Ashtavakra Gita - Chapter 4

The wise person of self-knowledge, playing the game of worldly enjoyment, bears no resemblance whatever to samsara's bewildered beasts of burden. Truly yogi feels no excitement even at being established in that state  which all Devas from Indra down yearn for disconsolately.
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. Who can prevent the great-souled person who has known this whole world as himself from living as he please ? Of all four categories of beings, from Brahma down to last clump of grass, only the man of knowledge is capable of eliminating desire and aversion.

Rare is the man who knows himself as the undivided Lord of world, and he knows this is not afraid of anything.

Ashtavakra Gita - Chapter 3

Ashtavakra : Knowing yourself as truly one and indestructible, how could a wise man possessing self-knowledge like you feel any pleasure in acquiring the wealth ? 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.

All this wells up like waves in the sea. Recognizing, "I am that" , why run around like someone in need ?
After hearing of oneself as pure consciousness and the supremely beautiful, is one to go on lusting after sordid sexual objects ? When the sage has realized that he himself is in all beings, and all beings are in him, it is astonishing that the sense of individually should be able to continue. 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.

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. 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 be afraid of liberation.

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 ? 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? Who can be compared to the great-souled person whose mind is free from desire even in disappointment, and who has found satisfaction in self-knowledge ?

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 ?An object of enjoyment that comes of itself is neither painful nor pleasurable for someone who has eliminated attachment, and who is free from dualism and from desire.

Ashtavakra Gita - Chapter 2

Janak said 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. So now that I have abandoned the body and everything else, by some good fortune or other my true self becomes apparent. Just as waves, foam and bubbles are not different from Water, so all this which has emanated from oneself, is no other than oneself. In the same way that when analysed cloth is found to be just thread, so when all this is analysed it is found to be no other than oneself. Just as a 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 myself.

From the 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. Shinning is my essential nature, and I am nothing over and beyond that. When the world shines forth, it is simply me that is shinning forth.

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. 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.

How wonderful I am ! Glory to me, for whom there is no destruction, remaining even beyond the destruction of the world from Bhrama down to the last clump of grass.
How wonderful I am ! Glory to me, solitary even through with a body, neither going nor coming anywhere, I who abide forever, filling all that is.
How wonderful I am ! Glory to me, I who possess nothing at all, or alternatively possess everything that speech and mind refer to.
Knowledge, what is to be known, and the knower - these three do not exist in reality. I am spotless reality in which they appear because of ignorance.
Truly dualism is the root of suffering. There is no other remedy for it than the realisation that all this that we see in unreal, and that I am the one stainless reality , consisting of consciousness. 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.

For me here neither bondage nor liberation. The illusion has list its basis and ceased. Truly all this exists in me,  though ultimately it does not even exist in me. I have recognized that all this and my body are nothing, while my true self is nothing but pure consciousness, so what is there for the imagination work on now ? 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? Truly I donot even see dualism in a crowd of people, so what would I gain by replacing it with a wilderness?

I am not the body, nor is the body mine. I am not living being. I am consciousness. It was my thirst for living that was my bondage. 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.  It is in the limitless ocean of myself, that the wind of thought subsides, and the trader-like living being's world boat is wrecked by lack of goods.

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.

Janak Questions

Janaka asked his Guru "How is knowledge to be acquired ? How is liberation to be attained ? And how is dispassion to be reached? Tell me this Sir"


Ashtavakra: If you are seeking liberation, my son, shun the objects of the senses like poison. Practice tolerance, sincerity, compassion, contentment and truthfulness like nectar. You donot consider of the elements - earth, water, fire, air or even ether. To be liberated, know yourself as consisting of consciousness, the witness of these. 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. You donot 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 to be happy. 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. You are the one witness of everything, and are always completely free. The cause of your bondage is that you see the witness as something other than this. Since you have been bitten by the black snake, the opinion about yourself that "I am the doer", drink the antidote of faith in the fact that "I am not the doer", and be happy. Burn down the forest of ignorance with the fire of the understanding that "I am the pure awareness", and be happy and free from the distress. 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."

Your real nature is as the one perfect, free, and action less consciousness, the all-pervading witness - unattached to anything, desire less and at peace. It is from illusion that seem to be involved in samsara. 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.You have long been trapped in the snare of identification with the body. Server it with the knife of knowledge that "I am awareness", and be happy, my son. You are really unbound and action less, self-illuminating and spotless already. The cause of your bondage is that you are still restoring to stilling the mind.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. You are unconditioned and changeless, formless and immovable, unfathomable awareness and unpreturbable, so hold to nothing but consciousness.

Recognize that the apparent is unreal, while the unmanifest is abiding. Through this initiation into truth you will escape falling into unreality again.Just as mirror exists everywhere both within and apart from its reflected images, so the supreme Lord exists everywhere within and apart from this body. Just as one and the same all-prevading space exists within and without a jar, so the eternal, everlasting God exists in the totality of things.