Mahabharata Vana Parva (Tirtha-yatra Parva)
Mahabharata Vana Parva Chapter 134:2
"Thereupon Ashtavakra said, 'Before this, this man, defeating the Brahmanas in controversy, used to cast them into water. Let Vandin today meet with the same fate. Seize him and drown him in water.' Vandin said. 'O Janaka, I am the son of king Varuna. Simultaneously with thy sacrifice, there also hath commenced a sacrifice extending over twelve years. It is for this that I have despatched the principal Brahmanas thither. They have gone to witness Varuna's sacrifice. Lo! there they are returning. I pay homage to the worshipful Ashtavakra, by whose grace to-day I shall join him who hath begot me.' "Ashtavakra said, 'Defeating the Brahmanas either by words or subtlety. Vandin had cast them into the waters of the sea. (That Vedic truth which he had suppressed by false arguments), have I to-day rescued by dint of my intellect. Now let candid men judge.
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References
- ↑ Besides the five senses Ashtavakra contends for an additional sense namely the Mind and accordingly cites the number six
- ↑ Vandin admits the existence of the six senses but says that the soul experiences happiness and misery through those as well as through the intellect
- ↑ Ashtavakra advances an eighth element, namely, the knowledge of the ego
- ↑ Each of the three qualities (existence, foulness and ignorance) of prakriti (the passive or material cause of the world) mixing with each of the three corresponding qualities of pradhana (the active or spiritual cause of the world) in various proportions produces the mundane order of things. Thus is proved the eternity of prakriti or nature and is also established the doctrine of duality
- ↑ Prakriti does not really create. It is the Supreme Being who through the medium of illusion in contract with the ten organs (viz., the five locomotive organs and the five organs of sense) makes manifest the system of things. Prakriti therefore has no real existence—her existence is only apparent in the real existence of the soul.
- ↑ Yupas (stakes) mean here, feelings, etc, which keep men bound to the world. Rudras are those who makes others cry. Vandin means to say that the soul is not essential free from the fetters of happiness and misery arising from the eleven objects of perception. In this world all men are subject to happiness and misery. We also hear that there are Rudras in heaven
- ↑ The supreme soul unaffected by happiness and misery really exists—but His existence is not susceptible of being proved—nor can the ignorant ever perceive Him. Men attain that condition through these twelve, viz., virtue, true, self-restraint, penances, good-will, modesty, forgiveness, exemption from envy, sacrifice, charity, concentration and control over the senses.
- ↑ According to some, endeavours to attain emancipation can be successful not in this world but in the world of Brahma. Others say that to that end a special yoga is necessary. By bringing forward the objects numbering thirteen. Vandin advances the opinion that, virtue, etc., are not sufficient for purposes of emancipation but that suitable time and place are also essential
- ↑ Ashtavakra concludes by citing the same number thirteen. The soul which is essentially unaffected, becomes subject to happiness and misery through, the thirteen, viz., the ten organs of locomotion and sense, and intellect mind and egoism. But Atichhanadas, i.e., those that have surmounted ignorance, namely, the twelve, virtue, etc. destroy those thirteen and that is emancipation