Ashtavakra is an ancient sage in Hinduism. He was born as a physically handicapped person. He was mentioned and regarded as a popular sage in the epics and puranas. His grandfather was the great sage “ARUNI”. And Sage Aruni was a great scholar, and also a teaching professional of vedas and other ancient texts. Ashtavakra was married to Suprabha, a pious lady.
Ashtavakra was also the author of the divine text Astavakra Gita, and it is based on spiritual concepts.
The details about him were found in the great epics Ramayana and the Mahabharata and also in the ancient Puranas. It is also told, that while he was in the womb of his mother, he corrected his father towards the wrong chanting of vedas, and asked him to recite the vedas properly. Due to his action, his father had got angry with his son and cursed him to be born as a handicapped person.
Once he saved his father from the son of Lord Varuna, since he was defeated by him in debate. In return for that, his father had cured his handicap, and Ashtavakra became a healthy boy, without any defects in his body.
The Ashtavakra Gita quotes that there is only one god, and everything is connected with that god, and we can realize the god from our inner soul, and we should do only good things to others, and also keep our mind pure and clean, in order to eliminate our sins, and to attain SALVATION.
IMPORTANCE
King Janaka, the ruler of videha kingdom, was very much impressed about the knowledge of the great sage Ashtavakra, and offered him all the riches in his life. But Ashtavakra had given the riches to the poor Brahmins, in order to run their lives properly. He never interested in involving himself in worldly activities, and not interested in wealth, but concentrated his attention only on worshipping Lord Vishnu. He was a great devotee of Lord Vishnu and always sung his glories and chanted his names, and finally attained enlightenment from him.
Let us worship the great sage “ASHTAVAKRA” and attain all the riches in our life, and finally attain MOKSHA.
“OM SREE RISHI ASKTAVAKRARE NAMAHA”
“OM NAMO NARAYANAYA NAMAHA”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR