By: Dr. G.R. Vijayakumar
Hari Vinayak Sathe complained about Nanavalli to Sai Maharaj that he was creating a lot of
problems with his funny behavior so that he could not continue to stay in Shirdi. Sainath pacified him to have ‘Saburi’ and revealed that Nanavalli is a ‘Siddha’ and his outward behavior has masked his evolved state of mind.
At that time, Moolay Sastry and Booty came to the mosque to meet Sai Maharaj. Moolay Sastri at that time was doing daily ‘Parayan’ of Ashtavakra Gita. Baba asked Hari Vinayak Sathe to learn from Moolay Sastri about Ashtavakra feeling wonderful always.
Moolay Sastry offered his obeisance to Baba and stated that health generally is assumed to relate to body care, internal and external. A broader view includes mental health. Radically different from all this, is the Vedic view of health, encapsulated in the Sanskrit word, ‘Swasthya’. Ironically, Ashtavakra, the sage with eight deformities, presents this ideal.
Rather than feel embarrassed by these deformities, as most probably would, Ashtavakra
exclaims in ecstasy: ‘Wonderful, wonderful am I!’ Why? Because deformities notwithstanding, he was perfectly Swasth. He gives us insight into what true health means or should mean. Sai Maharaj added that Nanavalli is a wonderful, dedicated person.
Moolay Sastry continued that his ‘Ashtavakra Gita’ is a classic of Sanskrit literature and he is doing its ‘paryan’ at Shirdi. It is structured as a dialogue between the Guru-poet’ and the royal sage, Janaka Maharaja. Janaka poses 
three questions to Ashtavakra: How can Jnana, knowledge, be acquired? How can Mukti, liberation, be attained? How is Vairagya, renunciation, possible? While answering these questions, Ashtavakra discourses on various topics, all anchored in Advaita, the Indian ideal of monism, revolving around the central topic of the SELF. With a total of 298 verses, spread over 20 chapters of varying lengths, Ashtavakra Gita is less than half the size of the Bhagavad Gita. The two works complement each other.
When he first approached Sai Maharaj, the young Moolay Sastri, was under the influence of his Guru Gholap Maharaj and proud of his being a Brahmin, averse to the idea of worshipping Sai Baba whom he thought to be a Muslim. Baba gave him a vision that he is no different from his Guru Gholap Maharaj and made Moolay Sastri realize Advaita, which equates the SELF to God. Sai Baba, however, divined that the young Moolay Sastri was innately rooted in Advaita. Instead of discussing monism, he introduced him to do daily parayan of Ashtavakra Gita. Baba also corrected Hai Vinayak Sathe.
The word, Swasth, commonly connotes health or healthy, implying physical health. However, in Sanskrit, the word ‘Swasth’ essentially connotes ‘established in the SELF’, Swasth. This connotation opens new vistas. Swasth goes well beyond the Greek ideal of wellness, defined as a healthy mind in a healthy body ‘Deh’. The Greek view of health would have excluded Ashtavakra, the sage with an ‘unhealthy’ body with deformities.
Swasth does not imply a mere robust attitude to life; it implies the only true attitude to life. You are either Swasth or sick; there can be no shades of grey between these two conditions.
Sai Baba pointed out that Janaka does not receive theoretical answers to his queries. The
interaction with Ashtavakra makes him Swasth; it establishes him in the SELF.
The Swasth person is marked by tranquility. This is due to the expulsion of both, negative and positive thoughts; antipathy as also sympathy; in short, a person who has transcended the entire horde of ‘pairs of opposites. Baba wanted Sathe to positively think of Nanavalli.
Whatever Lord Krishna says of ‘Stitha Prajna’ in the Bhagavad Gita applies also to a Swasth person. “Purged of all pairs of opposites, such a person”, says Ashtavakra, “displays a ‘Shoonya Chitta’, blank mind. Society may see him doing all the normal acts, but the Swasth person is only inactive and indifferent to the circumstances, ‘like a dry leaf blown by the wind’. Sathe realized his mistake of interpreting Nanavalli’s pranks.
Moolay Sastri summed up the entire discussion in the words of Ashtavakra – ‘He sees the world as a projection of his SELF, and always abides in the SELF. He neither seeks nor avoids the world; he stays indifferent to it. He suffers no ailments because he abides in the SELF as Atmaram.’ In Ashtavakra’s words, he lives like one ‘Videh’, bodiless. He does not mind whether his body has eight or eighty deformities. He feels just wonderful – always.
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