King Janak and Ashtavakra

Maharaji quotes a story from Ramayana. The story of King Janak, who was father of Sita. Sita was married to Ram of Ayodhya. The story speaks about King Janak’s dream, following which he made a declaration to give away his kingdom as a prize to the person who could answer his question. Through these unfoldings, King Janak met his young master, Ashtavakra.

There was a king. I'll abbreviate this. This is an Indian story. There is this king and he is dreaming. He is dreaming that he has lost his kingdom. He is dreaming that he has been defeated. He is dreaming that he is running into the jungle. He is dreaming that he is really hungry. The jungle is cold and wet. He comes across this hut. He knocks at the door and says, "Do you have anything to eat?" An old lady says, "I don't have anything to eat. But I have some rice and some lentils, I will give it to you. You can cook it and satisfy your hunger."

The wood is all wet. He gathers the wood, lights the fire. The smoke is running into his eyes. I mean its a mess. Finally he gets enough of fire going. He puts the pot on. He puts the little bit of lentils, he puts the little bit of rice. Boils it together. It is too hot for him to eat, so he takes a big leaf and puts it on the leaf, to cool down.

In the meanwhile, while he is waiting for it to cool down, two bulls come, fighting, and take what he has made, and plough it into the dirt. In this desperation, the king begins to weep. And he weeps and weeps. And the tears rolling down his eyes, wake him up. When the dreams sometimes get so intense, you wake up. So, he wakes up. He looks. There are the guards. His bed, beautiful bedroom. And he thinks to himself, "What is real? What I was just feeling, was that real? Or now, that I am lying here, is this real?"

So, he gets up in the morning, goes to his court and makes a declaration. "Whoever can answer my question, I will give him half my kingdom." People come. I am sure dream readers must have come. But, nobody could satisfy him.

Then this young master comes, and he says, "Are you ready to listen to me? So, if you are ready to listen to me. then listen king. Let me tell you. What you saw in your dream, was not real, because that was a dream. But when you thought you woke up, and what you saw was also a dream. Both are dreams.

Thats the point of it, that all that we consider to be real, is not. Then we have those, whom we feel, we are related to, our relatives. Then we have those, whom we feel we love, our loved ones. Are these real? Are these relations real?

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