Mananam

Notes regarding Astavakra . Svetaketu, the son of Gautama Aruni was the uncle of Astavakra. Astavakra and Svetaketu, nephew and uncle, are contemporaries who went to King Janaka to defeat Vandin. Kahoda (Astavakra’s father) was Uddalaka's student to whom he gave his daughter Sujata in marriage. The child in Sujata s womb corrects his father while he was displaying his scholarship and is cursed to be astavakra, "eightfold crooked". Sujata (Astavakra’s mother) wants wealth, and requests Kahoda thus, for which he goes to King Janaka’s court. There he is defeated by the court philosopher Vandin and is apparently drowned. Uddalaka tells his daughter to keep this fact from his grandson Astavakra. After twelve years Astavakra finds out about this father and goes with (his uncle who was of same age as him) Svetaketu to King Janaka’s court. There is amazes everyone with his intellect and eventually defeats Vandin. For more in this regard, please study Vana Parva – Teerthayat...

  Sri Sankara (prefaces the 6th verse) “It has been affirmed that the self alone is the friend and the self alone is the foe, of the self. What sort of self is the friend and what sort, the foe of the self? Answer:” EXT : One of the most repeated teachings in Bhagavad Gita and Mahabharata on the whole is subduing the lower-self (body, mind, senses, etc). Sri Sankara refers to this body-mind-conglomerate as Un-Atman (non-self), to draw our attention to our essential nature (Self as pure consciousness, which is apart from everything else that it reveals). He says “As non-self is self’s foe or adversary, so, this very self that is unsubdued will operate as the foe” Importance of control of Lower Self - (Body, mind, Senses) is emphasized in previous Gita Verses. Some of them given herewith for recollection (abhyāsa) : -  5.28 - yatēndriya manō buddhir munir mōkṣaparāyaṇaḥ. vigatēcchābhayam krōdhō yaḥ sadā mukta ēva saḥ With the senses, the mind and the intellect always controlled...

 The following section has useful quotes for quick retrieval.  When commenting on Kena Upanisad - 1.3 Bhagavatpaada says : -  Brahman is to be known only through the tradition of teachings of the Acharya and not through argument, nor by the study of the Vedas, nor by intelligence, great learning, austerity, sacrifice etc. Thus have we heard from the ancients, i.e. thus have we heard the utterance of the ancient teachers who expounded for us all about Brahman very clearly. When commenting on Gita 15.15 -  Vedaantakrid vedavid eva chaaham. Bhagavatpaada says : -  I, the supreme Self, alone am to be known through all the Vedas and I have caused the procedure of handing down the teachings of the Vedas to be continued through generations (vēdāntakṛt vēdāntārthasaṅpradāyakṛt ityarthaḥ) and I am also the knower of the purport of the Vedas. When commenting on Prasna Upanisad 6.8 last verse - namaḥ paramaṛṣibhyo namaḥ paramaṛṣibhyaḥ  Even this verse is explained by ...