The Boy Who Told the Truth

The sages told the Pandavas of Satyakama, the son of Jabala - a boy of unknown father who won a teacher's heart by his truthfulness, and was taught the knowledge of the divine by the very creatures of the world. It is a tale of how truth itself is the surest passport to wisdom.

There was a boy named Satyakama, the son of a woman named Jabala who served in many houses in her youth. When the boy grew old enough, he wished to go and live with a teacher and study the sacred lore, as was the custom. So he came to his mother and said, 'Mother, I wish to go and become a student of the holy knowledge. Of what family and lineage am I? For a teacher will ask me my gotra, my father's line, before he accepts me as a pupil.' For it was the rule that a student must declare his lineage, and only the twice-born of known family were taken as pupils.