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PUREST
EXPRESSION
OF
TRUTH
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Let
there be peace and love among all beings of the universe. OM
Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.
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HE
Ashtavakra
Gita is a very ancient Advaita Vedanta scripture
which documents a dialogue between the sage
Ashtavakra and King Janaka on the nature of the
Self, Reality and bondage. It insists on the
complete unreality of the external world and on the
Absolute Oneness of existence, and does not
prescribe any morality or duties.
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In
the eyes of the Ashtavakra, one's true identity,
the Self, is not contained in objects, nor does any
object exist in It. It is without form and can be
found by simply recognising one's being as the
Witness Self. Everything else is an illusion –
the little self, the world, the universe. All these
things arise with the thought "I", the idea of
separate identity. This little "I" invents the
material world, which in our ignorance we strive to
sustain. Forgetting our original Oneness, bound
tightly in our imaginary separateness, we spend our
lives mastered by a deceptive sense of purpose and
value. Endlessly constrained by our habit of
individuation, creatures of preference and desire,
we continually set one thing against another, until
the mischief and misery of choice consume
us. But
our true nature is pure and choiceless Awareness.
We are already and always fulfilled. When you know
this, desire melts away. Clinging to nothing, you
become still.
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JANAKA said:
1.
How is one to acquire knowledge? How is one to
attain liberation? And how is one to reach
dispassion? Tell me this, sir.
ASHTAVAKRA said:
2. 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.
3. You do not consist of any of the elements
– earth, water, fire, air, or even ether. To
be liberated, know your Self as consisting of
consciousness, the Witness of these.
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4. If only
you will remain resting in consciousness, seeing
your Self as distinct from the body, then even now
you will become happy, peaceful and free from
bonds.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. Since you have been bitten by the black
snake and believe in the false "I am the doer"
concept, drink the antidote of faith in the fact
that "I am not the doer" and be happy.
9. 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.
10. 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.
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11. 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."
12. 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.
13. Meditate on your Self as motionless
Awareness, free from any dualism, giving up the
mistaken idea that you are just a derivative
consciousness or anything external or internal.
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. You are unconditioned and changeless,
formless and immovable, unfathomable Awareness,
imperturbable; so hold to nothing but That
[consciousness].
18. Recognise that the apparent is unreal,
while the Unmanifest is abiding. Through this
initiation into Truth you will escape falling into
unreality again.
19. 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.
20. 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.
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JANAKA said:
1. Truly I am spotless and at peace, the
Awareness beyond natural causality. All this time I
have been afflicted by delusion.
2. 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.
3. So now that I have abandoned the body and
everything else, by good fortune my true Self
becomes apparent.
4. Waves, foam, and bubbles do not differ
from water. In the same way, all this which has
emanated from one's Self is no other than one's
Self.
5. When you analyse it, cloth is found to be
just thread. In the same way, when all this is
analysed it is found to be no other than one's
Self.
6. 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 my Self.
7. From ignorance of one's Self, the world
appears, and by knowledge of one's Self 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.
8. 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.
9. All this which appears in Me is 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.
10. 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.
11. How wonderful I am! Glory to Me, for
whom there is no destruction, remaining even beyond
the destruction of the world from Brahma [the
creator] down to the last clump of grass.
12. 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.
13. 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!
14. How wonderful I am! Glory to Me! I who
possess nothing at all, or alternatively possess
everything that speech and mind can refer to.
15. Knowledge, what is to be known, and the
knower – these three do not exist. I am the
spotless Reality in which they appear because of
ignorance.
16. 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.
17. 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.
18. 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.
19. Recognising 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?
20. 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?
21. I do not even see dualism in a crowd of
people, so what do I gain if it is replaced by a
desert?
22. 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.
23. Truly it is in the boundless ocean of my
Self, that, stimulated by the colourful waves of
the world, everything suddenly arises in the wind
of consciousness.
24. In the boundless ocean of my Self, the
wind of thought subsides, and the world boat of the
living-being traders is wrecked by lack of
goods.
25. How wonderful it is that in the
boundless ocean of my Self the waves of living
beings arise, collide, play, and disappear, in
accordance with their nature.
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ASHTAVAKRA
said:
1. Knowing your Self as truly one and
indestructible, how could a wise man possessing
Self-knowledge like you feel any pleasure in
acquiring wealth?
2. Truly, when one does not know one's Self,
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. All this wells up like waves in the sea.
Recognising "I am That", why run around like
someone in need?
4. After hearing of one's Self as pure
consciousness and the supremely beautiful, is one
to go on lusting after sordid sexual objects?
5. 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.
6. 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 in bondage to sexual activity.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. Whether feted or tormented, the wise man
is always aware of his supreme Self-nature and is
neither pleased nor disappointed.
10. The great-souled person [jnani]
sees even his own body in action as if it were
someone else's, so how should he be disturbed by
praise or blame?
11. 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?
12. 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?
13. 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?
14. 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.
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ASHTAVAKRA
said:
1. The wise person of Self-knowledge,
playing the game of worldly enjoyment, bears no
resemblance whatever to samsara's bewildered beasts
of burden.
2. Truly the yogi feels no excitement even
at being established in that state which all the
devas from Indra down yearn for disconsolately.
3. He who has known That is untouched within
by good deeds or bad, just as space is not touched
by smoke, however much it may appear to be.
4. Who can prevent the great-souled person
who has known this whole world as Himself from
living as he pleases?
5. 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.
6. Rare is the man who knows Himself as the
non-dual Lord of the world, and he who knows This
is not afraid of anything.
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ASHTAVAKRA
said:
1. You are not bound by anything. What does
a pure person like you need to renounce? Putting
the complex organism to rest, you can find
peace.
2. All this arises out of you, like a bubble
out of the sea. Knowing your Self like this to be
but One, you can find peace.
3. 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 find peace.
4. 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 find
peace.
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ASHTAVAKRA
said:
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
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JANAKA said:
1. In the boundless ocean of my Self the
world boat drifts here and there, moved by its own
inner wind. I am not put out by that.
2. Whether the world wave of its own nature
rises or disappears in the boundless ocean of my
Self, I neither gain nor lose anything by that.
3. It is in the boundless ocean of my Self
that the mind-creation called the world takes
place. I am supremely peaceful and formless, and I
remain as such.
4. 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 I remain as such.
5. I am pure consciousness, and the world is
like a magician's show. How could I imagine there
is anything there to take up or reject?
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ASHTAVAKRA
said:
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. When there is no "me", that is
liberation, and when there is "me" there is
bondage. Consider this carefully, and neither hold
on to anything nor reject anything.
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ASHTAVAKRA
said:
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. All this is transient and spoiled by the
three sorts of pain. Knowing it to be
insubstantial, ignoble, and fit only for rejection,
one attains peace.
4. 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.
5. 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?
6. 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?
7. 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.
8. One's desires are samsara. Knowing this,
abandon them. The renunciation of them is the
renunciation of it. Now you can remain as you
are.
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ASHTAVAKRA
said:
1. Abandon 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.
2. Look on such things as friends, land,
money, property, wife, and bequests as nothing but
a dream or a magician's show lasting three or five
days.
3. Wherever a desire occurs, see samsara in
it. Establishing yourself in firm dispassion, be
free of passion and happy.
4. 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.
5. You are One, conscious and pure, while
all this is inert non-being. Ignorance itself is
nothing, so what is the point of wanting to
understand?
6. Kingdoms, children, wives, bodies,
pleasures – these have all been lost to you
life after life, attached to them though you
were.
7. Enough of wealth, sensuality, and good
deeds. In the forest of samsara the mind has never
found satisfaction in these.
8. How many births have you not done hard
and painful labour with body, mind, and speech. Now
at last, stop!
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ASHTAVAKRA
said:
1. Unmoved and undistressed, realising that
being, non-being and change are of the very nature
of things, one easily finds peace.
2. 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.
3. Realising that misfortune and fortune
come in their own time from fortune, one is
contented, one's senses under control, and does not
like or dislike.
4. Realising that pleasure and pain, birth
and death are from destiny, and that one's desires
cannot be achieved, one remains inactive, and even
when acting does not get attached.
5. Realising that suffering arises from
nothing other than thought, dropping all desires
one rids oneself of it, and is happy and at peace
everywhere.
6. 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.
7. Realising "I alone exist, 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.
8. 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.
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JANAKA
said:
1. First of all I was averse to physical
activity, then to lengthy speech, and finally to
thought itself, which is why I am now
established.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. By relinquishing the sense of rejection
and acceptance, and with pleasure and
disappointment ceasing today, brahmin – I am
now established.
5. 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.
6. Just as the performance of actions is due
to ignorance, so their abandonment is too. By fully
recognising this truth, I am now established.
7. Trying to think the unthinkable, is doing
something unnatural to thought. Abandoning such a
practice therefore, I am now established.
8. 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.
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JANAKA said:
1. 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.
2. Sometimes one experiences distress
because of one's body, sometimes because of one's
speech, and sometimes because of one's mind.
Abandoning all of these, I live as I please in the
goal of human life.
3. Recognising that in reality no action is
ever committed, I live as I please, just doing what
presents itself to be done.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. I lose nothing by sleeping and gain
nothing by effort, so consequently I live as I
please, abandoning success and failure.
7. Continually observing the drawbacks of
such things as pleasant objects, I live as I
please, abandoning the pleasant and unpleasant.
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JANAKA said:
1. 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.
2. When my desire has been eliminated, I
have no wealth, friends, robbers, senses,
scriptures or knowledge.
3. 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.
4. The various states of one who is free of
uncertainty within, and who outwardly wanders about
as he pleases like a fool, can only be known by
someone in the same condition.
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ASHTAVAKRA
said:
1. 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.
2. Liberation is distaste for the objects of
the senses. Bondage is love of the senses. This is
knowledge. Now do as you wish.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Recognising oneself in all beings, and
all beings in oneself, be happy, free from the
sense of responsibility and free from preoccupation
with "me".
7. 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.
8. Have faith, my son, have faith. Don't let
yourself be deluded in this. You are yourself the
Lord, whose very nature is knowledge, and you are
beyond natural causation.
9. The body invested with the senses stands
still, and comes and goes. You yourself neither
come nor go, so why bother about them?
10. 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?
11. 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.
12. 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?
13. How can there be either birth, karma, or
responsibility in that one unchanging, peaceful,
unblemished, and Infinite consciousness which is
you?
14. Whatever you see, it is you alone
manifest in it. How can bracelets, armlets and
anklets be different from the gold they are made
of?
15. Giving up such distinctions as "He is
what I am" and "I am not that", recognise that
"Everything is my Self" and be without distinction
and happy.
16. It is through your ignorance that all
this exists. In reality, Self [you] alone
exist. Apart from you there is no one within or
beyond samsara.
17. Knowing that all this is just an
illusion, one becomes free of desire, pure
receptivity, and at peace, as if nothing
existed.
18. Only one thing has existed, exists and
will exist in the ocean of Being. You have no
bondage or liberation. Live happily and
fulfilled.
19. Being pure consciousness, do not disturb
your mind with thoughts of for and against. Be at
peace and remain happily in your Self, the essence
of joy.
20. Give up meditation completely, but don't
let the mind hold on to anything. You are free by
nature, so what will you achieve by forcing the
mind?
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XVI.
FORGETTING
EVERYTHING
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ASHTAVAKRA
said:
1. My son, you may recite or listen to
countless scriptures, but you will not be
established within until you can forget
everything.
2. 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.
3. Everyone is in pain because of their
striving to achieve something, but no one realises
it. By no more than this instruction, the fortunate
one attains tranquillity.
4. Happiness belongs to no one but that
supremely lazy man for whom even opening and
closing his eyes is a bother.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. So long
as desire, the state of lack of discrimination,
remains, the sense of revulsion and attraction will
remain, which is the root and branch of
samsara.
8. Desire springs from usage, and aversion
from abstention, but the wise man is free from the
pairs of opposites like a child, and becomes
established.
9. The passionate man wants to eliminate
samsara so as to avoid pain, but the dispassionate
man is free from pain and feels no distress even in
it.
10. He who is proud about even liberation or
his own body, and feels them his own, is neither a
seer nor a yogi. He is still just a sufferer.
11. If even Shiva, Vishnu, or the lotus-born
Brahma were your instructor, until you have
forgotten everything you cannot be established
within.
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ASHTAVAKRA
said:
1. 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.
2. The knower of Truth is never distressed
in this world, for the whole round world is full of
Himself alone.
3. None of these senses please a man who has
found satisfaction within, just as nimba
[neem] leaves do not please the elephant
that has acquired the taste for sallaki leaves.
4. The man is rare who is not attached to
the things he has enjoyed, and does not hanker
after the things he has not enjoyed.
5. 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.
6. It is only the noble-minded who is free
from attraction or repulsion to religion, wealth,
sensuality, and life and death too.
7. He feels no desire for the elimination of
all this, nor anger at its continuing, so the
fortunate man lives happily with whatever
sustenance presents itself.
8. Thus fulfilled through this knowledge,
contented, and with the thinking mind emptied, he
lives happily just seeing, hearing, feeling,
smelling, and tasting.
9. 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.
10. Surely the Supreme state is everywhere
for the liberated mind. He is neither awake nor
asleep, and neither opens nor closes his eyes.
11. The liberated man is resplendent
everywhere, free from all desires. Everywhere he
appears Self-possessed and pure of heart.
12. 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.
13. The liberated man is free from desires
everywhere. He neither blames, praises, rejoices,
is disappointed, gives, nor takes.
14. When a great-souled one is unperturbed
in mind, and equally Self-possessed at either the
sight of a woman inflamed with desire or at
approaching death, he is truly liberated.
15. There is no distinction between pleasure
and pain, man and woman, success and failure for
the wise man who looks on everything as equal.
16. There is no aggression nor compassion,
no pride nor humility, no wonder nor confusion for
the man whose days of samsara are over.
17. The liberated man is not averse to the
senses nor is he attached to them. He enjoys
himself continually with an unattached mind in both
success and failure.
18. One established in the Absolute state
with an empty mind does not know the alternatives
of inner stillness and lack of inner stillness, and
of good and evil.
19. A man free of "me" and "mine" and of a
sense of responsibility, aware that "Nothing
exists," with all desires extinguished within, does
not act even in acting.
20. He whose thinking mind is dissolved
achieves the indescribable state and is free from
the mental display of delusion, dream, and
ignorance.
|
|
ASHTAVAKRA
said:
1. Praise be to That by the awareness of
which delusion itself becomes dream-like, to That
which is pure happiness, peace, and light.
2. 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.
3. How can there be happiness, for one who
has been burnt inside by the blistering sun of the
pain of thinking that there are things that still
need doing, without the rain of the nectar of
peace?
4. 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.
5. The realm of one's Self is not far away,
nor can it be achieved by the addition of
limitations to its nature. It is unimaginable,
effortless, unchanging, and spotless.
6. By the simple elimination of delusion and
the recognition of one's true nature, those whose
vision is unclouded live free from sorrow.
7. Knowing everything as just imagination,
and himself as eternally free, how should the wise
man behave like a fool?
8. Knowing himself to be God, and being and
non-being just imagination, what should the man
free from desire learn, say, or do?
9. Considerations like "I am this" or "I am
not this" are finished for the yogi who has gone
silent realising "Everything is my Self".
10. For the yogi who has found peace, there
is no distraction or one-pointedness, no higher
knowledge or ignorance, no pleasure and no
pain.
11. 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.
12. There are no religious obligations,
wealth, sensuality, or discrimination for a yogi
free from such opposites as "I have done this" and
"I have not done that".
13. There is nothing needing to be done or
any attachment in his heart for the yogi liberated
while still alive. Things will last just to the end
of life.
14. There is no delusion, world, meditation
on That, or liberation for the pacified great soul.
All these things are just the realm of
imagination.
15. He by whom all this is seen may well
make out it doesn't exist, but what is the
desireless one to do? Even in seeing it he does not
see it.
16. 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?
17. 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. The wise man, unlike the worldly man,
does not see inner stillness, distraction, or fault
in himself, even when living like a worldly
man.
19. 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.
20. The wise man who just goes on doing what
presents itself for him to do, encounters no
difficulty in either activity or inactivity.
21. He who is desireless, self-reliant,
independent, and free of bonds functions like a
dead leaf blown about by the wind of causality.
22. There is neither joy nor sorrow for one
who has transcended samsara. With a peaceful mind
he lives as if without a body.
23. He whose joy is in himself, and who is
peaceful and pure within has no desire for
renunciation or sense of loss in anything.
24. 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.
25. "This action was done by the body but
not by me." The pure-natured person thinking like
this, is not acting even when acting.
26. He who acts without being able to say
why, but is not thereby a fool, he is one liberated
while still alive, happy and blessed. He is happy
even in samsara.
27. He who has had enough of endless
considerations and has attained peace, does not
think, know, hear, or see.
28. He who is beyond mental stillness and
distraction does not desire either liberation or
its opposite. Recognising that things are just
constructions of the imagination, that great soul
lives as God here and now.
29. He who feels responsibility within, acts
even when doing nothing, but there is no sense of
done or undone for the wise man who is free from
the sense of responsibility.
30. The mind of the liberated man is not
upset or pleased. It shines unmoving, desireless,
and free from doubt.
31. He whose mind does not set out to
meditate or act, still meditates and acts but
without an object.
32. A stupid man is bewildered when he hears
the ultimate Truth, while even a clever man is
humbled by it just like the fool.
33. 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.
34. The stupid man does not attain cessation
whether he acts or abandons action, while the wise
man finds peace within simply by knowing the
Truth.
35. People cannot come to know themselves by
practices – pure Awareness, clear, complete,
beyond multiplicity, and faultless though they
are.
36. The stupid man does not achieve
liberation even through regular practice, but the
fortunate remains free and actionless simply by
understanding.
37. The stupid does not attain Godhead
because he wants it, while the wise man enjoys the
supreme Godhead without even wanting it.
38. 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.
39. The stupid man does not find peace
because he desires it, while the wise man
discriminating the Truth is always peaceful
minded.
40. 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
Infinite.
41. 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 delighting
in himself.
42. 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.
43. Those of weak intelligence think of
themselves as pure non-duality, but because of
their delusion do not really know this, and so
remain unfulfilled all their lives.
44. 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.
45. Seeing the tigers of the senses, the
frightened refuge-seekers at once enter the cave in
search of cessation of thought and
one-pointedness.
46. Seeing the desireless lion, the
elephants of the senses silently run away, or, if
that is impossible, serve him like courtiers.
47. 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.
48. He whose mind is pure and undistracted
from just hearing of the Truth does not see
anything to do or anything to avoid or even a cause
for indifference.
49. The upright person does whatever
presents itself to be done, good or bad, for his
actions are like those of a child.
50. 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.
51. When one sees oneself as neither the
doer nor the reaper of the consequences, then all
mind waves come to an end.
52. The spontaneous unassuming behaviour of
the wise is noteworthy, but not the deliberate
purposeful stillness of the fool.
53. 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.
54. 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.
55. A yogi is not in the least put out even
when humiliated by the ridicule of servants, sons,
wives, grandchildren, or other relatives.
56. 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.
57. It is the feeling that there is
something that needs to be achieved which is
samsara. The wise who are of the form of emptiness,
formless, unchanging, and spotless see nothing of
the sort.
58. Even when doing nothing the fool is
agitated by restlessness, while a skilful man
remains undisturbed even when doing what there is
to do.
59. Happy he stands, happy he sits, happy
sleeps, and happy he comes and goes. Happy he
speaks and happy he eats. This is the life of a man
at peace.
60. He who of his very nature feels no
unhappiness in his daily life like worldly people,
remains undisturbed like a great lake, cleared of
defilement.
61. Even abstention from action has the
effect of action in a fool, while even the action
of the wise man brings the fruits of inaction.
62. 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.
63. The mind of the fool is always caught in
thinking or not thinking, but the wise man's is of
the nature of no thought because he thinks what is
appropriate.
64. 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
does.
65. 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.
66. There is no one subject to samsara, no
sense of individuality, no goal or means to the
goal in the eyes of the wise man who is always free
from imagination and unchanging like space.
67. Glorious is he who has abandoned all
goals and is the incarnation of the satisfaction,
which is his very nature, and whose inner focus on
the Unconditioned is quite spontaneous.
68. 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.
69. 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?
70. The pure man who has experienced the
Indescribable attains peace by virtue of his very
nature, realising that all this is nothing but
illusion, and that nothing is.
71. There are no rules, dispassion,
renunciation, or meditation for one who is pure
receptivity by nature, and admits no knowable form
of being.
72. For him who shines with the radiance of
Infinity and is not subject to natural causality
there is neither bondage, liberation, pleasure, nor
pain.
73. 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.
74. 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.
75. No sooner does a man of low intelligence
give up activities like the elimination of thought
than he falls into mind racing and chatter.
76. 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 still
hankering after the senses.
77. 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.
78. For the wise man who is always
unchanging and fearless there is neither darkness
nor light nor destruction nor anything.
79. There is neither fortitude, prudence,
nor courage for the yogi whose nature is beyond
description and free of individuality.
80. There is neither heaven nor hell nor
even liberation during life. In a nutshell, in the
sight of the seer nothing exists at all.
81. He neither longs for possessions nor
grieves at their absence. The calm mind of the sage
is full of the nectar of immortality.
82. The dispassionate man does not praise
the good or blame the wicked. Content and equal in
pain and pleasure, he sees nothing that needs
doing.
83. The wise man is not averse to samsara,
nor does he seek to know himself. Free from
pleasure and impatience, he is not dead and he is
not alive.
84. The wise man excels 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.
85. The wise man, who lives on whatever
happens to come to him, roams wherever he pleases,
and sleeps wherever the sun happens to set, is at
peace everywhere.
86. Whether his body rises or falls, the
great-souled one gives it no thought, having
forgotten all about samsara in coming to rest on
the ground of his true nature.
87. 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.
88. 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.
89. Who can compare with that contented,
liberated soul who pays no regard to anything and
has no desire left in his heart?
90. Who but the upright man without desire
knows without knowing, sees without seeing, and
speaks without speaking?
91. Beggar or king, he excels who is without
desire, and whose opinion of things is rid of
"good" and "bad".
92. 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.
93. That which is experienced within by one
who is desireless and free from pain, and content
to rest in himself – how could it be
described, and of whom?
94. The wise man who is contented in all
circumstances is not asleep even in deep sleep, nor
sleeping in a dream, nor waking when he is
awake.
95. 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.
96. Neither happy nor unhappy, neither
detached nor attached, neither seeking liberation
nor liberated, he is neither something nor
nothing.
97. Not distracted in distraction, in mental
stillness not poised, in stupidity not stupid, that
blessed one is not even wise in his wisdom.
98. The liberated man is Self-possessed in
all circumstances and free from the idea of "been
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.
99. He is not pleased when praised nor upset
when blamed. He is not afraid of death nor attached
to life.
100. A man at peace does not run off to
popular resorts or to the forest. Whatever and
wherever, he remains the same.
|
|
JANAKA said:
1. 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.
2. For Me, established in my own glory,
there are no religious obligations, sensuality,
possessions, philosophy, duality, or even
non-duality.
3. For Me, established in my own glory,
there is no past, future, or present. There is no
space or even eternity.
4. 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.
5. For Me, established in my own glory,
there is no dreaming or deep sleep, no waking nor
Fourth state [Turiya] beyond them, and
certainly no fear.
6. For Me, established in my own glory,
there is nothing far away and nothing near, nothing
within or without, nothing large and nothing
small.
7. For Me, established in my own glory,
there is no life or death, no worlds or things of
this world, no distraction and no stillness of
mind.
8. For Me, remaining in my Self, there is no
need for talk of the three goals of life, of yoga
or of knowledge.
|
|
JANAKA said:
1. In my unblemished nature there are no
elements, no body, no faculties, no mind. There is
no void and no despair.
2. 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.
3. There is no knowledge or ignorance, no
"me", "this" or "mine", no bondage, no liberation,
and no property of Self-nature.
4. For him who is always free from
individual characteristics, there is no antecedent
causal action, no liberation during life, and no
fulfilment at death.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. There is no emanation or return, no goal,
means, seeker or achievement. I remain in my own
non-dual nature.
8. For Me who am forever unblemished, there
is no assessor, no standard, nothing to assess, and
no assessment.
9. 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.
10. For Me who am always free from
deliberations, there is neither conventional truth
nor Absolute Truth, no happiness and no
suffering.
11. For Me who am forever pure, there is no
illusion, no samsara, no attachment or detachment,
no living organism, and no God.
12. For Me who am forever unmovable and
indivisible, established in my Self, there is no
activity or inactivity, no liberation and no
bondage.
13. For Me who am blessed and without
limitation, there is no initiation or scripture, no
disciple or teacher, and no goal of human life.
14. There is no being or non-being, no unity
or dualism. What more is there to say? There is
nothing outside of Me.
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