Spirituality & the Tamil Nation
The Song of Ashtavakra
"When the mind is freed from such pairs of opposites as, I have done
this, and I have not done that, it becomes indifferent to merit, wealth,
sensuality and liberation. ... There is no being or non-being, no unity or
dualism. What more is there to say? " |
Translation by John Richards
Presented to the public domain 28 May 1994
The Ashtavakra Gita, or the Ashtavakra Samhita as it is
sometimes called, is a very ancient Sanskrit text. Nothing seems to be known
about the author, though tradition ascribes it to the Sage Ashtavakra -
hence the name. There is little doubt though that it is very old, probably
dating back to the days of the classic Vedanta period. The Sanskrit style
and the doctrine expressed would seem to warrant this assessment.
The work was known, appreciated and quoted by Ramakrishna and his disciple Vivekananda,
as well as by
Ramana Maharshi, while
Radhakrishnan always refers to it with great respect. Apart from that, the
work speaks for itself. It presents the traditional teachings of Advaita
Vedanta with a clarity and power very rarely matched. The translation here
is by John Richards, and is presented to the public domain with his
affection. The work has been a constant inspiration in his life for many
years. May it be so for many others. (John Richards Stackpole
[email protected])
|
Contents
Janaka:
How is knowledge to be acquired? How is liberation to be attained? And how
is dispassion to be reached? Tell me this, sir. 1.1
Janaka:
Truly I am spotless and at peace, the awareness beyond natural causality.
All this time I have been afflicted by delusion. 2.1
Ashtavakra:
Knowing yourself as truly one and indestructible, how could a wise man
possessing self-knowledge like you feel any pleasure in acquiring wealth?
3.1
Ashtavakra:
Certainly the wise person of self-knowledge, playing the game of worldly
enjoyment, bears no resemblance whatever to the world's bewildered beasts of
burden. 4.1
Ashtavakra:
You are not bound by anything. What does a pure person like you need to
renounce? Putting the complex organism to rest, you can go to your rest.
5.1
Ashtavakra: I
am infinite like space, and the natural world is like a jar. To know this is
knowledge, and then there is neither renunciation, acceptance or cessation
of it. 6.1
Janaka:
It is in the infinite ocean of myself that the world bark wanders here and
there, driven by its own inner wind. I am not upset by that. 7.1
Ashtavakra:
Bondage is when the mind longs for something, grieves about something,
rejects something, holds on to something, is pleased about something or
displeased about something. 8.1
Ashtavakra:
Knowing when the dualism of things done and undone has been put to rest, or
the person for whom they occur has, then you can here and now go beyond
renunciation and obligations by indifference to such things. 9.1
Ashtavakra:
Abandoning desire, the enemy, along with gain, itself so full of loss, and
the good deeds which are the cause of the other two - practice indifference
to everything. 10.1
Ashtavakra:
Unmoved and undistressed, realising that being, non-being and transformation
are of the very nature of things, one easily finds peace. 11.1
Janaka:
First of all I was averse to physical activity, then to lengthy speech, and
finally to thinking itself, which is why I am now established. 12.1
Janaka:
The inner freedom of having nothing is hard to achieve, even with just a
loin-cloth, but I live as I please abandoning both renunciation and
acquisition. 13.1
Janaka:
He who by nature is empty minded, and who thinks of things only
unintentionally, is freed from deliberate remembering like one awakened from
a dream. 14.1
Ashtavakra:
While a man of pure intelligence may achieve the goal by the most casual of
instruction, another may seek knowledge all his life and still remain
bewildered. 15.1
Ashtavakra:
My son, you may recite or listen to countless scriptures, but you will not
be established within until you can forget everything. 16.1
Ashtavakra:
He who is content, with purified senses, and always enjoys solitude, has
gained the fruit of knowledge and the fruit of the practice of yoga too.
17.1
Ashtavakra:
Praise be to that by the awareness of which delusion itself becomes
dream-like, to that which is pure happiness, peace and light. 18.1
Janaka:
Using the tweezers of the knowledge of the truth I have managed to extract
the painful thorn of endless opinions from the recesses of my heart.
19.1
Janaka:
In my unblemished nature there are no elements, no body, no faculties no
mind. There is no void and no anguish. 20.1
Janaka: How
is knowledge to be acquired? How is liberation to be attained? And how is
dispassion to be reached? Tell me this, sir. 1.1 Ashtavakra:
If you are seeking liberation, my son, shun the objects of the senses like
poison. Practise tolerance, sincerity, compassion, contentment and
truthfulness like nectar. 1.2
You are neither earth, water, fire, air or even ether. For liberation
know yourself as consisting of consciousness, the witness of these . 1.3
If only you will remain resting in consciousness, seeing yourself as
distinct from the body, then even now you will become happy, peaceful and
free from bonds. 1.4
You do not belong to the Brahmin or any other caste, you are not at any
stage, nor are you anything that the eye can see. You are unattached and
formless, the witness of everything - so be happy. 1.5
Righteousness and unrighteousness, pleasure and pain are purely of the
mind and are no concern of yours. You are neither the doer nor the reaper of
the consequences, so you are always free. 1.6
You are the one witness of everything, and are always totally free. The
cause of your bondage is that you see the witness as something other than
this. 1.7
Since you have been bitten by the black snake of the self-opinion that 'I
am the doer', drink the nectar of faith in the fact that 'I am not the
doer', and be happy. 1.8
Burn down the forest of ignorance with the fire of the understanding that
'I am the one pure awareness', and be happy and free from distress. 1.9
That in which all this appears - imagined like the snake in a rope, that
joy, supreme joy and awareness is what you are, so be happy. 1.10
If one thinks of oneself as free, one is free, and if one thinks of
oneself as bound, one is bound. Here this saying is true, "Thinking makes it
so". 1.11
Your real nature is as the one perfect, free, and actionless
consciousness, the all-pervading witness - unattached to anything,
desireless and at peace. It is from illusion that you seem to be involved
in samsara. 1.12
Meditate on yourself as motionless awareness, free from any dualism,
giving up the mistaken idea that you are just a derivative consciousness, or
anything external or internal. 1.13
You have long been trapped in the snare of identification with the body.
Sever it with the knife of knowledge that 'I am awareness', and be happy, my
son. 1.14
You are really unbound and actionless, self-illuminating and spotless
already. The cause of your bondage is that you are still resorting to
stilling the mind. 1.15
All of this is really filled by you and strung out in you, for what you
consist of is pure awareness - so don't be small minded. 1.16
You are unconditioned and changeless, formless and immovable,
unfathomable awareness and unperturbable, so hold to nothing but
consciousness. 1.17
Recognise that the apparent is unreal, while the unmanifest is abiding.
Through this initiation into truth you will escape falling into unreality
again. 1.18
Just as a mirror exists everywhere both within and apart from its
reflected images, so the Supreme Lord exists everywhere within and apart
from this body. 1.19
Just as one and the same all-pervading space exists within and without a
jar, so the eternal, everlasting God exists in the totality of things. 1.20 |
Janaka: Truly
I am spotless and at peace, the awareness beyond natural causality. All this
time I have been afflicted by delusion. 2.1 As I alone give
light to this body, so I do to the world, As a result the whole world is
mine, or alternatively nothing is. 2.2
So now abandoning the body and everything else, by some good fortune or
other my true self becomes apparent. 2.3
Just as waves, foam and bubbles are not different from water, so all this
which has emanated from oneself, is no other than oneself. 2.4
In the same way that cloth is found to be just thread when analysed, so
when all this is analysed it is found to be no other than oneself. 2.5
Just as the sugar produced from the juice of the sugarcane is permeated
with the same taste, so all this, produced out of me, is completely
permeated with me. 2.6
From ignorance of oneself, the world appears, and by knowledge of oneself
it appears no longer. From ignorance of the rope a snake appears, and by
knowledge of it, it appears no longer. 2.7
Shining is my essential nature, and I am nothing over and beyond that.
When the world shines forth, it is simply me that is shining forth. 2.8
All this appears in me imagined due to ignorance, just as a snake appears
in the rope, the mirage of water in the sunlight, and silver in mother of
pearl. 2.9
All this, which has originated out of me, is resolved back into me too,
like a jug back into clay, a wave into water, and a bracelet into gold. 2.10
How wonderful I am! Glory be to me, for whom there is no destruction,
remaining even beyond the destruction of the world from Brahma down to the
last clump of grass. 2.11
How wonderful I am! Glory be to me, solitary even though with a body,
neither going or coming anywhere, I who abide forever, filling all that is.
2.12
How wonderful I am! Glory be to me! There is no one so clever as me! I
who have borne all that is forever, without even touching it with my body!
2.13
How wonderful I am! Glory be to me! I who possess nothing at all, or
alternatively possess everything that speech and mind can refer to. 2.14
Knowledge, what is to be known, and the knower - these three do not
exist in reality. I am the spotless reality in which they appear because of
ignorance. 2.15
Truly dualism is the root of suffering. There is no other remedy for
it than the realisation that all this that we see is unreal, and that I am
the one stainless reality, consisting of consciousness. 2.16
I am pure awareness though through ignorance I have imagined myself to
have additional attributes. By continually reflecting like this, my dwelling
place is in the Unimagined. 2.17
For me there is neither bondage nor liberation. The illusion has lost its
basis and ceased. Truly all this exists in me, though ultimately it does not
even exist in me. 2.18
I have recognised that all this and my body are nothing, While my true
self is nothing but pure consciousness, so what can the imagination work on
now? 2.19
The body, heaven and hell, bondage and liberation, and fear too, All this
is pure imagination. What is there left to do for me whose very nature is
consciousness? 2.20
Truly I do not see dualism even in a crowd of people. What pleasure
should I have when it has turned into a wilderness? 2.21
I am not the body, nor is the body mine. I am not a living being. I am
consciousness. It was my thirst for living that was my bondage. 2.22
Truly it is in the limitless ocean of myself, that stimulated by the
colourful waves of the worlds everything suddenly arises in the wind of
consciousness. 2.23
It is in the limitless ocean of myself, that the wind of thought
subsides, and the trader-like living beings' world bark is wrecked by lack
of goods. 2.24
How wonderful it is that in the limitless ocean of myself the waves of
living beings arise, collide, play and disappear, according to their
natures. 2.25 |
Ashtavakra: Knowing
yourself as truly one and indestructible, how could a wise man possessing
self-knowledge like you feel any pleasure in acquiring wealth? 3.1
Truly, when one does not know oneself, one takes pleasure in the objects of
mistaken perception, just as greed arises for the mistaken silver in one who
does not know mother of pearl for what it is. 3.2
All this wells up like waves in the sea. Recognising, I am That,
why run around like someone in need? 3.3
After hearing of oneself as pure consciousness and the supremely
beautiful, is one to go on lusting after sordid sexual objects? 3.4
When the sage has realised that he himself is in all beings, and all
beings are in him, it is astonishing that the sense of individuality should
be able to continue. 3.5
It is astonishing that a man who has reached the supreme non-dual state
and is intent on the benefits of liberation should still be subject to lust
and held back by sexual activity. 3.6
It is astonishing that one already very debilitated, and knowing very
well that its arousal is the enemy of knowledge should still hanker after
sensuality, even when approaching his last days. 3.7
It is astonishing that one who is unattached to the things of this world
or the next, who discriminates between the permanent and the impermanent,
and who longs for liberation, should still feel fear for liberation. 3.8
Whether feted or tormented, the wise man is always aware of his supreme
self-nature and is neither pleased nor disappointed. 3.9
The great souled person sees even his own body in action as if it were
some-one else's, so how should he be disturbed by praise or blame? 3.10
Seeing this world as pure illusion, and devoid of any interest in it, how
should the strong-minded person, feel fear, even at the approach of death?
3.11
Who is to be compared to the great souled person whose mind is free of
desire even in disappointment, and who has found satisfaction in
self-knowledge? 3.12
How should a strong-minded person, who knows that what he sees is by its
very nature nothing, consider one thing to be grasped and another to be
rejected? 3.13
For someone who has eliminated attachment, and who is free from dualism
and from desire, an object of enjoyment that comes of itself is neither
painful nor pleasurable. 3.14 |
Ashtavakra: Certainly
the wise person of self-knowledge, playing the game of worldly enjoyment,
bears no resemblance whatever to the world's bewildered beasts of burden.
4.1 Truly the yogi feels no excitement even at being
established in that state which all the Devas from Indra down yearn for
disconsolately. 4.2
He who has known That is untouched within by good deeds or bad, just as
the sky is not touched by smoke, however much it may appear to be. 4.3
Who can prevent the great-souled person who has known this whole world as
himself from living as he pleases? 4.4
Of all four categories of beings, from Brahma down to the last clump of
grass, only the man of knowledge is capable of eliminating desire and
aversion. 4.5
Rare is the man who knows himself as the undivided Lord of the world, and
no fear occurs to him who knows this from anything. 4.6
|
Ashtavakra: You
are not bound by anything. What does a pure person like you need to
renounce? Putting the complex organism to rest, you can go to your rest.
5.1 All this arises out of you, like a bubble out of the
sea. Knowing yourself like this to be but one, you can go to your rest. 5.2
In spite of being in front of your eyes, all this, being insubstantial,
does not exist in you, spotless as you are. It is an appearance like the
snake in a rope, so you can go to your rest. 5.3
Equal in pain and in pleasure, equal in hope and in disappointment, equal
in life and in death, and complete as you are, you can go to your rest. 5.4
|
Ashtavakra: I
am infinite like space, and the natural world is like a jar. To know this is
knowledge, and then there is neither renunciation, acceptance or cessation
of it. 6.1 I am like the ocean, and the multiplicity of
objects is comparable to a wave. To know this is knowledge, and then there
is neither renunciation, acceptance or cessation of it. 6.2
I am like the mother of pearl, and the imagined world is like the silver.
To know this is knowledge, and then there is neither renunciation,
acceptance or cessation of it. 6.3
Alternatively, I am in all beings, and all beings are in me. To know this
is knowledge, and then there is neither renunciation, acceptance or
cessation of it. 6.4
|
Janaka It
is in the infinite ocean of myself that the world bark wanders here and
there, driven by its own inner wind. I am not upset by that. 7.1
Let the world wave rise or vanish of its own nature in the infinite ocean of
myself. There is no increase or diminution to me from it. 7.2
It is in the infinite ocean of myself that the imagination called the
world takes place. I am supremely peaceful and formless, and as such I
remain. 7.3
My true nature is not contained in objects, nor does any object exist in
it, for it is infinite and spotless. So it is unattached, desireless and at
peace, and as such I remain. 7.4
Truly I am but pure consciousness, and the world is like a conjuror's
show, so how could I imagine there is anything there to take up or reject ?
7.5
|
Ashtavakra: Bondage
is when the mind longs for something, grieves about something, rejects
something, holds on to something, is pleased about something or displeased
about something. 8.1
Liberation is when the mind does not long for anything, grieve about
anything, reject anything, or hold on to anything, and is not pleased about
anything or displeased about anything. 8.2
Bondage is when the mind is tangled in one of the senses, and liberation
is when the mind is not tangled in any of the senses. 8.3
When there is no me that is liberation, and when there is me there is
bondage. Considering this earnestly, do not hold on and do not reject. 8.4
|
Ashtavakra: Knowing
when the dualism of things done and undone has been put to rest, or the
person for whom they occur has, then you can here and now go beyond
renunciation and obligations by indifference to such things. 9.1
Rare indeed, my son, is the lucky man whose observation of the world's
behaviour has led to the extinction of his thirst for living, thirst for
pleasure and thirst for knowledge. 9.2
All this is impermanent and spoilt by the three sorts of pain.
Recognising it to be insubstantial, comtemptible and only fit for rejection,
one attains peace. 9.3
When was that age or time of life when the dualism of extremes did not
exist for men? Abandoning them, a person who is happy to take whatever comes
attains perfection. 9.4
Who does not end up with indifference to such things and attain peace
when he has seen the differences of opinions among the great sages, saints
and yogis? 9.5
Is he not a guru who, endowed with dispassion and equanimity, achieves
full knowledge of the nature of consciousness, and leads others out of
samsara? 9.6
If you would just see the transformations of the elements as nothing more
than the elements, then you would immediately be freed from all bonds and
established in your own nature. 9.7
One's inclinations are samsara. Knowing this, abandon them. The
renunciation of them is the renunciation of it. Now you can remain as you
are. 9.8
|
Ashtavakra: Abandoning
desire, the enemy, along with gain, itself so full of loss, and the good
deeds which are the cause of the other two - practice indifference to
everything. 10.1 Look on such things as friends, land,
money, property, wife, and bequests as nothing but a a dream or a three or
five-day conjuror's show. 10.2
Wherever a desire occurs, see samsara in it. Establishing yourself in
firm dispassion, be free of passion and happy. 10.3
The essential nature of bondage is nothing other than desire, and its
elimination is known as liberation. It is simply by not being attached to
changing things that the everlasting joy of attainment is reached. 10.4
You are one, conscious and pure, while all this is just inert non-being.
Ignorance itself is nothing, so what need have you of desire to understand?
10.5
Kingdoms, children, wives, bodies, pleasures - these have all been lost
to you life after life, attached to them though you were. 10.6
Enough of wealth, sensuality and good deeds. In the forest of samsara the
mind has never found satisfaction in these. 10.7
How many births have you not done hard and painful labour with body, mind
and speech. Now at last stop! 10.8
|
Ashtavakra: Unmoved
and undistressed, realising that being, non-being and transformation are of
the very nature of things, one easily finds peace. 11.1 At
peace, having shed all desires within, and realising that nothing exists
here but the Lord, the Creator of all things, one is no longer attached to
anything. 11.2
Realising that misfortune and fortune come in their turn from fate, one
is contented, one's senses under control, and does not like or dislike. 11.3
Realising that pleasure and pain, birth and death are from fate, and that
one's desires cannot be achieved, one remains inactive, and even when acting
does not get attached. 11.4
Realising that suffering arises from nothing other than thinking,
dropping all desires one rids oneself of it, and is happy and at peace
everywhere. 11.5
Realising, I am not the body, nor is the body mine. I am awareness, one
attains the supreme state and no longer remembers things done or undone.
11.6
Realising, It is just me, from Brahma down to the last clump of grass,
one becomes free from uncertainty, pure, at peace and unconcerned about what
has been attained or not. 11.7
Realising that all this varied and wonderful world is nothing, one
becomes pure receptivity, free from inclinations, and as if nothing existed,
one finds peace. 11.8
|
Janaka: First
of all I was averse to physical activity, then to lengthy speech, and
finally to thinking itself, which is why I am now established. 12.1
In the absence of delight in sound and the other senses, and by the fact
that I am myself not an object of the senses, my mind is focused and free
from distraction - which is why I am now established. 12.2
Owing to the distraction of such things as wrong identification, one is
driven to strive for mental stillness. Recognising this pattern I am now
established. 12.3
By relinquishing the sense of rejection and acceptance, and with pleasure
and disappointment ceasing today, brahmin, I am now established. 12.4
Life in a community, then going beyond such a state, meditation and the
elimination of mind-made objects - by means of these I have seen my error,
and I am now established. 12.5
Just as the performance of actions is due to ignorance, so their
abandonment is too. By fully recognising this truth, I am now established.
12.6
Trying to think the unthinkable, is doing something unnatural to thought.
Abandoning such a practice therefore, I am now established. 12.7
He who has achieved this has achieved the goal of life. He who is of such
a nature has done what has to be done. 12.8
|
Janaka: The
inner freedom of having nothing is hard to achieve, even with just a
loin-cloth, but I live as I please abandoning both renunciation and
acquisition. 13.1 Sometimes one experiences distress
because of one's body, sometimes because of one's tongue, and sometimes
because of one's mind. Abandoning all of these, I live as I please in the
goal of human existence. 13.2
Recognising that in reality no action is ever committed, I live as I
please, just doing what presents itself to be done. 13.3
Yogis who identify themselves with their bodies are insistent on
fulfilling and avoiding certain actions, but I live as I please abandoning
attachment and rejection. 13.4
No benefit or loss comes to me by standing, walking or lying down, so
consequently I live as I please whether standing, walking or sleeping. 13.5
I lose nothing by sleeping and gain nothing by effort, so consequently I
live as I please, abandoning loss and success. 13.6
Frequently observing the drawbacks of such things as pleasant objects, I
live as I please, abandoning the pleasant and unpleasant. 13.7
|
Janaka: He
who by nature is empty minded, and who thinks of things only
unintentionally, is freed from deliberate remembering like one awakened from
a dream. 14.1
When my desire has been eliminated, I have no wealth, friends, robber
senses, scriptures or knowledge? 14.2
Realising my supreme self-nature in the Person of the Witness, the Lord,
and the state of desirelessness in bondage or liberation, I feel no
inclination for liberation. 14.3
The various states of one who is empty of uncertainty within, and who
outwardly wanders about as he pleases like a madman, can only be known by
someone in the same condition. 14.4
|
Ashtavakra: While
a man of pure intelligence may achieve the goal by the most casual of
instruction, another may seek knowledge all his life and still remain
bewildered. 15.1 Liberation is distaste for the objects of
the senses. Bondage is love of the senses. This is knowledge. Now do as you
please. 15.2
This awareness of the truth makes an eloquent, clever and energetic man
dumb, stupid and lazy, so it is avoided by those whose aim is enjoyment.
15.3
You are not the body, nor is the body yours, nor are you the doer of
actions or the reaper of their consequences. You are eternally pure
consciousness the witness, in need of nothing - so live happily. 15.4
Desire and anger are objects of the mind, but the mind is not yours, nor
ever has been. You are choiceless, awareness itself and unchanging - so live
happily. 15.5
Recognising oneself in all beings, and all beings in oneself, be happy,
free from the sense of responsibility and free from preoccupation with �me�.
15.6
Your nature is the consciousness, in which the whole world wells up, like
waves in the sea. That is what you are, without any doubt, so be free of
disturbance. 15.7
Have faith, my son, have faith. Don't let yourself be deluded in this,
sir. You are yourself the Lord, whose property is knowledge, and are beyond
natural causation. 15.8
The body invested with the senses stands still, and comes and goes. You
yourself neither come nor go, so why bother about them? 15.9
Let the body last to the end of the Age, or let it come to an end right
now. What have you gained or lost, who consist of pure consciousness?
15.10
Let the world wave rise or subside according to its own nature in you,
the great ocean. It is no gain or loss to you. 15.11
My son, you consist of pure consciousness, and the world is not separate
from you. So who is to accept or reject it, and how, and why? 15.12
How can there be either birth, karma or responsibility in that one
unchanging, peaceful, unblemished and infinite consciousness which is you?
15.13
Whatever you see, it is you alone manifest in it. How could bracelets,
armlets and anklets be different from the gold? 15.14 Giving up such
distinctions as This is what I am, and I am not that, recognise that
Everything is myself, and be without distinction and happy. 15.15
It is through your ignorance that all this exists. In reality you alone
exist. Apart from you there is no one within or beyond samsara. 15.16
Knowing that all this is an illusion, one becomes free from desire, pure
receptivity and at peace, as if nothing existed. 15.17
Only one thing has existed, exists and will exist in the ocean of being.
You have no bondage or liberation. Live happily and fulfilled. 15.18
Being pure consciousness, do not disturb your mind with thoughts of for
and against. Be at peace and remain happily in yourself, the essence of joy.
15.19
Give up the practice of contentration completely and hold nothing in your
mind. You are free in your very nature, so what will you achieve by working
your brain? 15.20
|
Ashtavakra: My
son, you may recite or listen to countless scriptures, but you will not be
established within until you can forget everything. 16.1 You
may, as a learned man, indulge in wealth, activity and meditation, but your
mind will still long for that which is the cessation of desire, and beyond
all goals. 16.2
It is because of effort that everyone is in pain, but no-one realises it.
By just this simple instruction, the lucky one attains tranquillity. 16.3
Happiness belongs to no-one but that supremely lazy man for whom even
opening and closing his eyes is a bother. 16.4
When the mind is freed from such pairs of opposites as, I have done
this, and I have not done that, it becomes indifferent to merit, wealth,
sensuality and liberation. 16.5
One man is abstemious and averse to the senses, another is greedy and
attached to them, but he who is free from both taking and rejecting is
neither abstemious nor greedy. 16.6
So long as desire, which is the state of lack of discrimination,
remains, the sense of revulsion and attraction will remain, which is the
root and branch of samsara. 16.7
Desire springs from usage, and aversion from abstension, but the wise man
is free from the pairs of opposites like a child, and becomes established.
16.8
The passionate man wants to be rid of samsara so as to avoid pain, but
the dispassionate man is without pain and feels no distress even in it.
16.9
He who is proud about even liberation or his own body, and feels them his
own, is neither a seer or a yogi. He is still just a sufferer. 16.10
If even Shiva, Vishnu or the lotus-born Brahma were your instructor,
until you have forgotten everything you cannot be established within. 16.11
|
Ashtavakta said He
who is content, with purified senses, and always enjoys solitude, has gained
the fruit of knowledge and the fruit of the practice of yoga too. 17.1
The knower of truth is never distressed in this world, for the whole round
world is full of himself alone. 17.2
None of these senses please a man who has found satisfaction within, just
as Nimba leaves do not please the elephant that has a taste for Sallaki
leaves. 17.3
Not attached to the things he has enjoyed, and not hankering after the
things he has not enjoyed, such a man is hard to find. 17.4
Those who desire pleasure and those who desire liberation are both
found in samsara, but the great souled man who desires neither pleasure nor
liberation is rare indeed. 17.5
It is only the noble minded who is free from attraction or repulsion to
religion, wealth, sensuality, and life and death too. 17.6
He feels no desire for the elimination of all this, nor anger at its
continuing, so the lucky man lives happily with whatever means of sustinence
presents itself. 17.7
Thus fulfilled through this knowledge, contented and with the thinking
mind emptied, he lives happily just seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling and
tasting. 17.8
In him for whom the ocean of samsara has dried up, there is neither
attachment or aversion. His gaze is vacant, his behaviour purposeless, and
his senses inactive. 17.9
Surely the supreme state is eveywhere for the liberated mind. He is
neither awake or asleep, and neither opens or closes his eyes. 17.10
The liberated man is resplendent everywhere, free from all desires.
Everywhere he appears self- possessed and pure of heart. 17.11
Seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting, speaking and walking about,
the great souled man who is freed from trying to achieve or avoid anything
is free indeed. 17.12
The liberated man is free from desires everywhere. He does not blame,
does not praise, does not rejoice, is not disappointed, and neither gives
nor takes. 17.13
When a great souled one is equally unperturbed in mind and self-possessed
at the sight of a woman full of desire and at approaching death, he is truly
liberated. 17.14
There is no distinction between pleasure and pain, man and woman, success
and failure for the wise man who looks on everything as equal. 17.15
There is no aggression or compassion, no pride or humility, no wonder or
confusion for the man whose days of running about are over. 17.16 The
liberated man is not averse to the senses and nor is he attached to them. He
enjoys hinself continually with an unattached mind in both achievement and
non-achievement. 17.17
One established in the Absolute state with an empty mind does not know
the alternatives of inner stillness and lack of stillness, and of good and
evil. 17.18
Free of me and mine and of a sense of responsibility, aware that Nothing
exists, with all desires extinguished within, a man does not act even in
acting. 17.19
He whose thinking mind is dissolved achieves the indescribable state and
is free from the mental display of delusion, dream and ignorance. 17.20
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Ashtavakra: Praise
be to that by the awareness of which delusion itself becomes dream-like, to
that which is pure happiness, peace and light. 18.1 One may
get all sorts of pleasure by the acquisition of various objects of
enjoyment, but one cannot be happy except by the renunciation of everything.
18.2
How can there be happiness, for one who is burnt inside by the blistering
sun of the pain of things that need doing, without the rain of the nectar of
peace? 18.3
This existence is just imagination. It is nothing in reality, but there
is no non-being for natures that know how to distinguish being from non
being. 18.4
The realm of one's own self is not far away, and nor can it be achieved
by the addition of limitations to its nature. It is unimaginable,
effortless, unchanging and spotless. 18.5
By the simple elimination of delusion and the recognition of one's true
nature, those whose vision is unclouded live free from sorrow. 18.6
Knowing everything as just imagination, and himself as eternally free,
how should the wise man behave like a fool? 18.7
Knowing himself to be God and being and non-being just imagination, what
should the man free from desire learn, say or do? 18.8
Considerations like I am this or I am not this are finished for the yogi
who has gone silent realising Everything is myself. 18.9
For the yogi who has found peace, there is no distraction or
one-pointedness, no higher knowledge or ignorance, no pleasure and no pain.
18.10
The dominion of heaven or beggary, gain or loss, life among men or in the
forest, these make no difference to a yogi whose nature it is to be free
from distinctions. 18.11
There is no religion, wealth, sensuality or discrimination for a yogi
free from the pairs of opposites such as I have done this and I have not
done that. 18.12
There is nothing needing to be done, or any attachment in his heart for
the yogi liberated while still alive. Things are just for a life-time.
18.13
There is no delusion, world, meditation on That, or liberation for the
pacified great soul. All these things are just the realm of imagination.
18.14
He by whom all this is seen may well make out he doesn't exist, but what
is the desireless one to do? Even in seeing he does not see. 18.15
He by whom the Supreme Brahma is seen may think I am Brahma, but what is
he to think who is without thought, and who sees no duality. 18.16
He by whom inner distraction is seen may put an end to it, but the noble
one is not distracted. When there is nothing to achieve, what is he to do?
18.17
The wise man, unlike the worldly man, does not see inner stillness,
distraction or fault in himself, even when living like a worldly man.
18.18
Nothing is done by him who is free from being and non-being, who is
contented, desireless and wise, even if in the world's eyes he does act .
18.19
The wise man who just goes on doing what presents itself for him to do,
encounters no difficulty in either activity or inactivity. 18.20
He who is desireless, self-reliant, independent and free of bonds
functions like a dead leaf blown about by the wind of causality . 18.21
There is neither joy nor sorrow for one who has transcended samsara. He
lives always with a peaceful mind and as if without a body. 18.22
He whose joy is in himself, and who is peaceful and pure within has no
desire for renunciation or sense of loss in anything. 18.23
For the man with a naturally empty mind, doing just as he pleases, there
is no such thing as pride or false humility, as there is for the natural
man. 18.24
This action was done by the body but not by me. The pure-natured person
thinking like this, is not acting even when acting . 18.25
He who acts without being able to say why, but not because he is a fool,
he is one liberated while still alive, happy and blessed. He thrives even in
samsara. 18.26
He who has had enough of endless considerations and has attained to
peace, does not think, know, hear or see. 18.27
He who is beyond mental stillness and distraction, does not desire either
liberation or anything else. Recognising that things are just constructions
of the imagination, that great soul lives as God here and now. 18.28
He who feels responsibility within, acts even when not acting, but there
is no sense of done or undone for the wise man who is free from the sense of
responsibility. 18.29
The mind of the liberated man is not upset or pleased. It shines
unmoving, desireless, and free from doubt. 18.30
He whose mind does not set out to meditate or act, meditates and acts
without an object. 18.31
A stupid man is bewildered when he hears the real truth, while even a
clever man is humbled by it just like the fool. 18.32
The ignorant make a great effort to practise one-pointedness and the
stopping of thought, while the wise see nothing to be done and remain in
themselves like those asleep. 18.33
The stupid does not attain cessation whether he acts or abandons action,
while the wise man find peace within simply by knowing the truth. 18.34
People cannot come to know themselves by practices - pure awareness,
clear, complete, beyond multiplicity and faultless though they are. 18.35
The stupid does not achieve liberation even through regular practice, but
the fortunate remains free and actionless simply by discrimination. 18.36
The stupid does not attain Godhead because he wants to become it, while
the wise man enjoys the Supreme Godhead without even wanting it. 18.37
Even when living without any support and eager for achievement, the
stupid are still nourishing samsara, while the wise have cut at the very
root of its unhappiness. 18.38
The stupid does not find peace because he is wanting it, while the wise
discriminating the truth is always peaceful minded. 18.39
How can there be self knowledge for him whose knowledge depends on what
he sees. The wise do not see this and that, but see themselves as unending.
18.40
How can there be cessation of thought for the misguided who is striving
for it. Yet it is there always naturally for the wise man delighted in
himself. 18.41
Some think that something exists, and others that nothing does. Rare is
the man who does not think either, and is thereby free from distraction.
18.42
Those of weak intelligence think of themselves as pure nonduality, but
because of their delusion do not know this, and remain unfulfilled all their
lives. 18.43
The mind of the man seeking liberation can find no resting place within,
but the mind of the liberated man is always free from desire by the very
fact of being without a resting place. 18.44
Seeing the tigers of the senses, the frightened refuge-seekers at once
enter the cave in search of cessation of thought and one-pointedness.
18.45
Seeing the desireless lion the elephants of the senses silently run away,
or, if they cannot, serve him like courtiers. 18.46
The man who is free from doubts and whose mind is free does not bother
about means of liberation. Whether seeing, hearing, feeling smelling or
tasting, he lives at ease. 18.47
He whose mind is pure and undistracted from the simple hearing of the
Truth sees neither something to do nor something to avoid nor a cause for
indifference. 18.48
The straightforward person does whatever arrives to be done, good or bad,
for his actions are like those of a child. 18.49
By inner freedom one attains happiness, by inner freedom one reaches the
Supreme, by inner freedom one comes to absence of thought, by inner freedom
to the Ultimate State. 18.50
When one sees oneself as neither the doer nor the reaper of the
consequences, then all mind waves come to an end. 18.51
The spontaneous unassumed behaviour of the wise is noteworthy, but not
the deliberate, intentional stillness of the fool. 18.52
The wise who are rid of imagination, unbound and with unfettered
awareness may enjoy themselves in the midst of many goods, or alternatively
go off to mountain caves. 18.53
There is no attachment in the heart of a wise man whether he sees or pays
homage to a learned brahmin, a celestial being, a holy place, a woman, a
king or a friend. 18.54
A yogi is not in the least put out even when humiliated by the ridicule
of servants, sons, wives, grandchildren or other relatives. 18.55
Even when pleased he is not pleased , not suffering even when in pain.
Only those like him can know the wonderful state of such a man. 18.56
It is the sense of responsibility which is samsara. The wise who are of
the form of emptiness, formless, unchanging and spotless see no such thing.
18.57
Even when doing nothing the fool is agitated by restlessness, while a
skilful man remains undisturbed even when doing what there is to do. 18.58
Happy he stands, happy he sits, happy sleeps and happy he comes and goes.
Happy he speaks, and happy he eats. Such is the life of a man at peace.
18.59
He who of his very nature feels no unhappiness in his daily life like
worldly people, remains undisturbed like a great lake, all sorrow gone.
18.60
Even abstention from action leads to action in a fool, while even the
action of the wise man brings the fruits of inaction. 18.61
A fool often shows aversion towards his belongings, but for him whose
attachment to the body has dropped away, there is neither attachment nor
aversion. 18.62
The mind of the fool is always caught in an opinion about becoming or
avoiding something, but the wise man's nature is to have no opinions about
becoming and avoiding. 18.63
For the seer who behaves like a child, without desire in all actions,
there is no attachment for such a pure one even in the work he he does.
18.64
Blessed is he who knows himself and is the same in all states, with a
mind free from craving whether he is seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling or
tasting. 18.65
There is no man subject to samsara, sense of individuality, goal or means
to the goal for the wise man who is always free from imaginations, and
unchanging as space. 18.66
Glorious is he who has abandoned all goals and is the incarnation of
satisfaction, his very nature, and whose inner focus on the Unconditioned is
quite spontaneous. 18.67
In brief, the great-souled man who has come to know the Truth is without
desire for either pleasure or liberation, and is always and everywhere free
from attachment. 18.68
What remains to be done by the man who is pure awareness and has
abandoned everything that can be expressed in words from the highest heaven
to the earth itself? 18.69
The pure man who has experienced the Indescribable attains peace by his
own nature, realising that all this is nothing but illusion, and that
nothing is. 18.70
There are no rules, dispassion, renunciation or meditation for one who is
pure receptivity by nature, and admits no knowable form of being? 18.71
For him who shines with the radiance of Infinity and is not subject to
natural causality there is neither bondage, liberation, pleasure nor pain.
18.72
Pure illusion reigns in samsara which will continue until self
realisation, but the enlightened man lives in the beauty of freedom from me
and mine, from the sense of responsibility and from any attachment. 18.73
For the seer who knows himself as imperishable and beyond pain there is
neither knowledge, a world nor the sense that I am the body or the body
mine. 18.74
No sooner does a man of low intelligence give up activities like the
elimination of thought than he falls into mental chariot racing and babble.
18.75
A fool does not get rid of his stupidity even on hearing the truth. He
may appear outwardly free from imaginations, but inside he is hankering
after the senses still. 18.76
Though in the eyes of the world he is active, the man who has shed action
through knowledge finds no means of doing or speaking anything. 18.77
For the wise man who is always unchanging and fearless there is neither
darkness nor light nor destruction, nor anything. 18.78
There is neither fortitude, prudence nor courage for the yogi whose
nature is beyond description and free of individuality. 18.79
There is neither heaven nor hell nor even liberation during life. In a
nutshell, in the sight of the seer nothing exists at all. 18.80
He neither longs for possessions nor grieves at their absence. The calm
mind of the sage is full of the nectar of immortality. 18.81
The dispassionate does not praise the good or blame the wicked. Content
and equal in pain and pleasure, he sees nothing that needs doing. 18.82
The wise man does not dislike samsara or seek to know himself. Free from
pleasure and impatience, he is not dead and he is not alive. 18.83
The wise man stands out by being free from anticipation, without
attachment to such things as children or wives, free from desire for the
senses, and not even concerned about his own body. 18.84
Peace is everywhere for the wise man who lives on whatever happens to
come to him, going to wherever he feels like, and sleeping wherever the sun
happens to set. 18.85
Let his body rise or fall. The great souled one gives it no thought,
having forgotten all about samsara in coming to rest on the ground of his
true nature. 18.86
The wise man has the joy of being complete in himself and without
possessions, acting as he pleases, free from duality and rid of doubts, and
without attachment to any creature. 18.87
The wise man excels in being without the sense of �me�. Earth, a stone or
gold are the same to him. The knots of his heart have been rent asunder, and
he is freed from greed and blindness. 18.88
Who can compare with that contented, liberated soul who pays no regard to
anything and has no desire left in his heart? 18.89
Who but the upright man without desire knows without knowing, sees
without seeing and speaks without speaking? 18.90
Beggar or king, he excels who is without desire, and whose opinion of
things is rid of good and bad. 18.91
There is neither dissolute behaviour nor virtue, nor even discrimination
of the truth for the sage who has reached the goal and is the very
embodiment of guileless sincerity. 18.92
How can one describe what is experienced within by one desireless and
free from pain, and content to rest in himself - and of whom? 18.93
The wise man who is contented in all circumstances is not asleep even in
deep sleep, not sleeping in a dream, nor waking when he is awake. 18.94
The seer is without thoughts even when thinking, without senses among the
senses, without understanding even in understanding and without a sense of
responsibility even in the ego. 18.95
Neither happy nor unhappy, neither detached nor attached, neither seeking
liberation nor liberated, he is neither something nor nothing. 18.96
Not distracted in distraction, in mental stillness not poised, in
stupidity not stupid, that blessed one is not even wise in his wisdom.
18.97
The liberated man is self-possessed in all circumstances and free from
the idea of �done� and still to do. He is the same wherever he is and
without greed. He does not dwell on what he has done or not done. 18.98
He is not pleased when praised nor upset when blamed. He is not afraid of
death nor attached to life. 18.99
A man at peace does not run off to popular resorts or to the forest.
Whatever and wherever, he remains the same. 18.100
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Janaka: Using
the tweezers of the knowledge of the truth I have managed to extract the
painful thorn of endless opinions from the recesses of my heart. 19.1
For me, established in my own glory, there is no religion, sensuality,
possessions, philosophy, duality or even non-duality. 19.2
For me established in my own glory, there is no past, future or present.
There is no space or even eternity. 19.3
For me established in my own glory, there is no self or non-self, no good
or evil, no thought or even absence of thought. 19.4
For me established in my own glory, there is no dreaming or deep sleep,
no waking nor fourth state beyond them, and certainly no fear. 19.5
For me established in my own glory, there is nothing far away and nothing
near, nothing within or without, nothing large and nothing small. 19.6
For me established in my own glory, there is no life or death, no worlds
or things of the world, no distraction and no stillness of mind. 19.7
For me remaining in myself, there is no need for talk of the three goals
of life, of yoga or of knowledge. 19.8
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Janaka: In
my unblemished nature there are no elements, no body, no faculties no mind.
There is no void and no anguish. 20.1 For me, free from the
sense of dualism, there are no scriptures, no self-knowledge, no mind free
from an object, no satisfaction and no freedom from desire. 20.2
There is no knowledge or ignorance, no me, this or mine, no bondage, no
liberation, and no property of self-nature. 20.3
For him who is always free from individual characteristics there is no
antecedent causal action, no liberation during life, and no fulfilment at
death. 20.4
For me, free from individuality, there is no doer and no reaper of the
consequences, no cessation of action, no arising of thought, no immediate
object, and no idea of results. 20.5
There is no world, no seeker for liberation, no yogi, no seer, no-one
bound and no-one liberated. I remain in my own non-dual nature. 20.6
There is no emanation or return, no goal, means, seeker or achievment. I
remain in my own non-dual nature. 20.7
For me who am forever unblemished, there is no judge, no standard,
nothing to judge, and no judgement. 20.8
For me who am forever actionless, there is no distraction or
one-pointedness of mind, no lack of understanding, no stupidity, no joy and
no sorrow. 20.9
For me who am always free from deliberations there is neither
conventional truth nor absolute truth, no happiness and no suffering. 20.10
For me who am forever pure there is no illusion, no samsara, no
attachment or detachment, no living being and no God. 20.11
For me who am forever unmovable and indivisible, established in myself,
there is no activity or inactivity, no liberation and no bondage. 20.12
For me who am blesssed and without limitation, there is no initiation or
scripture, no disciple or teacher, and no goal of human existence. 20.13
There is no being or non-being, no unity or dualism. What more is
there to say? Nothing arises out of me. 20.14 |
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