A carefree wandering sage who told King Yadu how he learned wisdom and detachment from twenty-four teachers in nature.
Appears in
Dattatreya's twenty-four teachers in nature — Skandha 11, adhyayas 7-9 — Beginning his farewell teaching to Uddhava, Krishna tells how the avadhuta Dattatreya learned freedom from twenty-four teachers in the wild.
Embodies
Detachment — Kings who walk away from thrones, and one royal sage who renounces everything except a fawn and pays for it with two births.
Who is a teacher — A son teaches his mother, a madman teaches a king, and an ascetic learns from a pigeon, a python and a courtesan.
Questions to explore
Why does the Avadhuta say no single guru suffices for self-knowledge?
What did the Avadhuta learn from the python, the honeybee, the moth, and the courtesan Pingala?
Why did Krishna tell Dattatreya's story to Uddhava at the opening of the Uddhava Gita?
