Ashtavakra

(“eight bends”) In the Mahabharata,
the later of the two great Hindu epics,
Ashtavakra is a sage who is the son of
Khagodara. According to tradition,
Ashtavakra is an exceptionally precocious child, and this gets him into serious trouble. While he is still in his
mother’s womb, Ashtavakra corrects his
father’s pronunciation of a certain
mantra. In response his father curses
him to be bent, and when the child is
born he has eight bends in his body.
Despite his unusual appearance,
Ashtavakra becomes a learned sage and
is widely believed to be the author of the
Ashtavakragita (“Song of Ashtavakra”).
This text describes the philosophical
concept of monism, which is the belief
that a single Supreme Reality (named
Brahman) lies behind the entire universe, and that all things are merely differing manifestations of this reality.