36. ASHTAVAKRA :

WHILE the Pandavas were wandering
among holy places in the forest, they
came one day to the hermitage of the
personages immortalized in the
Upanishads. Lomasa told Yudhishthira the
story of that place.


Udalaka, a great sage and teacher of
Vedanta, had a disciple named Kagola,
who was virtuous and devoted but had no
great learning. So, the other disciples used
to laugh and mock at him.


Uddalaka, however, attached no great
weight to his disciple's lack of erudition
but really appreciated his virtues, devotion
and good conduct and gave his daughter
Sujata in marriage to him.


The couple was blessed with a son. A
child generally inherits the characteristics
of both the parents. But fortunately the
grandson of Uddalaka took after his
grandfather rather than his father and
knew the Vedas even while he was in his
mother's womb.


When Kagola made mistakes, as he often
did in reciting the Vedas, the child in the
womb would twist his body with pain, and
so it came to pass that he had eight
crooked bends in his body when he was
born.


These crooked bends earned him the name
of Ashtavakra, which means "Eight
crooked bends." Kagola, one ill-fated day,
provoked a polemical contest with Vandi,
the court scholar of Mithila, and, having
been defeated, was made to drown
himself.



Meanwhile Ashtavakra grew up to be a
towering scholar even in his boyhood, and
at the age of twelve he had already
completed his study of the Vedas and the
Vedanta.



One day, Ashtavakra learnt that Janaka,
the king of Mithila was performing a great
sacrifice in the course of which the
assembled scholars would, as usual,
debate on the sastras.


Ashtavakra set out for Mithila,
accompanied by his uncle Svetaketu. On
their way to the place of sacrifice at
Mithila, they came across the king and his
retinue.


The attendants of the king marched in
front shouting: "Move away. Make way
for the King." Ashtavakra instead of
moving out of the way said to the
retainers:


"O royal attendants, even the king, if he is
righteous, has to move and make way for
the blind, the deformed, the fair sex,
persons bearing loads and brahmanas
learned in the Vedas. This is the rule
enjoined by the scriptures."



The king, surprised at these wise words of
the brahmana boy, accepted the justness
of the rebuke and made way, observing to
his attendants: "What this brahmana
stripling says is true. Fire is fire whether it
is tiny or big and it has the power to
burn."



Ashtavakra and Svetaketu entered the
sacrificial hall. The gatekeeper stopped
them and said: "Boys cannot go in. Only
old men learned in the Vedas may go into
the sacrificial hall."



Ashtavakra replied: "We are not mere
boys. We have observed the necessary
vows and have learnt the Vedas. Those
who have mastered the truths of the
Vedanta will not judge another on mere
considerations of age or appearance."



The gatekeeper said: "Stop. Have done
with your idle brag. How can you, a mere
boy, have learnt and realised the
Vedanta?"



The boy said: "You mean I am not big like
an over-grown gourd with no substance in
it? Size is no indication of knowledge or
worth, nor is age. A very tall old man may
be a tall old fool. Let me pass."



The gatekeeper said: "You are certainly
not old, nor tall, though you talk like all
the hoary sages. Get out."



Ashtavakra replied: "Gatekeeper, Grey
hairs do not prove the ripeness of the soul.
The really mature man is the one who has
learnt the Vedas and the Vedangas,
mastered their gist and realised their
essence. I am here to meet the court pandit
Vandi. Inform King Janaka of my desire."



At that moment the king himself came
there and easily recognized Ashtavakra,
the precociously wise boy he had met
before.



The king asked: "Do you know that my
court pandit Vandi has overthrown in
argument many great scholars in the past
and caused them to be cast into the ocean?
Does that not deter you from this
dangerous adventure?"



Ashtavakra replied: "Your eminent
scholar has not hitherto encountered men
like me who are proficient in the Vedas on
Vedanta. He has become arrogant and
vain with easy victories over good men
who were not real scholars. I have come
here to repay the debt due on account of
my father, who was defeated by this man
and made to drown himself, as I have
heard from my mother. I have no doubt I
shall vanquish Vandi, whom you will see
crumple up like a broken-wheeled cart.
Please summon him."



Ashtavakra met Vandi. They took up a
debatable thesis and started an argument,
each employing his utmost learning and
wits to confound the other. And in the end
the assembly unanimously declared the
victory of Ashtavakra and the defeat of
Vandi.



The court pandit of Mithila bowed his
head and paid the forfeit by drowning
himself in the ocean and going to the
abode of Varuna.Then the spirit of
Kagola, the father of Ashtavakra, gained
peace and joy in the glory of his son.



The author of the epic instructs us through
these words put in Kagola's mouth: "A
son need not be like his father. A father
who is physically weak may have a very
strong son and an ignorant father may
have a scholarly son. It is wrong to
acesess the greatness of a man on his
physical appearance or age. External
appearances are deceptive." Which shows
that the unlearned Kagola was not devoid
of common sense.