Chapter 6.13 - Tuladhara Jajali debate

Right from the childhood, Jajali was used to the rains, heat, snow and other powers of nature and he lived in the forest with proper selfrestraint. He stood in the forest like a pillar immersed in meditation. Birds made their nests in his knotted hair. He was a non-violent person and he stood without any movement and so the birds came and rested in their nests at nights. Even when the birds laid eggs in their nests, Jajali made no protest. The eggs were hatched and there were small hatchlings. They developed wings and started going out with their parents seeking food. In the evenings they returned to their nests. Once the birds left at dawn and returned to their nest only after 6 days. The ascetic waited patiently for the birds even for a month at one time. But they did not return. Jajali then went and dipped himself in the sea, feeling quite confident that people like him who had acquired dharma were safe on land and water. The water devils said to him through a vision that Tuladhara, a trader in Kashi, had acquired greater dharma than Jajali. When Jajali heard this, he decided to go to Tuladhara in Kashi.^[1]

Tuladhara welcomed the ascetic and requested him to sit down and they started talking. Jajali soon realized that the trader was greater than himself. He got dharma counsel from Tuladhara and he acquired moksha.^[2]

After giving him the counsel, Tuladhara said to Jajali:

“Don't you see how the birds travel? Even the birds that grew in your knotted hair, hawks and many different kinds of birds fly in the atmosphere. You see them going round and round in the sky, but when they enter their nest they fold their wings and their legs. The birds that grew in your hair respect you as their father.”

When Jajali heard these words from Tuladhara, he called those birds near him and they advised Jajali the words of dharma. The advice of the birds to Jajali in the Tuladhara-Jajali Debate is in the Mokshadharma Parva which is the subchapter of Shanti Parva

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Mahabharata , Santiparva, 261-264

[2]:

Ibid., 264, p. 76