Pure soul consciousness

Many religious scholars, proud of their learning, had gathered in King Janak's court for debates. One day, into this assembly walked a young sage named Ashtavakra. His body was bent in eight places; hence, he was called 'Ashtavakra', meaning 'eight deformities'. He had come to challenge them and seek justice for his father's defeat in a debate.

On seeing Ashtavakra, scholars burst into laughter. Ashtavakra also laughed loudly. Janak asked Ashtavakra why he was laughing. Ashtavakra replied that he had expected to see an assembly of learned pandits but, instead, found them ignorant. Their laughing at his outer appearance indicated that they only had 'body-vision' and not 'atma-drishti', soul-vision. A person with materialistic vision, steeped in maya, has only a surface view of things, and takes the outer-world illusion as the only reality. Whereas a sage with 'soul-vision' looks deeper and knows that a deformed body can house a loving, enlightened soul with great qualities.

Impressed by Ashtavakra's profound wisdom, Janak accepted him as his guru. Ashtavakra Gita, a timeless Vedantic dialogue between Ashtavakra and Janak, advises us to develop 'soul-vision', the ability to see beyond external forms by knowing that our true nature is not the body, thinker or doer, but sakshi, pure consciousness, of all experiences.