Ashtavakra !

A beautiful story – very ancient, of the days when the UPANISHADS were written – is about a man, a young man.

He was tremendously intelligent, but he had a body which was so ugly; one hand was
long, one hand was small, one eye was missing – even the legs were not of the same length.

There was a great discussion happening in the court of the king, and the father of the young man, a well-known, learned scholar, had gone to participate.

But discussions never come to a conclusion
– particularly discussions of scholars, and the so-called learned people.

If two enlightened persons meet, discussion never starts. Looking into each other’s eyes, the conclusion has happened.

So, it was getting late... the mother of the boy told him, ”You should go and see what is happening, and tell your father the food is ready and getting cool.”

He went.... He was a strangely crippled man, almost like a camel, or perhaps worse. His name was Ashtavakra.

Ashtavakra means he was strangely bent in eight places of his body – the hand was not straight; in the middle there was a bend. He could not keep his head straight because his neck was bent. He was certainly made for
some circus, some carnival, some museum.

All the learned people were in the court, and as he entered the court everybody started laughing – they had never seen such a strange creature.

But he was immensely intelligent, and finally became one of the great awakened people of the world – of the same height as Gautam Buddha.

They were all laughing and joking about him, and his father felt ashamed – why has he come here?

Ashtavakra went directly to the king and he said, ”It seems you have gathered
shoemakers here, CHAMAR” – that is the word for people who work on leather –

”Disperse all these idiots!

They can only see my skin, my body; they are blind, they don’t have any heart – no love, no compassion – and they are talking about self-knowledge, self-realization.

What has the self to do with the body?”
There was great silence, because what he said was absolutely true. And he said, ”I had not come here to see all these shoemakers. I have come just to find my father; my mother is waiting.”

The king himself was so impressed, because the boy felt neither ashamed nor shocked, but the statement he made was far more important than the things all these learned people had been discussing.

”I am not my body, and these people can see only the body.

If they had any self-knowledge, they would not have laughed looking at my body.

They would have felt the presence of a man who is enlightened.”

The whole conference was dissolved, and the king told Ashtavakra, ”From tomorrow you come and teach me, prepare me.

I want to be your disciple.”

In the book ASHTAVAKRAGITA the songs of Ashtavakra are compiled, the statements that he made to the king... each statement is a diamond, invaluable.

OshO ❤ 
CHAPTER 5. NOT EVEN THE HEART... ONLY A WITNESS
The Messiah, Vol 2