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35.ASHTAVAKRA
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.
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