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There was a king named Janaka, the father of Sītā. One afternoon, he was sleeping. Afternoon dreams are very complicated—not sleep, but work. Only yoga nidrā. In his dream, Janaka saw that another king had come with a large army and was attacking his kingdom. Janaka lost everything. All his soldiers were killed. He ran away from the battlefield and saw many soldiers lying on the ground. He thought, "Is this the aim of my life?" To protect himself, he escaped into a vast forest—the kind of forest that only exists in fairy tales, where if a man ran into it, it would be very hard to find him again. That was the forest of that time. He was a hungry, thirsty, tired, and dispirited king. During the day, he hid under trees so the enemy would not find him. At night, he spent time in the trees out of fear of wildlife. He had nothing to eat or drink, and no sleep. After several days or weeks, he became very weak. He was walking slowly when suddenly he saw a house and went there. He asked for some food. The lady of the house was a very nice person and gave him fresh chapatis with vegetables. But the king had his strict discipline. Nitya Niyama is essential for human life, especially for yogīs. Nitya Niyama means daily routine: get up, do your sādhanā, pūjā, wash yourself, then do pūjā and prayer, and then eat something. Many people even now do not take breakfast without washing. "Ustanete, operete se, imate sādhanā, pūjā, i onda doručkujete." The king asked the lady, "Mother, is there some facility where I can wash myself before I eat?" "Gde bi se mogao oprati pre jela?" That is the Vedic culture, the Indian culture. He did not say, "Lady, is there somewhere to wash?" He said, "Mother." And she replied, "Yes, my son. Just a few meters, or fifty meters from here, is a beautiful lake where we all wash ourselves. You can go and have a bath there." King Janaka thought, "My adoration to thee, O my destiny, what are you playing with me? There were days when I used to feed thousands of people, and today I am myself like a beggar, hiding. People feared my name only, and today, the fearless one has become fear. Every day is not an equal day." But Gurū Nānak said, "Every day is a golden day for the saints." Gurū Nānak said for the saints every day is golden, but for those who have desires and ambitions, their days are not every day equal. For those full of ambition and desire, every day is not golden. With one hand the slippers, with the other hand the walking stick. The king walked towards the water. And what did he see coming in front of him? Also very hungry, a Doberman. When the Doberman saw the chapati and the man, it saw its tit. It attacked him, attacked his chapatis. When the Doberman jumped on him, the king had no power to stand up; he fell down. It was the saddest time in his life. "Lord, what are you doing with me? I am not capable even to fight against a dog." With pain in his heart, he fell to the ground and hit his head. In that second, he woke up. Where was the forest? Where was the Doberman? He was lying in his beautiful palace, in a beautiful bed. Near his bed were fruits, water, juice, and everything. He was not hungry at all. He sat up and began to think, "What is the truth? Is this life the truth, or was that life—the dream just now—the truth?" Days and months passed. He did not leave his bed; he denied eating. He became a seeker. "I want to know what the reality is. That dream is reality when I go to the dream; this world disappears. And when I come to this world, the dream disappears. We are pendulating here and there." He announced, "Is there any master, any Gurū, who can remove my inner suffering?" This suffering was a longing for the truth. When the king announced he was searching for a Gurū, many people ran to become the king's Gurū. So every day in the palace there was a meeting, a session from morning nine to twelve and evening from five to seven. Anyone could come and give him an answer, not only theoretically but practically. Days passed. Many scholars, many Sanskrit scholars, were sitting there. He was a jogging dog. But his suffering was not getting released. At that time lived a great Ātmagyānī saint, a Brahmaniṣṭha Śrotriya named Aṣṭāvakra. Aṣṭāvakra means he had eight kinds of defects in his body; he was completely crippled. When he heard that people had gathered there and were talking nonsense, he was not eager to become the Gurū of King Janaka. He just wanted to save him from all this gossiping, so he went there. He felt it was his duty because he lived in the kingdom of Janaka. He did not want to become the king's Gurū; he was not interested in that. But he felt it was his duty to go there to help the king, to free him from all that torment, because he was a subject living in the kingdom of Sudjana. He gave the knowledge to our king. When he wanted to go to the palace, the guards would return him, as he did not look convincing. He was not as packed as the others; he did not look so rich as they usually are. So one day, when the guards were just drinking tea, he went in. Somehow he entered. When he came into the audience hall, the king was sitting on his throne, and many, many scholars were sitting there with many, many books. When they all saw Aṣṭāvakra coming in, they began to laugh. The whole hall was filled with laughter. The king did not know what was happening, but they were all looking and laughing, thinking, "What will he teach the king?" But Aṣṭāvakra was brave and fearless. He came near the king, looked at everybody who was laughing, and then looked at the king. And Aṣṭāvakra began to laugh. The king became angry: "You are laughing at me?" He said, "Not at you, at your stupidity." "What? I am stupid?" He said, "Yes." "What do you mean?" All became silent, pin-drop silent. The bodyguard of the king wanted to hold him there. But when the sun rises, you know, all lamps have no more power. The king asked him, "What is my stupidity?" "Your stupidity is this: that you have collected so many sinners here. Some are skinners, who take the skin out of the dead bodies of animals and sell them." They said, "What? He calls us skinners?" But Aṣṭāvakra could understand everything. He said, "Yes, you are the skinner. You have only knowledge of the skin, not of the ātmā. You are laughing because of my physical form, king. We had the curves, not the water. Are you asking me?" When the thirsty man sees the water, then half the thirst is already quenched. The king thought, "In his words there is some sense." The lessons began with Aṣṭāvakra, in front of everyone—discussions between the king and Aṣṭāvakra. The king asked, "What is the truth? When I go to a dream, this world disappears. When I come to this world, the dream disappears. So which world is the truth?" It is very simple: neither this world nor the dream is reality. Reality is that ātmā, the witness, who knows that I am dreaming and who knows that I was dreaming, who knows that I am in this world. Your inner self is the truth; the rest is all dreams. The inner self is the reality who sees everything, this life and this world. Then the teaching began, which is also called the Aṣṭāvakra Gītā. There are many Gītās, not only the Bhagavad Gītā. You will be surprised—we have in India millions of Gītās; some are the grandmothers already, in the land of Gītā. Anyhow, Aṣṭāvakra became and is known as a Jīvanmukta. Jīvan Videhī Mahārāja Janaka—only the one in our history who has got this title is known as Videhī, Janaka Videhī. But what happened in many, many lives when I got a human life? I was wandering here and there like a lost deer, a female deer in the forest, searching for its group. "Elvesve az erdőben mint egy lány őz keresve a csapatomat. Lutalsam kaos to luta usamljena kosuta sumom trazheci sognadozhenyu. Kei dape gei manus tanhar." O my Lord, many times I lost the human life. I couldn't become the winner; without the realization, again I died. "Uram, sok életet elvesteget." "Har" means like when you are playing on a football field, where one side is the winner and the other side is the loser. So many times I lost the human life because I didn't get that saṅgha. I was only in kusaṅga parat. I lost a lot of life. I couldn't win my life's meaning because I didn't fill it in saṅgha; I filled it in kusaṅga. I have wasted a lot of human life by dying without realization because I was in kusaṅg, not in satsaṅg. Many, many yugas passed. I was running behind other men. And many yugas passed while I was running after others. When I realized it was not that which I was searching for, and then I realized that this is not the one I'm looking for. It means this belief, and that belief, and this prayer, and that prayer, and this and that. We are wandering here and there. In India we say, when a cobra or a snake is running, it has curves. But as soon as it sees the hole where it lives, the curves are gone; it is just like him. So, when we find the right path, then all these curves are finished. Recording location: Hungary, Vep, Summer seminar