[Advaita-l] avadhUta GItA

[Guy Werlings]

namaste |



A few days ago, I read somewhere on the Internet:



"There is a story in the AvadhUta GItA which talks of the AvadhUta who 
stopped at a wayside inn and was asked by the innkeeper, "What is your 
teaching?" He replied, "There is no teacher, no teaching and no one taught." 
And then he walked away."



I have on my bookshelves several English translations and two French 
translations of the AvadhUta GItA, but nowhere in the text could I find this 
"story". Although my knowledge of Sanskrit is very basic, I searched also in 
the Itrans encoding of the text, but was not more successful. I tried in 
another text by the name of AvadhUta upanishad, but this citation is not 
there either.

Would any learned member of the list know where this quotation really occurs 
and what the exact reference is?

Of course I am aware that such an assertion as:  "There is no teacher, no 
teaching and no one taught." seems highly iconoclastic, provocative and 
antitraditional, but at the same time it reminded me of other more or less 
similar expressions in acknowleged and respected traditional texts like 
gauDapAdIya kArikA 2.32:



na nirodho na chotpattirna baddho na cha saadhakaH .

na mumukshurna vai mukta ityeshhaa paramaarthataa .. 32..



or  ashhTaavakra giitaa 20.3:



kva vidyaa kva cha vaavidyaa kvaahaM kvedaM mama kva vaa .kva bandha kva cha 
vaa mokshaH svaruupasya kva ruupitaa .. 20\-3.. Well I am also aware that 
the last two statements are most probably made from a paramArthika point of 
view and do not apply to the little self of i (the one with a small cap) 
still living in the vyavAharika state and a poor vyavahArikayA bhAshayA 
vada.I should still be thankful for any reply on the aforesaid quotation 
from the AvadhUta GItA. namAmi bhagavatpAdaM sha~NkaraM lokasha~Nkaram.h ||

Guy W. namaste | A few days ago, I read somewhere on the Internet: "There is 
a story in the AvadhUta GItA which talks of the AvadhUta who stopped at a 
wayside inn and was asked by the innkeeper, "What is your teaching?" He 
replied, "There is no teacher, no teaching and no one taught." And then he 
walked away." I have on my bookshelves several English translations and two 
French translations of the AvadhUta GItA, but nowhere in the text could I 
find this "story". Although my knowledge of Sanskrit is very basic, I 
searched also in the Itrans encoding of the text, but was not more 
successful. I tried in another text by the name of AvadhUta upanishad, but 
this citation is not there either.Would any learned member of the list know 
where this quotation really occurs and what the exact reference is?Of course 
I am aware that such an assertion as:  "There is no teacher, no teaching and 
no one taught." seems highly iconoclastic, provocative and antitraditional, 
but at the same time it reminded me of other more or less similar 
expressions in acknowledged and respected traditional texts like gauDapAdIya 
kArikA 2.32: na nirodho na chotpattirna baddho na cha saadhakaH .na 
mumukshurna vai mukta ityeshhaa paramaarthataa .. 32.. or  ashhTaavakra 
giitaa 20.3: kva vidyaa kva cha vaavidyaa kvaahaM kvedaM mama kva vaa .kva 
bandha kva cha vaa mokshaH svaruupasya kva ruupitaa .. 20\-3.. Well I am 
also aware that the last two statements are most probably made from a 
paramArthika point of view and do not apply to the little self of i (the one 
with a small cap) still living in the vyavAharika state and a poor 
vyavahArikayA bhAshayA vada.I should still be thankful for any reply on the 
aforesaid quotation from the AvadhUta GItA. namAmi bhagavatpAdaM sha~NkaraM 
lokasha~Nkaram.h ||

Guy W.