अष्टावक्रगीतम्
ASHTAAVAKRA GEETAM
INRODUCTION
Ashtaavakra Geetam or the Song of Ashtaavakra is a scripture
explaining the abstract truths of Brahman.
It also guides the student after Knowledge towards his goal of
realization, by instructing clearly, what method is to be followed and what
method is to be avoided.
This scripture is in the form of a dialogue between Sage
Ashtaavakra, the son of Kahola, and Janaka, the king of Videha.
King Janaka is the father of Seetaa and also a Raajarshi, a
Royal Sage.
He is well-known for his respect for Sages and scholars with
expertise in scriptures.
He was very closely associated with Sage Yaajnavalkya and
Sage Ashtaavakra; and relished listening to their talks on Brahman-Knowledge.
This is one such wonderful dialogue that took place between
king Janaka and Sage Ashtaavakra who had a deformed body by a curse.
This scripture goes by the name of ‘Ashtaavakra Samhita’
also.
One such dialogue is found in the great scripture Tripura
Rahasyam also, where Goddess Tripuraa explains to Ashtaavakra the difference
between just the dry intellectual understanding of Brahman and the actual
realization state of Brahman.
CHAPTER ONE
जनक उवाच
Janaka spoke
{WHAT IS LIBERATION? HOW LIBERATION IS TO BE ATTAINED?}
कथं ज्ञ्नानमवाप्नोति
कथं मुक्तिर्भविष्यति
वैराग्यं च
कथं प्राप्तं
एतद्ब्रूहि मम प्रभो ॥१-१॥
How does one acquire Knowledge, how will he be liberated,
how does one get endowed with dispassion, tell me this O Lord!
(What is the true Knowledge?
How does it differ from all other Knowledge-forms that we
acquire in the world?
What is the meaning of liberation? What does one get freedom from?
Is liberation a state to be attained like a heaven above?
Is it the cessation of all the perceived worlds?
What happens to a person who is liberated?
Does he become nothingness or some indefinable empty state
where nothing is there?
And, how does one acquire dispassion?
Does dispassion involve renouncing the family, circle of
friends, house, comforts and living in a forest?
What is true dispassion? What is to be renounced actually?)
अष्टावक्र उवाच
Ashtaavakra spoke
{DISCIPLINES TO BE FOLLOWED BY A MUMUKSHU}
मुक्तिमिच्छसि चेत्तात
विषयान्विषवत्त्यज ।
क्षमार्जवदयातोषसत्यं पीयूषवद्भज ॥१-२॥
Dear one! If you desire liberation,
then throw away the sense pleasures like poison.
Consume the qualities of
forbearance, straightforwardness, kindness, contentment, and truth
(honesty)
like nectar.
(Dear Janaka! I will explain to you what is liberation, and
what is the Knowledge required for it; but, before that, you have to purify the
mind of all the taints.
A mind corrupted with desires, anger, arrogance, hatred,
attachment, can never understand the instructions about the Reality.
Brahman-Knowledge is a very abstract subject and needs
utmost concentration and understanding power. Therefore, you have to practice
these above-mentioned disciplines, if you are truly interested in attaining the
liberation, and are a ‘Mumukshu’ (seeker after Moksha).
First of all, start controlling the mind that rushes after the
sense pleasures.
At the beginning, forcefully avoid the physical contact of
the sense objects.
Then slowly train the mind to discard the sense pleasures
naturally, like one avoids the poison even it is mixed with the tastiest
ingredients.
Later your mind will naturally stop running after the
pleasures, once it finds peace in the silence acquired by knowledge.
To help in this sense-control, practice qualities like
forbearance etc.
KSHAMAA/Forbearance
Forbearance is not just the patiently bearing of insults or
offences.
It is a quality you maintain towards the ‘perceived world’
itself.
Do not react to each and every object and person in a burst
of emotion of hatred or attachment. Do not give way to anger or depression,
when things go bad. Do not feel excited about the joys brought by the world.
Remain unbothered about every event, good or bad; and bear
with patience.
Act; do not react like an earthworm does to a pin-prick!
Pause a second before you utter any word; or do any action.
Let not the inert brain oozing with chemicals decide your actions
and words.
‘You’ with discrimination faculty, decide what the brain
should produce as words and actions. This is forbearance of the excellent type.
AARJAVAM/Straightforwardness
Straightforwardness is not exposing whatever thoughts run in
your mind.
That is utter stupidity!
Not acting with deceit and pretence is known as
straightforwardness.
Do not be a pot of poison with a nectar-mouth.
Be honest in your approach to anybody.
Do not hide your selfishness and meanness in words.
DAYAA/Kindness
Be kind to all; but with discretion.
Do not hurt any animal or human through words, or actions.
Offer a helping and wherever needed, as per your capacity.
Do not act rude, self-conceited, and arrogant towards other
human beings, and hurt them in any way, whether they are your own family
members or strangers.
Do not eat the flesh of other species of your own planet; it
is the most disgusting act ever! Any living thing with a developed brain which
wants to survive should not be hurt wantonly. Every life-form is sacred.
Unless you have to save your own body from other animals and
other human-shaped animals, there is no need of hurting them in any way.
TOSHA/Contentment
Be content; but do not kill your natural ambitions of the
world and neglect the goals that are to be achieved through your natural talents.
Do not hanker after properties, gold, money just to possess
them as ‘your glory’.
Be content with just what you actually need. Whatever
objects you possess more than that serve your requirements should be given off to
the other needy ones.
Be content in wealth; but never be content with Knowledge of
any kind.
Earn wealth slowly as if you are going to live forever;
gather knowledge fast, as if you are going to die tomorrow. Knowledge alone
will follow you after the death of the body also; not the wealth.
Knowledge alone keeps your brain healthy; not the wealth of
the three-worlds also.
Always feel happy with what you have.
Be happy that you have properly functioning eyes, ears,
skin, tongue, nose; some do not even have that fortune. Be happy that your
brain is able to function properly and you can still read something; some do
not even have that fortune. Be happy that you have thought of liberation
itself; some people do not even know of that word at all.
Just be cheerful and happy, that you are alive and
conscious; that alone is your natural quality as Aatman, the individual self.
And do not practice these qualities as a forced discipline
dumped on you by a tyrant master. Develop these qualities as if you are consuming
nectar through each such act.
Remember that the more you have these qualities to their
perfection, the more you are reverting back to your immortal self naturally.
Sense pleasures lead you towards destruction of body, mind
and life.
The qualities mentioned above lead you towards immortality,
at the same time making you a revered personality of the society.)
{YOU ARE NOT THE PHYSICAL FORM MADE OF ELEMENTS}
न पृथ्वी
न जलं नाग्निर्न
वायुर्द्यौर्न वा भवान् ।
एषां साक्षिणमात्मानं
चिद्रूपं विद्धि
मुक्तये ॥१-३॥
You are not the body made of elements like earth, water, fire, air and
sky.
If you want liberation,
understand the Self as the witness-state of the nature of
conscious-understanding.
(The first lesson in ‘Jnaana Yoga path’ is the understanding
that ‘you’ are not the physical body, or the image you see in the mirror.
As long as you are identified with the physical form, you
are said to be bound.
It is incorrect knowledge. The right knowledge is that you
are not this inert physical body made of elements (rather moving-atoms in the modern vocabulary).
Then what is the real ‘I’?
The search for this answer is Mumukshutva; and realizing it
as an ascertained knowledge is known as Moksha.
Like understanding the sky-space as not made of blue colour,
like understanding that sun does not
move, but the earth-sphere only goes round the sun, you have to understand that
the body is not the real ‘I’, but something else.
What is this ‘something else’?
Dear Janaka! I will give you the answer; but it cannot be
grasped by you just by listening to it; you have to analyze yourself and find the
answer after a prolonged Vichaara process (thinking with the intellect).
You are of the form of pure knowledge only which as the
‘understanding consciousness’, is revealing this perceived world of senses.
This alone stays as a witness to all the actions of the mind,
and is not affected by the ‘perceived world’. It is formless; and cannot be
seen in a mirror or grasped by senses; or described by words; or meditated upon
like a god-form.
‘That Thou art’!)
{INSTANT LIBERATION THROUGH KNOWLEDGE}
यदि देहं
पृथक्कृत्य चिति विश्राम्य तिष्टसि ।
अधुनैव सुखी
शान्तो बन्धमुक्तो
भविष्यसि ॥२-४॥
If you can separate yourself from the body
and stay rested in the Chit-state;
now itself, at this very instant,
you will be in the state of tranquil bliss and be freed of the bondage.
(Liberation-state is just the state of complete
understanding of the truth as firm ascertainment. Now you are very much
ascertained about the body as the real ‘I’.
You can never think of yourself as other than the body made
of the five elements.
The very idea of non-identification with the body may sound
like a death-knell to you.
If , now at this
instant you can destroy the idea-‘I am this body with a name’; and stay as the
conscious principle only, formless and nameless, with the complete absence of
thoughts- then you can consider yourself as liberated.
That is all that you have to do; burn off the age-old habit
of considering yourself as the inert body; and be what you are, the taintless
state of Knowledge-awareness.
All your problems that are connected to this ego and the
world will be instantly destroyed like a cotton fluff caught in a forest
blaze.)
{YOU ARE THE WITNESS-AWARENESS}
न त्वं
विप्रादिको वर्णो नाश्रमी नाक्षगोचरः ।
असङ्गोऽसि निराकारो
विश्वसाक्षी सुखी भव ॥१-५॥
You do not belong to any Varna
You do not belong to any stage of life like householder etc.
You are not this body which is captured by the senses.
You are untouched by anything. You do not have a form.
You are the witness of the entire perceived phenomenon called ‘Vishva’.
Understand this and remain blissful.
(Let us analyze what is the main identity crisis you have in
this world-existence.
You believe first of all that you are born to some parents,
and carry the gene identity of some class like Brahmin etc; and that you belong
to some family tree.
The truth is; you are not the body; and you do not belong to
any class or Varna
You identified with a body believe that you had a childhood;
that you became a youth; studied well; then got married; and so on. You believe
that you belong to one of the Ashrams or stages of life as Brahmachaari
(celibate student), or Grhastha (householder acting as a proper member of the
society).
You actually belong to no such category of life.
You are the changeless state; how can you go through various
stages of life along with the changes undergone by the body?
How do you know even the existence of the body?
Through the medium of senses only!
You see your body (below the neck); you touch the limbs; you
smell it; you can taste it also; you can hear sounds from it also as speech.
When you look at the mirror, you see an image; and believe that your body is similar
to that reflection seen in the mirror. You are well- ascertained that this
collective information produced by your senses is the ‘I’!
How ridiculous! How can an object of Knowledge be you who are
the subject?
You are not a body that is tainted by the contact of the
objects of the world.
You are like space; untouched by anything; untainted by
anything!
You do not have a form that can be perceived by senses; you
cannot even be imagined by the mind in any form.
This world around is ‘Vishva’; a continuous change of
patterns.
Change is synonymous for the term world. This Vishva is a
form of change.
You are the changeless one who can perceive this changing
pattern called Vishva.
You are the pure awareness that is without a form and name;
but is aware of all forms and names. If you realize this truth and understand
the truth of the real ‘I’, you are liberated at this very instant.)
{YOU ARE ALWAYS LIBERATED}
धर्माधर्मो सुखं
दुःखं मानसानि
न ते
विभो ।
न कर्तासि
न भोक्तासि
मुक्त एवासि
सर्वदा ॥१-६॥
Hey All pervading one!
You are not bound by Dharma and Adharma.
You do not get tossed by pain or pleasure.
You do not have a mind also along with the intellect, ego etc.
You are not a doer of any action.
You do not enjoy any experience.
You are always free.
(You (Janaka), I (Ashtaavakra), are all mind-made concepts.
There is only the conscious awareness shining as you, I, and
all.
I actually am in essence the all-pervading Chit, the
principle of Knowledge which shines as me and you and others.
You are also the same principle which shines as you and me
and others.
It is like the one sun reflected in may pots of water as
reflections.
Our minds are like pots, which contain the reflection of
Chit-sun as the limited ‘I’.
Chit is the
consciousness which understands the perceived as the perceived.
Hey All-pervading Chit!
What rules can bind you as duties and limit your existence?
What is good or bad for you, who are all?
When you are the very form of bliss, what pains and
pleasures can be experienced by you as outside of you?
You do not have a mind, intellect, or ego as your limbs. You
are formless.
You do not create a world; because you are not a doer of any
action.
You do not experience anything also; because you are not a
Jeeva.
All these words- Jeeva, mind, intellect, form, name,
bondage, liberation are all words coined by the ignorant. There is nothing else
other than you.
There is no one that is bound; there is no one that has to
attain Moksha.
There is only the Chit-state! Nothing else!)
{WHY ONE IMAGINES BONDAGE?}
एको द्रष्टासि
सर्वस्य मुक्तप्रायोऽसि
सर्वदा
अयमेव हि
ते बन्धो
द्रष्टारं पश्यसीतरम् ॥१-७॥
You are one and one only; and are the perceiver of all.
You are always free of all superimpositions.
This is your bondage that you see a ‘perceiver’ as another one.
(There does not exist, any manifoldness.
Names and forms are mind-made.
Objects perceived are just sense-perceptions.
There is only the Chit-state; and that is you.
My form as Ashtaavakra; and your form as King Janaka, both
are just mind-made imaginations.
Chit alone perceives the world through the imagined mind-states
of you and me.
The world of objects is nothing but an appearance
superimposed on emptiness of Knowledge.
There is no second one that exists, other than the
Chit-expanse.
Bondage is just the idea of seeing yourself as Janaka, the
king of Videhaa.
Kill the superimposition of ‘I’ ness on the form captured by
senses.
There is only the ‘you’ left back as the essence of all
Knowledge.)
{YOU ARE NOT THE DOER OF ANY ACTION}
अहं कर्तेत्यहंमानमहाकृष्णाहिदंशितः
।
नाहं कर्तेति
विश्वासामृतं पीत्वा सुखी भव ॥१-८॥
You are bitten by the poisonous black serpent called ‘I am the doer’
which gives rise to the ascertained form of ego.
‘I am not the doer’; drink this nectar of ascertained realization and
be blissful.
(If ‘I’ am the Chit-state why do I not realize it to be so?
– If this is the question that rises in the mind, then listen, I will tell you
why it is so.
You are unnecessarily attaching this pure real ‘I’ to every
action of the body, mind and intellect; and are falsely imagining that you
think with the mind, deliberate with the intellect, and act with the body.
You are like a person bitten by a poisonous serpent, and are
having the hallucinations of suffering in a world.
The serpent is actually the idea ‘I am the doer’.
You are the changeless, motionless Chit. You never swerve
from that Supreme state.
Your mind has produced the ‘Ahamkaara’, the ego, by adding
‘I’ to all the imagined actions; and has fooled you.
Understand that you are not the doer of anything; and that
you do not experience any pain or pleasure as resultof actions. Remain blissful
in your true state.)
{DESTROY THE IGNORANCE}
एको विशुद्धबोधोऽहं
इति निश्चयवह्निना
।
प्रज्वाल्याज्ञ्नानगहनं वीतशोकः सुखीभव
॥१-९॥
With the fire called the ascertained realization of
‘I am one only, of the nature of taintless pure knowledge’
burn of the dense forest of ignorance.
Be blissful, with all pains gone.
(Understand the truth that you are not the body that is an
object of your own senses. Ponder again and again, till you understand the
truth. When the fire of Knowledge blazes high, the huge world-forest made of
your own imagined concepts, will burn to ashes instantly.)
{SEE THE ROPE; NOT THE SNAKE}
यत्र विश्वमिदं
भाति कल्पितं
रज्जुसर्पवत् ।
आनन्दपरमानन्दः स
बोधस्त्वं सुखं भव ॥१-१०॥
This Vishva shines forth like a
snake imagined in a rope.
You are the Knowledge-essence of the nature of extreme bliss of the
Supreme kind’.
Realize this and be blissful.
(A man sees a rope dangling from the tree branch in
darkness; mistakes it to be a rope and is frightened. If he could see the rope,
he would stop seeing the snake; and will be free of the fear.
Seeing the snake in the rope is bondage.
Realizing it to be the rope is liberation.
Seeing the perceived world as real is bondage.
Seeing no perceived at all; but only being aware of the
Knowledge-shine is liberation.
The one who sees the rope and the one who sees he snake is
the same.
You are the very same Brahman shining as the knowledge of
Jagat.
Realize this and be in the blissful state of you true
essence.)
{WHAT YOU THINK; THAT YOU ARE}
मुक्ताभिमानी मुक्तो
हि बद्धो
बद्धाभिमान्यपि ।
किंवदन्तीह सत्येयं
या मतिः
सा गतिर्भवेत्
॥१-११॥
A person who is freed of the ego is free;
a person who is bound by the ego
is bound.
This saying is indeed true that,
what the mind believes in, that alone a person is.
(Liberation and bondage have a very thin line between them,
as differentiation.
If you realize you are free; you are free.
If you believe that you are bound; you are bound.
What makes you think that you are bound?
It is the ego, the Abhimaana – ‘self-estimation’ - you have
developed about yourself, based on the body-identity.
This Abhimaana – ‘self estimation’ – is made up of only the
possessions you have; it is a heap of ‘mine’s you have as ‘you’.
Body is mine; mind is
mine, intellect is mine, family is mine, wife is mine; husband is mine; son is
mine; daughter is mine; friend is mine; house is mine, duties are mime…and ..
so on…!
If all these things that are ‘yours’ as ‘your belongings’,
are completely removed off, then instantly you become a ‘no-one’. You are lost!
You have no identity at all!
Free yourself of this ego; and know your true essence, which
possesses nothing; but is the support of the entire perceived.
Stay as the true Self; nothing binds you anymore.)
{WHO AM I?}
आत्मा साक्षी
विभुः पूर्ण
एको मुक्तश्चिदक्रियः
।
असङ्गो निःस्पृहः
शान्तो भ्रमात्संसारवानिव
॥१-१२॥
Self is the witness, is all pervading, complete,
one, free, and does not own any action.
It is untouched by anything; is without wants; is quiet;
and acts like a person stuck in the world-existence,
because of delusion.
(‘Aatman’ is the essence that is the real ‘I’, like
liquidity is the essence of water; or the heat is the essence of fire.
It is the witness-awareness that is aware of the ‘perceived
world’. This Knowledge essence shines forth as all the objects of the world; and
so is all- pervading.
It is complete, because it is not in need of any outside
object as support.
As the essence of all knowledge, it is not tainted by the
objects of knowledge.
It is the most tranquil state because it is free of the
perturbation called the ‘perceived’.
Why this Supreme Aatman is deluded into believing itself to
be another?
It is because it has the Knowledge of delusion also; and
that Knowledge shines as the bound Jeeva.)
{CONTEMPLATE THROUGH VICHAARA}
कूटस्थं बोधमद्वैतमात्मानं
परिभावय ।
आभासोऽहं भ्रमं
मुक्त्वा भावं
बाह्यमथान्तरम् ॥१-१३॥
Contemplate on the Self as
the one established as the central essence of all,
of the form of knowledge alone, and non-dual.
Get rid of the superimposed state of the delusion called ‘I’,
and understand the outside to be within you only.
(Aatman is the immovable and changeless.
That is what perceives the world as ‘you’ the limited
Jeeva-state.
It is not divided as the world; but understands the divided
world as knowledge.
That which understands all the objects of Knowledge is
Aatman; and that is the true essence in all. This Aatman is not inside your
body like a streak of light or an apparition. There is no outside of you or
inside; both are just ideas imagined by the mind. Body is also an imagined
identity. Aatman is not inside anything. It is all!
Aatman is the very shine of consciousness because of which
the world gets perceived.
The very outside is within the Knowledge essence called
Aatman.
Aatman is the thing
which deliberates; that thing which breathes.
Aatman is a synonymous word for Brahman. Both words refer to
the same Reality.
Brahman is the sunlight spread out all over; Aatman is the
sunlight inside a house.
Sunlight knows no divisions. Reality is not divided as
Brahman and Aatman.)
{GET RID OF THE WRONG IDENTITY}
देहाभिनमानेन चिरं
बद्धोऽसि पुत्रक
।
बोद्धोऽहं ज्ञ्नानखड्गेन
तन्निष्कृत्य सुखी भव ॥१-१४॥
Dear son! For long, you have been fettered by the identity
you have superimposed on a physical body.
Slice it off with the sword of Knowledge; and remain blissful.
(This false identity can be destroyed only through the
Vichaara process.
Analyze again and again, how you are chained by the idea of
the body being you.
Understand that you are not the body perceived by the
senses.
How can you, who understands the existence of the ‘perceived
world’, be an inert body made of elements?
)
{MEDITATION CANNOT GIVE YOU KNOWLEDGE}
निःसङ्गो निष्क्रियोऽसि
त्वं स्वप्रकाशो
निरञ्जनः ।
अयमेव हि
ते बन्धः
समाधिमनुतिष्टति ॥१-१५॥
You are bereft of all contact; you are free of all actions;
you are self-shining and taintless.
Your bondage is that you try to meditate on this!
(How can you reach the state of Brahman by thinking or
meditating on it?
What magical chant has the power to bring in the Knowledge
of Brahman?
You in reality are untouched by anything; and cannot do any
action at all.
You are immovable and without limbs.
How can you realize this by trying to contact it with the
mind?
How can the Brahman be understood through the action of
contemplation?
How can the Self-shining thing be seen in a vision as light
or god?
How can the taintless thing be tainted by a thought rising
from the mind?
How can the inert mind ever think of that formless one?
Mind is the name given to the process that collects all the
sense-perceptions to make a story out of them. It is just a tool of
imagination. It uses the brushes of senses and paints a beautiful world of
sound, colour etc. Its nature is to lie!
How can it ever see the truth of Brahman?
The very foolish act of meditating on Brahman done by you
proves that you are bound.)
{YOU ARE OF PURE KNOWLEDGE NATURE}
त्वया व्याप्तमिदं
विश्वं त्वयि
प्रोतं यथार्थतः
।
शुद्धबुद्धरूपस्त्वं मा गमः क्षुद्रचित्तताम् ॥१-१६॥
The Vishva is pervaded by you.
It is woven all over by you as Knowledge, actually.
You are of the nature of pure knowledge.
Do not take resort to wretchedness of the mind.
(How is the world pervaded by you?
Each and every object that you see is a tiny bit of
Knowledge you shine as.
The tree in front of you exists because you know it as a
tree.
The stone in front of you exists because you know it as a
stone.
Everything exists because you know it as so.
You know divisions; and the division is there as your shine
of knowledge.
That is why you are said to be all-pervading.
The world you see is a world woven by you, like a spider
makes a web around it with its own threads.
The only thing you do not ‘perceive’ is your own self.
You are the perceiver of all; you cannot be perceived by
any; for, there exists no second person to see you.
All the others with form and name shine as your knowledge;
you as a name and form shine as their knowledge.
But the true seer who is shining in all as their every
essence is the Brahman; the form of all Knowledge.
That alone is; not the
manifold set of beings.
Realize this; and remain quiet as the very awareness of all.
Do not fall into the chasm dug by the mind, which imagines various
modes of action to give you liberation. It is a cheat; never believe it ever.
It can survive only on actions. It will prompt you to do more actions only,
even if it is the Self you are after!)
{YOU ARE CHINMAATRAM}
निरपेक्षो निर्विकारो
निर्भरः शीतलाशयः
।
अगाधबुद्धिरक्षुब्धो भव चिन्मात्रवासनः ॥१-१७॥
You are without any wants;
you are changeless; you are full; and are the abode of coolness.
You are the profound depth of knowledge.
You are unperturbed.
Remain with the one thought of Chinmaatram alone.
(When the real ‘you’ is everything that shines as the world,
what want can be there?
Why should an ocean ask for any water?
You are changeless; not the changing physical body.
You are already complete; all the joys you experience in the
world are actually an infinitesimal drop of your own blissful state.
Knowledge can only know; it cannot suffer; so it is always
cool; and not affected by any suffering imagined by the mind.
You are ‘Chinmaatram’; Knowledge alone: Consciousness alone!)
{YOU ARE THE FORMLESS REALITY}
साकारमनृतं विद्धि
निराकारं तु
निश्चलम् ।
एतत्तत्त्वोपदेशेन न पुनर्भवसंभवः ॥१-१८॥
Understand the one with the
‘form’ as a lie (impermanent).
Formlessness is the stable state.
When you realize this great truth, there is no occurrence of birth
again.
(How can one differentiate between the unreal and the real?
All that has name and form is a mind-production.
Whatever the senses bring in as knowledge of touch
(solidity), sight, sound, smell, taste etc, the mind collects them all to
create a picture of a solid object inside a box of space and time. Whatever the
senses contact is a lie; for there is nothing out there as solid object but the
revelation of sense-perceptions.
If all these senses and the mind were non-existent, where is
the world?
Only the Knowledge of
all is left back without the shine of the world.
This Knowledge of subtle form alone is the Reality.
This Knowledge-principle is not in any space or time; it has
no form; it does not increase or decrease; it does not change.
Even birth and death are just concepts known by the
perceiving mind.
That which is born must die; of course.
How can that, which knows death as knowledge can ever die?
Aatman is birthless; deathless.
That alone you are!)
{MIRROR AND THE REFLECTION}
यथैवादर्शमध्यस्थे रूपेऽन्तः परितस्तु सः ।
तथैवाऽस्मिन्
शरीरेऽन्तः परितः परमेश्वरः ॥१-१९॥
Just like when the image is reflected in the mirror,
the inside and outside of the
image is mirror only,
so also, the Supreme Lord is outside and inside of the body.
(Brahman state is like a mirror which can shine as
reflections only.
Mirror’s very nature is to shine as reflections.
The reflection in the mirror also is made of mirror only; it
has no separate existence outside of the mirror. The manifoldness of
reflections seen in the mirror is actually not there at all; mirror alone
exists as all the reflections.
The mirror is both inside and outside of the reflections.
Rather, there is no inside and outside at all in the mirror.
Vishva is the manifold reflection shining in the
Knowledge-mirror of Brahman. Brahman alone ‘is’ all the perceived forms that
exist inside and outside, and ‘is’ also the inside and outside.)
{POT AND SPACE}
एकं सर्वगतं
व्योम बहिरन्तर्यथा
घटे ।
नित्यं निरन्तरं
ब्रह्म सर्वभूतगणे
तथा ॥१-२०॥
In the pot, the all-pervading space is inside and outside;
the eternal, undivided Brahman is in all the hosts of beings.
(An empty pot divides the space into two as it were; one,
the pot-space; another, the outside space. There is a space inside; and there
is space outside.
But, are there actually two divided space-parts as inside
and outside?
The outside space alone is the inside space also.
The outside space has no inside and outside; it is all the
spaces inside all the pots;
It is not divided by pots. It is one and pervades all pots.
Brahman is like the space which pervades all pots.
Each pot is like a Jeeva made of space, which imagines
itself to be the inert clay-form called the body.
If the space-Jeeva trapped inside the body-pot can
understand that it is the space which pervades all, then he is said to be
liberated.
But actually, the outer space is not bound by a pot.
So who is bound? No one!
The idea of bondage is
the bondage!
Understand this truth; that is liberation for you!)
(Janaka practiced all
the disciplines suggested by the Sage; did the Vichaara process; and understood
the truth somehow.)
