Jaigīshavya and Asita Devala
This is a dialogue in the Mokshadharma Parva of the Mahābhārata’s Śānti Parva (chapter 229). The ṛshi Asita Devala asks the great ṛshi Jaigīshavya how he stays calm whether he is praised or blamed. Jaigīshavya answers with a full teaching on the way of the sthita-prajña (the person of steady wisdom).
How the dialogue begins
Yudhishṭhira asks Bhīshma, “What śīla (character), what ācāra (conduct), what vidyā (learning) and what parākrama (valour) fit a person to reach the brahma-sthāna, the station of brahman that lies beyond prakṛti and never moves?”
Bhīshma answers briefly. Then he tells the dialogue of Asita Devala and Jaigīshavya as the full illustration. Asita Devala is a great ṛshi known for sharp questions. He comes to Jaigīshavya with real admiration and with a thinker’s curiosity.
Asita Devala’s question
Asita Devala asks, “You do not rejoice when you are honoured. You do not grow angry when you are scorned. What is the nature of this prajñā (wisdom) of yours? Where did it come from? What is its parā-gati (highest goal)?”
This is not a hostile challenge. It is a real question from a fellow jñānin (knower) who sees something rare in Jaigīshavya and wants to understand it.
Jaigīshavya’s teaching
Jaigīshavya answers with a full account of the way of the truly wise.
He keeps his inner life hidden. The mahātmā (great soul) keeps hidden his inner practice, his good deeds and all that happens within him. He does not show what he has reached. A person with real jñāna does not advertise it. It shows only in the quality of his presence.
He does not strike back. Whatever others say, whether they scorn him or praise him, the mahātmā does not answer in the same way. He does not scorn those who scorn him. He does not return harm to the one who harms him. He does not wish to strike back at those who have struck him. This is not weakness. It is the active melting away of the urge to hit back.
He lives in the present. The jñānin does not grieve over what is lost and does not grasp at what he cannot get. He acts only with what kāla (time) has placed in his hands now. He does not remember past things with pain. “They act only within their moment of ability, with firm nishṭhā (steadiness), and according to what comes before them.”
He is free of envy. The true jñānin feels no īrshyā (jealousy) toward others. He does not harm others, even in his mind. When he sees another prosper, he does not burn inside. He does not speak ill of others or repeat their faults.
He is the same in every condition. The wise one is praśānta (fully calm) in every state, in honour or dishonour, in gain or loss, in pleasure or pain. The welfare of all beings, sarvabhūta-hita, is his only joy. He is never seized by anger. He is never puffed up. He never betrays anyone.
He cuts the knot in the heart. The wise one has cut the hṛdaya-granthi (knot in the heart). This is the deep, automatic sense of a personal self, which makes praise feel good and insult feel like a wound. With this knot cut, he moves freely toward brahma-tattva (the truth of brahman), leaping toward it like a deer freed from a snare.
“Cutting the knot of doubt in the heart, moving freely in the direction of the brahma-tattva, such a person has no relative and no one is their relative. They have no enemy and are no one’s enemy. In this way, those who live thus live happily at all times.”
Insult as nectar, honour as poison. Jaigīshavya gives the most concentrated form of the teaching:
“One who knows the tattva should receive insult like amṛta, with satisfaction and without distress. One of viveka should receive honour like visha, with unease and caution.”
The reason is that insult frees the jñānin from built-up dosha (faults). The one who has been insulted and stayed calm sleeps in peace in this world and the next, without fear. The one who has insulted others cannot sleep. The one who seeks the parā-gati and keeps this vrata (discipline) of calm answering gains a sukha (happiness) that keeps growing.
The brahma-pada. The one who has fully mastered the indriyas (senses) and has performed all yajñas reaches the brahma-pada, the station of brahman that lies beyond prakṛti and is dhruva, never moving. “The path of such a one is not open to devas, gandharvas, piśācas or rākshasas.”
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, chapter 229