something was wrong with them, Dadi."

Dadi: "Most people would think the same. But let me tell you about a boy whose twisted body held the straightest mind that ever existed."

Guddu: "Who was he?"

Dadi: "His name was Ashtavakra, which means "bent in eight places." Before he was even born, while still in his mother's womb, he was already a great scholar. He could hear his father reciting the sacred Vedas."

Guddu: "A baby could understand the Vedas?"

Dadi: "This was no ordinary baby, beta. One day, his father made a mistake while reciting. The unborn child corrected him from the womb! "Father, you are pronouncing that verse incorrectly.""

Guddu: "From inside his mother?"

Dadi: "Yes! But his father was humiliated. In his anger, he cursed his own unborn son: "Since you think you are so clever, you shall be born with your body bent in eight places!" And so it was. Ashtavakra was born with his body crooked at eight joints - a living contradiction of profound wisdom in what most would consider a broken form."

Guddu: "That is so sad, Dadi!"

Dadi: "Wait, beta, the story gets both sadder and more glorious. When Ashtavakra was twelve years old, he learned something terrible. His father had gone to King Janaka's court to debate the great scholar Bandhi. If you lost a debate to Bandhi, the punishment was drowning. His father had lost and had been held underwater for years."

Guddu: "His father was trapped?"

Dadi: "Yes! Young Ashtavakra decided to free his father. He set off for King Janaka's court - a twelve-year-old boy with a body bent like a pretzel, walking with a limp, going to challenge the greatest scholar in the land."

Guddu: "Did people laugh at him?"

Dadi: "The guards at the gate laughed. "A child? Bent like that? You want to debate the great Bandhi?" But Ashtavakra said, "Let me in. Wisdom is not measured by age or by the straightness of one's spine.""

Guddu: "Did they let him in?"

Dadi: "Eventually, yes. But when he entered the great court, filled with the most learned scholars in the kingdom, they all burst into laughter. His twisted body, his limping walk, the strange angles of his limbs - they found it hilarious."

Guddu: "That must have hurt so much!"

Dadi: "But here is the beautiful part, beta. Ashtavakra laughed with them! He threw his head back and laughed louder than anyone."

Guddu: "Why would he laugh at himself?"

Dadi: "King Janaka was curious too. "Why do you laugh, boy?" Ashtavakra replied, "I thought I was entering a court of scholars, seekers of the divine truth. Instead, I find an assembly of leather merchants!""

Guddu: "Leather merchants?"

Dadi: ""They see only skin. They judge only the covering. What else could they be but dealers in leather? If they were true knowers of wisdom, they would see the Self within this body - the same Self that dwells within their own bodies too.""

Guddu: "Oh! That is clever!"

Dadi: "The court fell silent, beta. Ashtavakra continued, "I have seen philosophers whose bodies are straight but whose minds are crooked. I am the opposite - my body is crooked but my mind is straight. Tell me, which deformity is worse?""

Guddu: "The crooked mind is worse!"

Dadi: "Exactly what King Janaka realized. He ordered the debate to begin. And what a debate it was! Bandhi, who had defeated hundreds of scholars, threw every trick at this twelve-year-old. He posed paradoxes, quoted obscure scriptures, tried to trap him with complex arguments."

Guddu: "What did Ashtavakra do?"

Dadi: "He answered simply, clearly, not from memorized learning but from direct experience of truth. Bandhi asked, "You speak of the Self. Can you describe it?" Ashtavakra replied, "Can you describe the taste of sugar to someone who has never tasted sweet? The Self is not an object to be described. It is the subject that does all describing. You cannot see the seer. You cannot know the knower. But you can be what you already are.""

Guddu: "That is so deep!"

Dadi: "Bandhi fell silent. He had no answer. By the court's rules, he should have been drowned. But Ashtavakra revealed a secret - Bandhi was actually a son of the water god Varuna, sent to gather scholars for his father's rituals. All the "drowned" scholars, including Ashtavakra's father, were actually alive!"

Guddu: "His father was saved!"

Dadi: "Yes! Father and son were reunited. But the greater gift came later - the teachings Ashtavakra gave to King Janaka became one of the most profound spiritual texts ever written."

Guddu: "What did he teach?"

Dadi: "He taught that we are already free. "You are not the body," he said. "You are not the mind. You are the awareness in which both appear. You were never truly bound - the bondage you feel is only imagination. Know this, not as information, but as direct experience, and you are liberated.""

Guddu: "What does this teach us, Dadi?"

Dadi: "So many things, my child! First, never judge anyone by how they look. The most beautiful body might contain an ugly mind, and the most twisted body might hold the most brilliant soul. Second, our limitations are often only in our thinking. Ashtavakra's body was bent, but he never let that bend his spirit. Third, true knowledge is not about what you have learned from books, but what you have realized within yourself."

Guddu: "I will never laugh at anyone who looks different, Dadi."

Dadi: "Good, beta. And remember - whenever you feel that something about you is not perfect, think of Ashtavakra. Your body is just a covering. Your true self is the awareness inside, and that is always perfect, always free, always wise. The boy with eight bends showed a court of straight-bodied scholars that their judgment was the real deformity."

Guddu: "His body remained bent forever?"

Dadi: "It did, beta. But his teaching has stood straight for thousands of years, showing us all what true wisdom looks like - not in the body, but in the soul."