CHAPTER SIXTEEN
अष्टावक्र उवाच
Ashtaavakra spoke
{FORGET EVERYTHING}
आचक्ष्व शृणु वा तात नानाशास्त्राण्यनेकशः ।
तथापि न तव स्वास्थ्यं सर्वविस्मरणादृते ॥१६-१॥
Talk or listen to various scriptural
doctrines.
Even then, you cannot rest in your true
essence,
except by forgetting all.
(Forget that you are the
body; forget that you are the mind; forget that you are the doer; forget that
the sense objects have the quality of joy; forget the unreal ego.
They are all misconceptions
and wrong understanding only.)
भोगं कर्म समाधिं वा कुरु विज्ञ तथापि ते ।
चित्तं निरस्तसर्वाशामत्यर्थं रोचयिष्यति ॥१६-२॥
Enjoy the pleasures, or stay absorbed in
contemplation, hey wise one.
Even then, when the mind is without
desires only, it will be very pleasing state.
(Let the outside be whatever
the senses present as; what matters!
Whether you want to sit in
contemplation or go about the world as a normal being; it is your choice only.
If you have desires lingering
in the mind, contemplation is of no use at all.
If you do not have desires
lingering in the mind, world-connected jobs do not affect you at all! Why run
away from them to sit inside a dark cave?
Contemplation can be the way
of life for a Yogi, though engaged in numerous works.)
आयासात्सकलो दुःखी नैनं जानाति कश्चन ।
अनेनैवोपदेशेन धन्यः प्राप्नोति निर्वृतिम् ॥१६-३॥
Everyone suffers because of engaging in
tiresome (ascetic) activities.
(doing action to get the action-less
Aatman state)
No one seems to understand this.
(That is why Moksha seems to be far away
somewhere!)
By (following) this instruction, the
blessed one will attain the restful state.
व्यापारे खिद्यते यस्तु निमेषोन्मेषयोरपि ।
तस्यालस्यधुरीणस्य सुखं नान्यस्य कस्यचित् ॥१६-४॥
He who feels even opening and closing
the eyes as some effort,
that one alone, who is foremost of the lazy ones, is happy; none else.
(You do not have to do even
that much effort as closing and opening the eyes, to be your true self; not
even that much effort of crushing a single petal of the most delicate flower.
You are already liberated; you are already that.
Why should you want to attain
it through Gurus, studies, ascetic practices, meditation sessions etc? Why do you need any action at all to know who
you really are?
Just stay as you are! Just
be! Do nothing!
Be the laziest one; do not
think also!
Remain silent as the silence
itself.)
इदं कृतं नेति द्वन्दैरुक्तं यदा मनः ।
धर्मार्थकाममोक्षेषु निरपेक्षं तदा भवेत् ॥१६-५॥
When the mind is free of the dual states
of ‘this is done’ ‘this is not done’,
then it will be unbothered about the
four goals of human life - Dharma, Artha, Kaama and Moksha.
विरक्तो विषयद्वेष्टा रागी विषयलोलुपः ।
ग्रहमोक्षविहीनस्तु न विरक्तो न रागवान् ॥१६-६॥
A man of dispassion hates sense
pleasures.
A
man filled with desires indulges in sense pleasures.
He who is free of both attraction and
repulsion
is neither a man of dispassion, nor a
man with desires.
(What should he renounce, or what should
he seek?)
हेयोपादेयता तावत्संसारविटपाङ्कुरः ।
स्पृहा जीवति यावद्वै निर्विचारदशास्पदम् ॥१६-७॥
The acceptance and rejection ideas exist
as long as
the Samsaara-tree is sprouting with desires;
till one is not maintaining any thoughts about
them at all.
(Is there any meaning in
renouncing the waters of the mirage?
What is there to renounce at
all?
Know that it is mirage; that
is all! Waters cease to be!)
प्रर्वृत्तौ जायते रागो निर्वृत्तौ द्वेष एव हि ।
निर्द्वन्द्वो बालवद्धीमान् एवमेव व्यवस्थितः ॥१६-८॥
For a man of the world, desire rises.
For a man who turns away from the world,
hatred alone remains.
(Both are ignorant idiots.)
A wise man stays without both aspects,
like a child only, indifferent to everything.
(Should you give that much
reality to the objects of the world, that you make effort to renounce them?
Do you have to kill the
imagined ghost with an imagined sword?
Do you have to kill the snake
seen in the rope, to be not bitten by it?)
हातुमिच्छति संसारं रागी दुःखजिहासया ।
वीतरागो हि निर्दुःखस्तस्मिन्नपि न खिद्यति ॥१६-९॥
A man who has desires about the world,
wants to renounce the world in order to escape
the pain.
(Sudden rise of dispassion when met with
deaths and diseases is not true dispassion.)
A man without desires is without pains.
(Dispassion rises from the knowledge of
the emptiness of the objects in the world.)
Even if pains are met with, he does not
feel sad.
यस्याभिमानो मोक्षेऽपि देहेऽपि ममता तथा ।
न च ज्ञ्नानी न वा योगी केवलं दुःखभागसौ ॥१६-१०॥
He who is attached to liberation, who is
possessive also about his body,
is not a Knower, not a Yogi,
but just a person who suffers
throughout.
(Rising Kundalinee,
practicing Chakra methods, negating the objects through ‘Neti Neti’ (not this;
not this) method, meditation sitting in prescribed postures at prescribed
times; bathing in freezing waters etc, are just bodily actions, proving the
idea of the body as real.
How can you attain the
body-less state of Aatman through body-actions of any sort?
Aatman cannot be seen as
light flashes; or felt as bodily horripilation; or meditated upon as an object
of meditation.)
हरो यद्युपदेष्टा ते हरिः कमलजोऽपि वा।
तथापि न तव स्वाथ्यं सर्वविस्मरणादृते ॥१६-११॥
Even if Hara instructs you, or even Hari
or the lotus-born,
even then, you cannot rest in your
essence,
unless everything (all the heap of
misconception) is forgotten.
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