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Ashtaavakra Geetaa
There Raajaa Janak, Seetaa's father attained
Aatm Gyaan (spiritual knowledge) from Rishi Ashtaavakra. This Gyaan became
known as Ashtaavakra Geetaa or Ashtaavakra Sanhitaa. This is the dialog
between Ashtaavakra Jee and Mithilaa's king Raajaa Janak (Seetaa's father)
Seeradhwaj. This teaching is about A-Dwait Vedaant. This work was known
and quoted by Ramakrishna and his disciple Swaamee Vivekaanand.
According to this Geetaa, there is no such
thing like existence or non-existence, right or wrong, moral or immoral.
One can find his true identity by simply recognizing himself as pure
existence and that as individuals we are the Awareness of all things. This
Geetaa teaches that one is already free once one realizes that he is free.
It advocates for non-action (when to act and when not to act), the loss of
worldly desires and attachments. To become free from the cycle of birth
and death, one should withdraw from worldly desires, worries and cares. To
continue with worldly things is foolish and time wasting when one has
realized their true nature. One should do his duty (Dharm) as a
responsibility, not because that he believes that he has to do it or with
any worldly attachment, but just because it is in his nature to do so.
Since it can be easily misunderstood, it is
recommended that it should be followed by those who have already advanced
on their spiritual path. It is not very long text. It consists only
very short 20 chapters. One can read it its
English Translation here.
Chapters 1
and 2 of Ashtaavakra Geetaa
Janak Jee said : How is one to acquire knowledge? How is one to attain
liberation? And how is one to reach dispassion? Tell me this, sir. [1.1]
Ashtaavakra said : If you are seeking
liberation, my son, avoid the objects of the senses like poison and
cultivate tolerance, sincerity, compassion, contentment, and truthfulness
as the antidote. [1.2]
You do not consist of any of the elements -- Earth, Water, Fire, Air, or
even Ether. To be liberated, 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 Braahman 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 completely 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, 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. [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 is 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 Sansaar. [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, unperturbable: so hold to nothing but consciousness. [1.17]
Recognize 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]
Janak said : 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 that I have abandoned the body and everything else, by good fortune
my true self becomes apparent. [2.3]
Waves, foam, and bubbles do not differ from water. In the same way, all
this which has emanated from oneself is no other than oneself. [2.4]
When you analyze it, cloth is found to be just thread. In the same way,
when all this is analyzed it is found to be no other than oneself. [2.5]
The sugar produced from the juice of the sugarcane is permeated throughout
with the same taste. In the same way, all this, produced out of me, is
completely permeated with myself. [2.6]
From ignorance of oneself, the world appears, and by knowledge of oneself
it appears no longer. From ignorance of the rope it appears to be a snake,
and by knowledge of it it does so no longer. [2.7]
Shining is my essential nature, and I am nothing other than that. When the
world shines forth, it is only 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 to me, for whom
there is no destruction, remaining even beyond the destruction of the
world from Brahm down to the last clump of grass. [2.11]
How wonderful I am! Glory 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 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 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 realization 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 here 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]
Recognizing that all this and my body too are nothing, while my true self
is nothing but pure consciousness, what is there left for the imagination
to 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]
I do not even see dualism in a crowd of people, so what do I gain if it is
replaced by a desert? [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 infinite ocean of myself, that, stimulated by the
colorful waves of the world, everything suddenly arises in the wind of
consciousness. [2.23]
In the infinite ocean of myself, the wind of thought subsides, and the
world boat of the living-being traders is wrecked by lack of goods. [2.24]
How wonderful it is that in the infinite ocean of myself the waves of
living beings arise, collide, play, and disappear, in accordance with
their nature. [2.25]
Source:
http://bhagavan-ramana.org/ashtavakragita.html
Continued on Page-2
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