Sage Ashta
Vakra
(sage with eight bends)
Compiled by
P.R.Ramachander
There was
saint called Udhalaka He was considered to have talked personally to the
goddess Saraswathi.. He had a daughter called Sujatha and a son called Swetha Kethu. He also had a disciple called
Kahodaka. (also known as Khagodhara) .
The disciple learned all that has to be learned from Uddalaka and pleased him very much. Udhalaka then
gave his daughter Sujatha in marriage to Kahodaka . Eventually Sujatha
became in the family way. While Kahodaka was
chanting Vedas sitting beside her
, the child in her womb shouted that Kahodaka was
committing mistakes in his recitation. Kahodaka became angry and cursed that the child would be born with
eight bends, because the mind of
the child had bends. After the birth of the child Kahodaka decided to go to the
court of king Janaka to earn money by
exhibiting his knowledge .At that time king Janaka was performing a Yaga and so Kahodaka was not allowed to meet him . Later he met the
king and was asked by him to debate with a scholar in his court called
Vandheena(also called Bandhi) . All those
who were defeated by Vandheena
(Bandhi) were supposed to jump in the sea( some versions say river) and
die. Kahodhaka was defeated and
died.
Ashtavakra again learned all
Vedas in company of Swetha Kethu. Due to
his fiery temper , the fact that his
father died after being defeated by Vandheena(Bandhi) was hidden by him. But
one day Swetha Kethu happened to blurt out the truth. Immediately , with
torrential anger Ashta Vakra started towards
the court of King Janka. On thei way , king Janaka was
travelling in the same road opposite to them. The security people of Janaka asked Ashta Vakra to give way to the king. Then Ashta vakra told them, “Does
not your king know that under the laws
of dharma , every human
being has to give way to the handicapped people?” Janaka heard this
and agreed with him and gave way to
Ashta Vakra to proceed further. Ashta
Vakra reached the court of Janaka and was not allowed to enter inside, saying that he was but a child. He told them
that his wisdom should not be
decided based on his age. Later when he
went in front of Janaka, the courtiers of Janaka laughed at the misshapen boy .
Then Ashta Vakra told Janaka that , he was not prepared to debate with mere
cobblers. When the king wanted him to explain, Ashta Vakra told him that
, he was being judged about his intelligence by his courtiers based on his skin, similar to the cobblers judging
an animal . The king was amazed
his intelligence but felt great
pity on that boy and wanted to test his
wisdom by himself before allowing him to
debate with Vadheena (Bandhi) . The king
and his courtiers were amazed at the knowledge of the boy . The next day Ashta Vakra defeated
Vadheena in scholastic argument and wanted Vadheena to jump in the sea
and die. Then Vadheena told them that he
was the son of God Varuna and was in the
earth to recruit sages to perform a
Yagna to Varuna. All those defeated by him jumped in the sea and went to the
abode of Varuna to perform the Yagna. The Yagna was just over and
all of them would return to
this world. As per his word Kahodha came back and was reunited with his
son. Kahoda felt bad that he has cursed
his son. Sage Varuna then made him perfectly all right.
Later
Ashta Vakra wanted to marry Suprabha ,
the daughter of sage Vadanya. But the
sage wanted to test him before giving his daughter in marriage to him. He wanted him to go to
Kailsa meet Lord Shiva and Goddess
Parvathi and further go north and see a very pretty damsel there and come back. Ashta Vakra obeyed him and in kailsa he was first received by Lord Kubhera and the sage stayed along with him for one
year. He then went to Kailasa and
further proceeded to the north. There he met seven very pretty maidens. Ashta Vakra wanted
one of them to stay there and asked the
others to go. The lady who stayed there
tried to seduce Ashta vakra .He told that he was not interested in her
but only interested in marrying Suprabha. The lady then told that she was the goddess of the northern direction
called Uthara and blessed him and send
him back.Ashta Vakra returned back ,
married Suprabha.
Ashtavakra and
the deva maidens
Once the deva
maidens made fun of Ashta Vakra with a
body with bends. It seems Ashta Vakra cursed them to become human beings
and they were the Gopis of the Brinda van.
Ashta Vakra and
Ravana
It seems
once Ravana made fun of the form of Ashta
Vakra and told him that he would remove all his bends by beating him. When he
caught hold of the sage and threw him, the sage cursed Ravana that he would be
crushed from head to feet by monkeys.
Ashta Vakra
Gita
One of the great philosophical treatises
of Hinduism is the instruction
about the nature of self given by Ashta Vakra to king Janaka. It is referred as either Ashta Vakra Samhitha or as Ashta Vakra Gita.
It is a dialogue between “Ashtavakra and
king Janaka on the nature of soul,
reality and bondage. It
offers an extremely radical version of non-dualistic philosophy. The Gita
insists on complete unreality of external world and absolute oneness of
existence. It does not mention any morality or duties and therefore, is seen by
commentators as 'godless'. It also dismisses names and forms as unreal and a
sign of ignorance.
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You are really
unbound and action-less, self-illuminating and spotless already. The cause of
your bondage is that you are still resorting to stilling the mind. (I.15)
You are unconditioned and changeless, formless and immovable,
unfathomable awareness, imperturbable- such consciousness is un-clinging.
(I.17)
You are not bound by anything. What does a pure person like you need to renounce? Putting the complex organism to rest, you can go to your rest. (V.1)”
The great
translation of entire book in to English is available in
There is another story of the origin of sage Ashta Vakra. It seems there was a sage
called Asitha. He did thapas to lord
Shiva to get a son and got a son called
Devala. He was so pretty that Rambha
, one of dancers of the court of Indra
,fell in love with him. When he refused her , it seems Rambha cursed
him to become one with eight bends. Later he did thapas for six thousand
years and Lord Krishna with Radha came
before him. Radha was horrified by the ugliness of the sage but it seems Lord Krishna
hugged him. This hug made Devala get
back his normal form. It seems this Devala married a lady called Yekaparna ,
who was the daughter of Himavan.
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