Ashtavakra and King Janaka

The Ashtavakra Gita is perhaps the most radical text in the entire Advaitic tradition. Unlike the Bhagavad Gita, which addresses the seeker caught between duty and desire, the Ashtavakra Gita addresses the seeker who has already seen through the world. It does not teach right action, ethical improvement, or gradual progress. It asserts that the Self is already free, already perfect, and that bondage exists only in the mind. To think one is bound is to be bound; to think one is free is to be free.

Its frame story is as extraordinary as its teaching - a young boy with a crooked body, cursed before birth, enters the court of the wisest king of the age and teaches him the nature of the Self.

The Curse Before Birth

Ashtavakra’s father was the sage Kahoda, a disciple of the great Uddalaka Aruni. His mother was Sujata, Uddalaka’s daughter. While Ashtavakra was still in the womb, his father Kahoda would recite the Vedas aloud each day. The unborn child, hearing the recitation, noticed errors in his father’s pronunciation.

From within the womb, Ashtavakra corrected his father - eight times, on eight different errors.

Kahoda, humiliated that an unborn child was correcting him, grew angry and cursed his own son:

“Since you think yourself so wise that you can correct your father eight times, you will be born with eight bends in your body.”

When the child was born, his body was indeed crooked in eight places - bent at the neck, the back, the waist, the knees, and the other joints. He was named Ashtavakra - “eight bends.”

The Loss of the Father

Before Ashtavakra’s birth, Kahoda had gone to the court of King Janaka, where a great philosophical contest was being held. Janaka had invited the greatest scholars of the age to debate, with a prize of a thousand cows adorned with gold.

Kahoda entered the contest against a formidable scholar named Bandi. Bandi defeated him, and the loser was required, by the rules of the contest, to drown himself in the river. Kahoda was submerged and never seen again.

Unknown to all, Bandi was the son of Varuna, the lord of the waters, and all the “drowned” sages were alive in Varuna’s underwater realm, participating in a great ritual.

Ashtavakra grew up motherless and fatherless, raised by his grandfather Uddalaka. He was a brilliant child - sharp, fearless, and wise beyond his years. When he learned the truth about his father’s fate, he determined to go to Janaka’s court and face Bandi himself.

The Laughing Courtiers

Ashtavakra, barely twelve years old and with his body bent in eight places, approached the gates of Janaka’s palace. The guards and courtiers saw him and laughed. The crooked boy was an object of mockery.

Ashtavakra did not flinch. He said:

“I thought I was entering an assembly of the wise, but I see I have stepped into a gathering of cobblers who judge by skin rather than by wisdom.” (AVG traditional narrative)

The laughter stopped. King Janaka, hearing the boy’s words, recognised that this was no ordinary child. He welcomed Ashtavakra into the assembly.

Ashtavakra then challenged Bandi to debate. The contest was long and fierce, and Ashtavakra emerged victorious. Bandi, defeated, revealed the truth: he was Varuna’s son, the sages were alive, and the river would release them. Kahoda was restored to life, and seeing his son’s greatness, he blessed Ashtavakra and revoked the curse.

But the most important event of that day was not the debate with Bandi. It was what happened afterward, when King Janaka - the wisest king of the age, the disciple of Yajnavalkya himself - sat at the feet of the young, crooked-bodied sage and asked for instruction.

The Teaching

The Ashtavakra Gita begins with Janaka’s question:

“Master, how is knowledge to be achieved? How is detachment acquired? How is liberation attained?” (AVG 1.1)

Ashtavakra’s answer cuts through all qualifications and preparations. He does not prescribe years of study, meditation, or asceticism. He simply points to the truth:

“If you think you are free, you are free. If you think you are bound, you are bound. It is truly said: ‘You become what you think.’” (AVG 1.4)

The only bondage is the belief in bondage. The only freedom is the recognition of freedom. The Self - your true nature - was never bound, is not bound, and can never be bound. The idea of bondage is itself a thought, and the Self is the witness of all thoughts, untouched by them.

“You are not earth, water, fire, or air. You are not empty space. Know yourself as pure Awareness - the Witness of all these.” (AVG 1.3)

Ashtavakra continues:

“You have no caste or duties. You are invisible, unattached, formless. You are the Witness of all things. Be happy.” (AVG 1.5)

“Right and wrong, pleasure and pain, exist in the mind only. They are not your concern. You neither do nor enjoy. You are free.” (AVG 1.6)

“You are the solitary Witness of all that is, forever free. Your only bondage is not seeing this.” (AVG 1.7)

Ashtavakra gives two analogies to make the teaching clear:

“Just as a mirror exists everywhere both within and apart from its reflected images, so the Supreme Self exists everywhere within and apart from this body.” (AVG 1.11)

The mirror is in no way affected by the images that appear in it. Ugly images do not stain it; beautiful images do not improve it. The Self is the same - untouched by the body, the mind, and the world that appear in it.

“Just as one and the same space exists within and without a jar, so the eternal, all-pervading Brahman exists in the totality of beings.” (AVG 1.12)

The space inside a jar and the space outside the jar are the same space. Break the jar, and the distinction vanishes. The body is the jar; the Self is the space. When identification with the body is broken, the distinction between “inside” and “outside” disappears.

The Mirror and the Space

The two analogies together form a complete teaching. The mirror analogy shows that the Self is not affected by anything that appears in it - pure, untouched, transcendent. The space analogy shows that the Self is present in all beings uniformly - all-pervading, immanent.

Transcendent yet immanent: the Self is the mirror of all experience while being the space of all existence. It is both the witness that sees and the reality that is seen. It is all.

Janaka’s Realization

King Janaka, hearing these words, is said to have attained immediate realization. The Ashtavakra Gita records no further questions from Janaka after the first chapter - only verses of affirmation and praise. The teaching had done its work.

As to the crooked body of the sage - it was irrelevant. The body is bent; the Self is straight. The body is young; the Self is timeless. The body is male; the Self is beyond gender. Ashtavakra’s body was a living demonstration of his teaching: look past the appearance, see the reality. He who judges by the body sees only the reflection; he who sees the Self sees the mirror itself.

Further study: The Self that Ashtavakra taught as the solitary witness is explored on the Atman page. The mechanism by which we mistake the body for the Self - the fundamental error - is analysed on the Adhyasa page. The Brahman that is the space within and without all things is discussed on the Brahman page.

Source citations: Ashtavakra Gita (Ashtavakra Samhita), Chapter 1. Key verses: AVG 1.1 (Janaka’s question), AVG 1.3 (you are not the elements), AVG 1.4 (you become what you think), AVG 1.6 (the witness), AVG 1.7 (the solitary witness), AVG 1.11 (mirror analogy), AVG 1.12 (space analogy). The frame story is from the Mahabharata, Vana Parva, Chapters 132-134. Translations consulted: John Richards, Bart Marshall, Swami Nityaswaroopananda.