Dust Thou Art

I watched fascinated as our little granddaughter in Bangalore, turned ‘baker’, created cakes, croissants, doughnuts and cookies out of play-dough. Later, while driving to the airport from the city, the song, ‘Teri mitti mein mil jaawaan, gul ban ke main khil jaawaan … itni si hai dil ki aarzu ...’ was playing in the car. The patriotic emotion in it gave me goosebumps.

At Terminal 2 of the airport, I noticed a board that read, Mitti Café. The signage brought the mitti song back to memory, and instinctively, I walked in. The ambience was happy and lively, the walls dressed to perfection, with artefacts in happy colours.

But there was a difference. All members of the staff were differently-abled. From the cashier to the waiter, to the lady behind the ice-cream counter, all looked a little different. And it suddenly struck me that here was a place where these differently-abled people were constructively occupied and living with dignity. The smiles on their faces told a happy story. 

In a world where looks are given so much importance, here was a haven where looks were perhaps the last thing on their minds. God’s play-dough … moulded into different shapes ... Sitting there, I was reminded of the story of Ashtavakra.

While Ashtavakra was in his mother's womb, his father was narrating a story to his pregnant wife. There were various anomalies in the father’s narration. From the womb, the child interrupted, correcting him. The father rebuked the child (foetus in the womb), telling him to be quiet. But the child continued to correct his father whenever he said something wrong. When the foetus interrupted him for the eighth time, the father got so angry that he cursed the unborn child that he be born with eight deformities. When the child was born, his body was twisted in eight places. Hence the name Ashta-Vakara (eight deformities).

Ashtavakara grew up to be a learned Rishi. At one time, King Janaka hosted a congregation of sages and wanted to know who he truly was. He wanted to know the eternal truth of life. After a long pregnant silence, Rishi Ashtavakara said he could enlighten the king. Everyone burst out laughing. Rishi Ashtavakara said calmly, “How sad it is for me to have come all the way to attend this congregation. I thought this would be a place where many learned men would be present. But alas! It seems this place is full of shoemakers only.” All the Rishis rose in indignation. How dare this twisted and crippled creature call them shoemakers? Ashtavakara continued, “The learned can see through to the Atma resident within the body. They do not get impressed or put off by the deformities of the physical encasement of the soul. A shoemaker deals in skin. He looks only at the skin, its shape and form. It seems all of you can see only my skin, so you must all be shoemakers!”

There was pin-drop silence. King Janaka was impressed. He said, “Oh, Venerable one! Can you give me the knowledge of the ultimate truth?” The sage said, “That I can. But, you will have to give some Guru Dakshina”

The king said, “I shall give you whatever you want; whatever is there in my power to give!”
The sage smiled and said, “I, too, shall ask for only that which is in your power to give!”
The king said, “I am ready. Ask for whatever you want.”

The Rishi said, “Oh, king! Give me your tann-mann-dhan (body, mind and wealth)!” The king paused for a moment and said, “I give you my tann-mann-dhan.” As was the custom of the time, a handful of water was poured from the hands of the king to the hands of the Rishi, and the transfer was completed virtually.

The sage said, “Oh Janaka, now come and sit down on the floor.” Everyone watched with bated breath as Janaka quietly sat on the floor at the feet of the Rishi. The Rishi said, “Your kingdom, your palace and its wealth are mine now. Turn your thoughts away from them.” The king’s mind flew to the queen, his family and his people. Then he realised that all of that now belonged to the Rishi. He thought of his army, his kinsmen, the treasury, but that too belonged now to the Rishi.

The king’s mind flitted from this to that and the other, while the sage intently watched the changing expressions and emotions on his face. Finally, the king closed his eyes, withdrew his mind from everything and began to focus on his inner being. And he understood the truth. The Rishi whispered into the king’s ear, “Tat Twam Asi!” (Meaning: That is who you are!) A few moments later, the Rishi asked the king, “Now, do you understand?” The king nodded slowly. Yes! He had understood the ultimate truth. Nothing belonged to him. He was only a soul on a journey to the physical world. He was a part of the supreme soul. He and God were the same!

The body is the outer casing of the soul. The gross body is made of the five elements - Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space. The predominant, visible one of them all, the mass of the body is the Earth element. Yes! Mitti!

I suddenly realised that all of us are made of the same mitti. We are just shaped differently. The mitti is the same. From mitti we have been made and to mitti shall our bodies return.

Each one of us deserves to live a life of dignity. I was happy to see the staff of Mitti café and silently blessed those who made this platform for giving them an honourable place to work and earn a respectable living. I learnt that they have 50+ cafés within institutions such as the Supreme Court of India, Rashtrapati Bhavan, Kolkata High Court, Gujarat High Court, Infosys, and IIM Bangalore.

I remembered a poem from Baba Farid:

‘Wekh Farida mitti khuli, mitti utte mitti dulhi.

Mitti hasse, mitti rove, antt mitti da mitti hove.

Naa kar bandeya meri-meri, naa eh teri na eh meri,

Char dinaan da mela duniya, fir mitti di ban gayi dheri.’

Meaning: Look, O Farid! The soil is dug up. Soil is lying strewn over soil. The soil on top laughs, the soil underneath cries. In the end, all the soil becomes one. O man! Don’t cry, saying this is mine; for neither is it yours, nor is it mine. The world is a party we come to for four (a few) days, then we too shall become a heap of soil. Yes! Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return.

We are privileged to be born in a country where this mitti is revered as Bharat Mata and the Earth as Dharti Mata. May the spirit of compassion and empathy guide us all to know that we are all part of one whole. May we gain the knowledge of the absolute to realise who we are and where we shall head eventually.

[Tat Twam Asi is one of the four Mahavakyas. It appears in the Chandogya Upanishad associated with the Sama Veda.]

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Published in Daily Guardian on 23.05.2026 https://epaper.thedailyguardian.com/2026/05/22/e-paper-today-mumbai-23-may-2026/