Ashtavakra and King Janaka

Ashtavakra was a brilliant sage whose body was severely deformed, bent in eight places. While still in his mother's womb, he had corrected his father's recitation of the Vedas, causing his father to curse him in anger with physical deformity.

When he was twelve, Ashtavakra traveled to the court of the great philosopher-king Janaka to rescue his father, who had been defeated in a philosophical debate and imprisoned by the scholar Vandi.

As Ashtavakra awkwardly limped into the grand royal assembly, the esteemed scholars and priests looked at his twisted, grotesque body and burst into loud laughter.

Instead of feeling ashamed, Ashtavakra laughed back, even louder. King Janaka, puzzled, asked, "I understand why they are laughing at you, but why are you laughing?"

Ashtavakra replied, "O King, I came here expecting to find an assembly of wise sages. Instead, I find a gathering of cobblers! Only a cobbler judges the value of something by the quality of its skin (leather). These men see my crooked body, but they cannot see my straight, pure, and luminous soul."

The entire court was stunned into absolute silence by the depth of his wisdom. Ashtavakra went on to defeat Vandi in debate, free his father, and deliver the Ashtavakra Gita—a masterpiece of Advaita Vedanta—to King Janaka.