Home

Featured Articles

Dec 10, 2024
Richa Yadav

Ashtavakra Gita: Greatest Treatise on Non-dual Vedanta

We celebrate Gita Jayanti every year on Mokshada Ekadashi, the 11th day of the Shukla Paksha, in the Margashirsha month of the Hindu lunar calendar to commemorate the day when Bhagwan Krishna imparted the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Along with the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita, several other Gitas like Anu Gita, Avadhoot Gita, Uddhav Gita, and others are available in Hindu scriptures. This is because a Gita is anything that was sung and recited at different times in the history of India. This is why one needs to add the adjective to specify which Gita we are talking about. On this Gita Jayanti, falling on Wednesday, December 11, 2024, let us know a little more about Ashtavakra Gita and discuss the teachings of this profound text on Advaita Vedanta philosophy. In Hindu culture, it is strongly believed that a child’s education begins in the mother’s womb itself. Therefore, expectant mothers are suggested to listen to good thoughts and melodious music. We know about how Arjun’s son Abhimanyu learned some war tactics while he was in his mother’s womb. There is another similar story of a sage with profound wisdom and spiritual insight known as Ashtavakra. While Ashtavakra was in his mother’s womb, his father, a great scholar, Kahoda used to read Vedic shlokas and explain the meaning to his wife Sujata. She was the daughter of sage Aruni who was another knowledgeable rishi of his time. Listening to the discourse, one day, the unborn child corrected his father from his mother’s womb. Kahoda’s ego was deeply hurt as he could not accept his shortcoming and that too was being pointed out by an unborn fetus! He outrightly cursed his son to be born with bodily deformities. Ashtavakra, which means "eight-curved" therefore, was born with eight deformities in his body. However, this didn't stop him from gaining the true knowledge of self at a very tender age. Even as a child He witnessed an enormous depth of spirituality and was always ready to enhance his knowledge. Once Ashtavakra reached Videha, the kingdom king Janaka, participated in a debate organised by the king to find his answers. Although Janak was said to be an enlightened soul, he was still seeking higher knowledge to attain moksha. As Ashtavakra entered the palace, the courtiers began to laugh seeing his deformed body. King Janaka also could not refrain from smiling at Ashtavakra’s appearance. Unperturbed, Ashtavakra calmly said, “I mistook this court for a gathering of enlightened minds. It seems you all possess mere 'charm drishti,' a superficial view confined to the skin, rather than 'atma drishti,' a deep understanding of the self.” He challenged the courtiers, asserting that their knowledge was shallow, their perception clouded by appearances and that none of them had the wisdom to discern the underlying reality. Therefore, those unenlightened ones were confined to mere form. As a seeker of true knowledge, King Janaka invited Ashtavakra for a conversation. Soon they both were engaged in a profound philosophical discourse. King Janaka went on asking philosophical questions and Ashtavakra responded to his questions from the depth of his soul. King Janaka realised that Ashtavakra had an extraordinary intellect and thus became his disciple. Later on, this famous dialogue came to be known as ‘Ashtavakra’ or ‘Ashtavakra Samhita.’ It is a compilation of 303 verses distributed in twenty chapters. King Janaka asks the sage Ashtavakra how he can attain knowledge, detachment and liberation. Ashtavakra tells him to realise his true nature and free himself of the bondage of worldly identities and worldly pleasure. The Ashtavakra Gita is an instruction for achieving self-realisation and oneness. Each verse of the book emphasises non-duality. Therefore, critics call it ‘an extremely radical version of non-dualistic philosophy’. Overall, the book does not provide any arguments for the conclusion that only one’s self is real. A single truth is highlighted in the entire Gita in different ways- the core idea of Advaita Vedanta is that you are Brahman and there is no separate existence of you other than what you are in your purest form. The book only highlights one truth that is put straightforwardly. Ashtavakra Gita elucidates the core of the entire Hindu philosophy- the meaning of the Supreme Reality and how it is the sole goal of a seeker to know it through self-realisation. Self-realisation is the knowing – in body, mind, and soul – that we are one with the omnipresence of God, and that all we have to do is improve our knowing. Ashtavakra tells you that you are already pure and perfect- you are the Pure Existence ‘Tat Tvam Asi’. You don’t need to add anything to that. And you don’t need to give up anything. You already abide by Pure Consciousness. The Self is pure awareness that there is only God and everything else is an illusion: the little self, the world, the universe. All these things arise with the thought 'I', that is, with the idea of a separate identity. The little 'I' invents the material world, which in our ignorance we strive hard to sustain. Forgetting our original oneness, bound tightly in our imaginary separateness, we spend our lives in ignorance. The spiritual teachings of Ashtavakra Gita are direct invocation of God within us. It's a call to the divine within us, our true nature. It straight away tells you only one truth that you are pure consciousness and tells you the central truth that you are none other than God. Unless the reader has some familiarity with Advaita philosophy, Ashtavakra Gita might be difficult to understand. Every word in the book conveys only one message to inspire the seeker to attain self-realisation. How to attain this goal requires a lot of practical wisdom that is completely missing in the book. That is one reason why Ashtavakra Gita could not become a very popular text. It is said that when young Narendra visited his guru Sri Ramakrishna, he was persuaded to read ‘Ashtavakra Gita'. Later, the book had a deep impact on the impressionable mind of Narendra who enormously adopted the core belief of Advaita philosophy as an adult Vivekananda. setting him on a path of spiritual awakening and enlightenment. There are several commentaries available on our Bhagavad Gita but not Ashtavakra Gita as the text does not leave much scope for reinterpretation or explanation. The core ideas are put in a simple, straightforward way, leaving little scope to re-expand or comment on the meaning. Given a chance, do take a look at this one of the greatest treatises of non-dual Vedanta, known as the Ashtavakra Gita!

Dec 07, 2024
S Sudhir Kumar

First Year of Revanth Reddy, Marred by More Controversies than Achievements

There were two key aspects to Revanth Reddy’s and Congress’s campaign for the 2023 Assembly elections in Telangana last year. One was of course, the abundance of promises. Second was the time frame for implementing those promises. Revanth Reddy went overboard in promising that Congress would implement six guarantees within 100 days of coming to power. In a neatly designed graphic, everyone starting from the INC President Mallikarjun Kharge to the social media volunteer posted the 6 guarantees. It is a very well-designed infographic that gives you the first impression that there are actually only 6 guarantees in the promise. A second look, and you will realise how Congress scammed you even with something as simple as a number! A closer perusal of the document shows that the actual guarantees being promised are 13 in number, and not 6! Almost every “Guarantee” has sub-guarantees included in them. In the first 100 days, the Congress party only fulfilled 4 out of these 13 guarantees. Infact, only 5 of these guarantees are fulfilled after a full year in power! Back then. the Congress party and its compliant media wanted to highlight the deception as an actual achievement, but the people of Telangana used the Lok Sabha elections as a great chance to give Revanth Reddy a message. Congress party won only 8 out of the 17 seats here, with BJP winning 8 more and MIM winning 1. This was the first setback Revanth Reddy received within just 5 months of coming to power. The setback was also because of the failure to keep up the promise of waiving farmer loans up to 2 lakhs, in 100 days. Later in 2024, during the campaign for the assembly elections of four states, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, highlighted the non-fulfilment of promises by Congress governments in Himachal, Karnataka and Telangana. Revanth Reddy took it to heart and wrote a detailed letter to the Prime Minister in October, listing out how his government waived loans of nearly 22 lakh farmers. The Congress party released an infographic claiming that the Telangana government waived the loans of 40 lakh farmers (and not just 22 lakh farmers!). It is really phenomenal how the Congress party manages to create scams out of pretty much everything. This confused messaging went on to prove the Prime Minister right! The failed promises are the not the only thing that kept Revanth Reddy in the limelight. He instituted a new department and notoriously named it HYDRAA (like the monster from Greek Mythology!). HYDRAA’s remit was to demolish constructions that came up on lake beds. Compliant media even wrote headlines such as “Hail HYDRA”. Until news came out the house of CM’s own brother occupied land on a lake bed. And that he has been given enough time to file a case in HC, while other hapless citizens who built their houses after all due permissions from government agencies are having to witness their houses demolished. The poignant videos of hapless citizens wailing while CM’s family was availing services of lawyers to protect their houses, sent out a very strong message to the society of Telangana. Well then, is it all doom and gloom after the Congress came to power? Revanth Reddy was successful in filling up thousands of positions in the state government, something that the previous government could not do. This has created goodwill for him in those families who have waited long enough to secure these jobs. While now we will never know if the loans of 22 lakh farmers or 40 lakh farmers were waived, it remains a fact that loans up to 2 lakh rupees were waived off for some farmers – which in itself creates goodwill for him amongst this section. He is envisioning a new city – the Fourth City – in the Hyderabad limits. He has already announced the setting up of 2 universities – Skill University and Sports University. However, controversy seems to follow him mainly because of the hypocrisy of the Congress party as a whole. Revanth Reddy has entered into an MoU with Adani. In addition, Revanth also accepted a donation of 100 crores from Adani for the Skill University (which he later announced that the government won’t be taking!). In fact, these pictures of multiple meetings with Adani became very popular and were used to question Rahul Gandhi’s hypocrisy. Another pet project that Revanth Reddy has been envisioning is the development of the Musi riverfront. The vision slowly turned into an obsession because the opposition was getting successful in linking the clean-up of Musi to the dreaded HYDRAA project. Revanth Reddy went on an overdrive claiming that he would spend a whopping 1 lakh 50 thousand crore for the development of Musi – he went to London to study their riverfront projects; he sent a delegation of ministers, officers and journalists (Yes, journalists) to study the riverfront projects in Seoul! And he ended up challenging Prime Minister Modi to fund this 1 lakh 50 thousand crore dream! Revanth Reddy has also commissioned Rahul Gandhi’s pet project – the caste survey! It is still a work in progress so we will have to wait what he will do with that data. The first one year of Revanth Reddy’s government was marred by more controversies than achievements. His speeches on various occasions are also filled with vile language towards the opposition leaders. He has four more years to create more work and less controversies. Time will tell, if he will improve!