Ashtavakra:~“What are all these skinners doing here?”+

There is no need to walk in the mountains in search of the truth. There is no need to meet any Gurus. There is no need to renounce family life. There is no need to study the scriptures.

There is no need to glorify the Gurus. There is a need to spend a fortune to please the Gurus. Going to the mountains, searching for a Guru, renouncing the family life, studying the scriptures, and glorifying the personal Gods and Gurus are the greatest obstacles in the path of wisdom.

One need not be a monk, a sanyasi, or a swami to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. Religious rituals and worship, and scriptural mastery glorifying God and Gurus are not a qualification to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. Monkhood and sanyasa are the greatest obstacles to realizing the truth, which is beyond form, time, and space.

All the Gurus of the East and the West are based on the dualistic perspective. Dualistic knowledge is egocentric knowledge. All egocentric Advaita or nonduality is based on the imagination. All imagined Advaita is will not help to cross the domain of form, time, and space.

The egocentric knowledge keeps the Soul in the intoxication of the ‘I’. The ‘I’ hides the whole truth. The Gurus and the teachers of nonduality of the East and West are stuck up with their own accepted truth gathered from here and there and Their egoic attitude blocks them from realizing the Advaita is hidden by the dvaita, which is present in the form of the ‘I’.

Mundaka Upanishads: ~ So-called spiritual pundits and learned are called children because a child takes whatever it thinks as truth. The question never occurs to children “Is what I have seen or thought really the truth?" (P.334 line 9)

Scriptures are not needed in pursuit of truth. Even the Upanishads and the Advaitic Sages declare the same.

The ultimate truth has to be ascertained without the scriptures by realizing the Self is neither the waking entity nor the dream entity but the Self is formless Soul which is present in the form of consciousness.

In the realm of truth form, time, and space are created out of single stuff. That single stuff is consciousness. Realizing the single stuff as the ultimate truth is Self-realization or truth realization. To realize this truth there is no need for the scriptures.

The ultimate truth has to be realized first then only it is possible to know what the scriptures are saying.

That is why Sage Sankara says: ~ VC 56- Neither by Yoga, nor by Sankhya, nor by good work, nor by learning, but by the realization of one's identity with Brahman is Liberation possible, and by no other means.

58. Loud speech consisting of a shower of words, the skill in expounding the Scriptures, and likewise erudition - these merely bring on a little personal enjoyment to the scholar but are no good for Liberation.

59. The study of the Scriptures is useless so long as the highest Truth is unknown, and it is equally useless when the highest Truth has already been known.

60. The Scriptures consisting of many words are a dense forest that merely causes the mind to ramble. Hence men of wisdom should earnestly set about knowing the true nature of the Self.

Advaita is the nature of the Soul. Advaita is second to none. Advaita is universal wisdom revealed on its own to all the serious and sincere seekers of truth.

The real Advaitic wisdom of Sage Sankara is soulcentric knowledge. Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is soulcentric knowledge that destroys ignorance.

Ashtavakra:~

When Ashtavakra was twelve years old, Janak hosted a huge debating conference. Janak was an emperor, and he invited the pundits of the whole country to debate on the scriptures. He had one thousand cows placed at the palace gate and had the horns of the cows plated with gold and decorated with jewels. He proclaimed, “Whoever is victorious, shall take possession of these cows.”

It was a great debate. Ashtavakra’s father also participated. As dusk was falling, the message came to Ashtavakra that his father was losing. He had already defeated all the others, but he was about to be defeated by a pundit named Vandin. Receiving this message Ashtavakra went to the palace. The hall was decorated. The debate was in its final stage and the decisive moment was fast approaching. His father’s defeat was a completely forgone conclusion – he was on the very edge of defeat.

The pundits saw Ashtavakra as he entered the royal court. They were all learned, scholars. His body was bent and deformed in eight places: he had just to move and anyone would start laughing. His every movement was a laughing matter. The whole meeting broke into laughter. Ashtavakra also roared with laughter. Janak asked, “Everyone else is laughing. I can understand why they laugh, but why did you laugh, my son?”

Ashtavakra said, “I am laughing because the truth is being decided in this conference of butchers” – the man must have been extraordinary. “What are all these skinners doing here?”

A deep silence fell over the meeting. Butchers? Skinners? The king asked, “What do you mean?”

Ashtavakra said, “It is simple and straightforward: They only see skin, they don’t see me. It is difficult to find a man more pure and simple than me, but they don’t see this; they see a bent and deformed body. They are skinners, they judge by the skin. Your Majesty, in the curve of a temple, is the sky curved? When a pot is smashed, is the sky smashed? The sky is beyond change. My body is twisted, but I am not. Look at the one within. You can’t

find anything more straight and pure.”

It was a very startling declaration. There must have been pin-drop silence. Janak was impressed, astounded: “Absolutely right, why had he gathered a crowd of skinners there?” He became repentant, he felt guilty that he too had laughed. That day the king couldn’t manage to say anything, but the following day when he was out on his morning ride he saw Ashtavakra on the way. Janak dismounted from his horse and fell at his feet. The day before,

in front of everyone, he couldn’t find the courage.

The day before he had said, “Why do you laugh, my son?” Ashtavakra was a boy of twelve years, and Janak had considered his age. This day he didn’t notice the age. This day he got down from his horse and fell at Ashtavakra’s feet, spread-eagled in prostration.

He said, “Please visit the palace, and satisfy my eagerness for the truth. Oh lord, be so gracious as to come to my home. I have understood! I couldn’t sleep the whole night. You spoke truly: what depths of understanding have those who recognize only the body? They are debating the being, but attraction and repulsion for the body still arise; hate and attraction still arise. They are looking at death while talking of the deathless! I’m blessed that you came and disturbed me, that you broke my sleep. Please come to the palace!”

Janak had the palace decorated magnificently. He welcomed Ashtavakra and seated him on a golden throne – this twelve-year-old Ashtavakra. Then he put his questions to him. The first sutra is Janak’s inquiry. Janak asked and Ashtavakra explained. Beyond this, nothing is known about Ashtavakra. And there is no need to know more, it is more than enough! Diamonds are not many; only pebbles and rocks are so common. A single diamond is enough. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar