In the royal court of King Janaka
This is a modern retelling, adapted from this talk on the Ashtavakra–Bandi debate. It is not the text of the Mahabharata, and it is worth knowing where the two differ.
Read it, as a dramatisation built on the frame of the epic rather than a translation of it.
A twelve-year-old boy, his body bent in eight places, enters the assembly. Laughter breaks out.
BANDI: Has King Janaka's court become a playground? Or have the scholars become so frightened that they now send children to challenge me?
The boy stands perfectly still — then laughs louder than the whole assembly.
BANDI: Why are you laughing?
ASHTAVAKRA: Because I had heard this was a gathering of wise men. But after seeing all of you, I realise I have entered a marketplace where people judge skin instead of wisdom.
BANDI: Careful, boy. Every person sitting here has spent decades studying the Vedas.
ASHTAVAKRA: Then those decades have not helped them see beyond a body. If a bent body is enough to disturb their intelligence, their intelligence was never very deep.
BANDI: Tell me your name.
ASHTAVAKRA: I am Ashtavakra.
BANDI: The son of Kahoda?
ASHTAVAKRA: Yes.
BANDI: Your father stood exactly where you stand today. He believed he could defeat me. He failed. What makes you think your fate will be any different?
ASHTAVAKRA: My father came to defeat you. I came to expose you.
BANDI: Expose me?
ASHTAVAKRA: Yes. You have defeated scholars, but you have never defeated your own pride.
BANDI: Pride? I have earned my reputation.
ASHTAVAKRA: The moment a man begins protecting his reputation, he stops searching for truth.
BANDI: Very well. Let us see whether your words contain understanding. What is the greatest enemy of man?
ASHTAVAKRA: The one he calls 'I'.
BANDI: Wrong. The enemy is ignorance.
ASHTAVAKRA: And who is ignorant? The one who believes he is merely a person.
BANDI: Can learning destroy ignorance?
ASHTAVAKRA: Learning can decorate ignorance. Only direct seeing destroys it.
BANDI: What is knowledge?
ASHTAVAKRA: Borrowed memory.
BANDI: And wisdom?
ASHTAVAKRA: That which remains when borrowed memory falls away.
BANDI: If scriptures are borrowed, why study them at all?
ASHTAVAKRA: Scriptures point; they do not arrive. A finger pointing at the moon is useful — until someone begins worshipping the finger.
BANDI: You speak against scholarship.
ASHTAVAKRA: No, I speak against becoming imprisoned by it. You know many words; but tell me — have you met the one who speaks them?
BANDI: I am the speaker.
ASHTAVAKRA: Then show him to me. Point to him. Is he your body? Is he your thoughts? Is he your memory? Everything you call 'I' changes. How can the changing be your true nature?
Bandi does not answer.
BANDI: Enough. You speak cleverly, but debates are not won by philosophy. They are won by knowledge. Answer according to the ancient tradition.
ASHTAVAKRA: I am listening.
BANDI: One?
ASHTAVAKRA: The Self, without division.
BANDI: Two?
ASHTAVAKRA: The illusion of observer and observed.
BANDI: Three?
ASHTAVAKRA: The three states — waking, dreaming and deep sleep — all witnessed by one awareness.
BANDI: Four?
ASHTAVAKRA: The four Vedas. They describe; they cannot contain.
BANDI: Five?
ASHTAVAKRA: The senses — five beautiful thieves that continuously steal attention.
BANDI: Six?
ASHTAVAKRA: The seasons change; the witness does not.
BANDI: Seven?
ASHTAVAKRA: Seven sacred flames — but truth requires no fire.
BANDI: Eight?
ASHTAVAKRA: The body may bend in eight places. Awareness bends nowhere.
BANDI: Nine?
ASHTAVAKRA: The nine gates of the body. People spend their entire lives decorating those gates without ever entering the one who lives within.
BANDI: Ten?
ASHTAVAKRA: Ten directions — but awareness belongs to none of them. It has no location.
BANDI: Eleven?
ASHTAVAKRA: The ten senses together with the mind. A man who cannot master them calls himself free while living as their servant.
BANDI: Twelve?
ASHTAVAKRA: Twelve months complete a year. Time measures change; the Self never changes.
BANDI: Thirteen?
ASHTAVAKRA: You have spent your entire life counting — counting scriptures, counting verses, counting victories, counting defeated scholars. But truth cannot be counted. The moment you begin counting, you have already moved away from that which is beyond number.
For the first time in many years, Bandi has nothing to say.
ASHTAVAKRA: May I ask you one final question?
Bandi nods.
ASHTAVAKRA: As you stand here now, without another question left to ask — who are you?
Bandi opens his mouth. Nothing comes. He searches the Vedas, his memory, every debate he has ever won — and finds nothing.
ASHTAVAKRA: The mind always has another answer. Awareness does not. The one who knows does not stand here trying to become victorious. The desire to win is proof that the ego is still alive.
BANDI: Today I have been defeated — not by greater memory, not by greater argument, but by one who has seen what I only studied.
Knowledge can defeat another mind. Only direct seeing can end the mind itself.