Not Deaf, Not Mute
A few children -- very few -- are born into this world with Knowledge of the Truth: the truth about the universe, about man and about God. They suspect from almost the beginning that things are not what they seem to be; that there must be a hidden Reality, here, to be discovered. By the time they are five or six years old they begin to remember their past lives -- where they came from and where they are going; and they ask the right questions.
Once in a very long time someone is born who has full knowledge of Truth. We are not going to explain, today, how that can happen, but here is a story from ancient India about just such a boy. His name was Jadabharata.
Before it came time for children his age to start talking, Jadabharata made up his mind that in this life he would not speak at all. He would only think in his head about God, and meditate on him. He recalled the difficulties and distractions of his former lives, and thought that in this way he would avoid many of them. And he kept his promise to himself -- he spoke only once in his life!
This is how it happened:
His family, you see, thought he was dumb -- in two ways -- mute, and an imbecile. In their eyes he was not fit to be married or hold a job, not fit for anything. When his father died his brothers divided the inheritance, leaving out Jadabharata. They just kept him around the house, to build fires, haul water, clean up etc. Naturally they sometimes got angry with him, and then he would go out and sit under a tree to wait until they cooled down.
One day he was doing just that, when a palanquin came down the road. Do you know what a palanquin is? It is something like a sedan-chair. The rider sits in a box between two poles, carried at the ends by four men. But there were only three men bearing this one. In the palanquin was the king of that land, being taken to his summer palace, and one of the bearers had fallen ill.
When they saw Jadabharata, strong and silent under the tree, they thought he would make an excellent substitute. The kind then stuck out his head and commanded him to be the fourth bearer. Strange to say, Jadabharata jumped right up and put the end of the pole to his shoulder.
What a strange ride! The new bearer was looking down and hopping now and then, jerking and swaying. Jadabharata, you see, was full of mercy to every living creature and could not bear to step on a worm or ant or beetle, and was avoiding all of them.
The king put his head out again. "Hey, clumsy," he said, "are you already so tired that you can't walk straight?" His new servant looked the king in the face, smiled, and spoke for the first time in his life, in a very sweet voice.
"Whom are you calling 'clumsy'? Is there anything in the whole world that is not yourself? Everything is the Self. How can the Self ever be tired or need rest?"
Startled, the king got out of his "box", came to him and bowed low before him.
"Who are you, O sage? I see that you are a knower of Truth, a knower of Brahman. A thousand pardons. Kindly give me instruction."
They talked for hours, about the highest truths declared in
the scriptures. And if you want to know the end of the story,
the fact is that the king ruled wisely and in the end gave up
his throne to become a wandering monk. Jadabharata went back to
his family, and of course they saw him now in a very different
way!
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