Devalok
Legend · 1 telling · Pan-India

The twenty-four teachers

King Yadu meets a young wandering sage who is happy and fearless, and asks who taught him; the sage names twenty-four teachers, the earth, the wind, a pigeon, a python, a moth, a courtesan named Pingala, a girl's bangles and a spider among them; tradition calls him Dattatreya.

Who is in it

Texts: Bhagavata Purana

The story, beat by beat

  1. Yadu asks the wanderer the source of his joy.
  2. He names twenty-four teachers.
  3. The pigeon who followed his family into the net.
  4. Pingala, who waited all night and found peace when she stopped waiting.
  5. The girl who broke her bangles to one on each wrist.
  6. The spider who spins and takes back its web.

teachers nature detachment wisdom

How it is told, place by place

Base telling · Primary text (translation)

Bhagavata Purana 11.7 to 11.9

Pan-India Vaishnava

Krishna tells Uddhava of an old meeting. King Yadu saw a young brahmin wandering free, at ease and without fear, and asked who had taught him. The wanderer said he had twenty-four teachers. The earth taught him patience; the wind, to pass through things without clinging; the sky, that the self is in everything and stained by nothing. A pigeon who flew into the hunter's net after his wife and chicks taught him what attachment does. A python, lying still and eating what came, taught him contentment; a moth, the danger of the lure; a bee, to take a little from many flowers. Pingala, a courtesan who waited till midnight for a lover who never came and then gave up hope and slept happily, taught him that hope is the greatest unhappiness. A girl pounding rice, breaking her bangles until one on each wrist was left so they would not clatter, taught him to live alone. A spider who spins its web from itself and draws it back taught him how the Lord makes and takes back the world.

Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7 to 11.9 (Bhaktivedanta Book Trust); Dattatreya (Wikipedia)

Sources: Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7 to 11.9 (Bhaktivedanta Book Trust); Dattatreya (Wikipedia)

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