Ashtavakra Gita is one of the spiritual & enlighten text in Hinduism. It is written as a dialogue between the sage Ashtavakra and Janaka, king of Mithila. King Janaka has asked many questions or doubts to the sage Ashtavakra. This is a highly enlighten & spiritual dialogues between them.
King Janaka asked: How is knowledge to be acquired? How is liberation to be attained? And how is dispassion to be reached? Tell me this, sir.
Ashtavakra said: 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 do not consist 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 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.
- 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 one pure awareness”, and be happy and free from distress. That in which all this appears – imagined like the snake in a rope, that joy, supreme joy and awareness are what you are, so be happy.
- 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 actionless consciousness, the all-pervading witness – unattached to anything, desireless and at peace. It is from the illusion that you seem to be involved in samsara.
- 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.
- 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.
