Khāṇḍikya

Khāṇḍikya was a king of the Janaka line of Videha. He was the son of Mitadhvaja and the grandson of Dharmadhvaja. He followed the karma-mārga, the path of ritual action. He performed yajñas (fire rituals) and kept dharma in his kingdom.

His cousin Keśidhvaja defeated him and drove him out of the kingdom. Khāṇḍikya lived in the deep forest and kept up his practice there. Later he taught Keśidhvaja the prāyaścitta (act of atonement) that he needed. When Keśidhvaja offered guru-dakshiṇā (a gift to a teacher), Khāṇḍikya did not ask for his kingdom. He asked for the knowledge of liberation. The Purāṇas hold him up as a great example of vairāgya (dispassion). After he received the full teaching of yoga from Keśidhvaja, he gave up kingship and reached liberation through yoga that lasted over many births.

Lineage and path

Khāṇḍikya was born in the Janaka line of the kingdom of Videha. His grandfather Dharmadhvaja had two sons. Mitadhvaja followed the karma-mārga. Kṛtadhvaja followed the adhyātma-mārga, the path of the self. Khāṇḍikya was the son of Mitadhvaja, so he carried on the karma-mārga tradition. He followed it with care and sincerity. He did his yajñas exactly, kept the fire rites and did the ritual duties of a Vaidika king.

His cousin was Keśidhvaja, the son of Kṛtadhvaja. Keśidhvaja was an expert in ātma-vidyā (knowledge of the self) and the path of jñāna. Both men were kings, and both sought liberation. Their paths and their worldly fortunes brought them into conflict.

Defeat and life in the forest

In the conflict between the cousins, Keśidhvaja won and drove Khāṇḍikya out of his kingdom. Khāṇḍikya went into the dense forest that no one could easily reach, with his ministers and his purohita (household priest). Losing the kingdom did not break his hold on dharma. He went on performing yajñas and fire rites in the forest. He kept his karma-mārga practice with full sincerity and sought through it the liberation that his path promised.

The teaching of the prāyaścitta

During a yajña of Keśidhvaja, the gharmadhenu (the cow used in the rite) was killed. None of the ṛtvijas (priests) knew the prāyaścitta. The answer came through a chain of questions that ended with Khāṇḍikya. Keśidhvaja came to the forest himself to ask.

Khāṇḍikya’s ministers saw the enemy king coming. They urged Khāṇḍikya to kill Keśidhvaja and win back the kingdom. Khāṇḍikya refused. He gave his reason:

“If I kill him, I get this earth, which is short-lived. If I teach him what he needs for his yajña, I keep the fruit of paro-dharma, which is eternal, ananta. Paro-dharma, the dharma that goes beyond worldly gain, is far greater than mahī-jaya, the conquest of the earth. One who is caught in mamakāra and ahaṃkāra longs for kingship. The wise do not.”

Here mamakāra is the sense of “mine” and ahaṃkāra is the sense of “I”. Khāṇḍikya then gave Keśidhvaja the complete prāyaścitta, as the śāstra requires.

The refusal of the kingdom and the true request

Keśidhvaja came back a second time to offer guru-dakshiṇā. Khāṇḍikya’s ministers again urged him to ask for the kingdom. Khāṇḍikya again refused. He said:

“A mahājñānī, one with true wisdom, would not ask for what lasts only a short time (alpa-kāla). Those overcome by avidyā, by mamakāra and ahaṃkāra, long for kingdoms. We are not such people.”

Then he made his true request:

“You are expert in the adhyātma. You live in brahma-vidyā. What I ask is this: teach me the path by which all kleśa (affliction) ends for ever. Teach me how to reach liberation.”

He asked for the knowledge of liberation, not for the return of his kingdom, at the very moment the kingdom was freely offered. This request showed his spiritual maturity and made him fit to receive the teaching.

The yoga teaching and liberation

Keśidhvaja taught Khāṇḍikya the whole of yoga. He taught:

• the nature of avidyā (ignorance) and its two seeds;
• the picture of the pot and water, for how the ātman seems to be tied up with prakṛti;
• the yamas, niyamas, āsanas, prāṇāyāma (both sādhāraṇa and nirbīja) and pratyāhāra;
• dhāraṇā on the mūrta (with form) and amūrta (without form) aspects of Bhagavān Vishṇu;
• dhyāna on the particular form of Bhagavān Vishṇu for contemplation;
• the three bhāvanās;
• samādhi, in which all bhāvanā dissolves into pure ātma-saṃvit (knowledge of the self).

He also taught the three śaktis of Bhagavān Vishṇu: Parā, Kshetrajñā and Avidyā-karma.

After he received this teaching, Khāṇḍikya said that all had been done for him. He said that the sense of “I” and “mine” was wholly avidyā, the root of bondage, and that he now saw through it clearly. He crowned his son as king. He also gave up his dwelling in the forest, which was itself a kind of conditional home, and he entered deeper practice.

The Purāṇa records that his liberation did not come at once. The yoga was deep and his stored karma was vast. He practised through many births and kept to the path of yoga without a break from life to life. In the end he reached ātyantika laya, the final and lasting dissolving of the jīva‘s seeming separateness from the Supreme. He did not return to saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death).

Sources

• Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa, Shashṭhāṃśa, Chapters 6–7