Ashtavakra Gita posts to date...

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Dear Chris:

I hope you don't mind my organizing your posts

in order to date :-) I did find one more on the RamanaMaharshi

list, and I added the commentary which was also posted.

If you could continue to number them or something,

that would be helpful to all of us. Thank you!

Love,

Joyce

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Dear friends,tonight, without apparent reason, a little booklet fell

from the shelve down at my feet. It turned out to be Ashtavakra Gita,

a text loved by our Bhagavan, which he always recommended for study to

seekers. He copied out the Sanscrit version of the Kannada text in his

own hand, which makes the original very valuable indeed. Maybe we

should read it together.

>From Ashtavakra Samhitatranslation 1931 by Swamy NityaswarupanandaRamakrishna Mission

It starts with King Janaka asking Sage Ashtavakra: How can knowledge

be acquired? How can liberaton be attained. How is renunciation

possible?- Tell me this, oh Lord.Ashtavakra: If you aspire after

liberation, my child, shun the objects of the senses as poison and

seek forgiveness, sincerity, kindness, contentment and truth as

nectar.You are neither earth, nor water, nor fire, nor air, nor

ether. In order to attain liberation realize yourself as the knower

of all these and consciousness itself.If you detach the body and rest

in Intelligence, you will at once be happy , peaceful and free from

bondage.

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Radhakamal Mukerjee's commentary on the above verses from

Astavakragita maybe worth sharing: "Moral discipline is an

essential pre-requisite for the spiritualquest. The list of virtues

mentioned here follows the Bhagavadgita whereforgiveness,

straightforwardness, compassion and contentment arespecifically

stressed. This is, however, the only verse where Astavakradwells on

moral excellence. "Astavakra's general position is that the wise

one, firmly establishedin the Self, is beyond the conflicts of good

and evil. Pure in heart andpurged of all desires and goals of life

as well as of the modalities ofnature (gunas), whence emerges the

irrepressible duality of opposites inlife, he sees himself everywhere

and under all conditions. Any desire toharm or any compassion does

not arise in his heart at all (XVII, 11-15) Tohim a clod of earth, a

stone and a piece of gold are the same. The knots ofhis heart are

rent asunder and he is freed from the sway of the gunas.Guileless and

straightforward, there is no wantonness or inhibition in him.Abiding

in the aloneness and absoluteness of the Self, he is

beyondhumaneness. In fact he cannot do any wrong since he is

entirely free fromego-sense, both physically and mentally. The moral

sense belongs to therealm of relativity which the wise one has to

transcend." ("Astavakragita: the Song of the Self Supreme",

Radhakamal Mukerjee,

pp30,31)============================================================

You do not belong to the Brahmana or any other caste or to any

Ashrama. You are not visible to the eyes. Unattached, formless and

witness of all are you. Be happy.Virtue and vice, pleasure and pain,

are of the mind, not of you, oh All-Pervading One. You are neither

doer nor enjoyer. Verily you are ever free.You are the one seer of

all and really are ever free. Verily this alone is your bóndage that

you see the seer as other than such.from Ashtavakra Gitap.5-8Do you

have been bitten by the great black serpent of egoism "I am the

doer", drink the nectar of the faith "I am not the doer" , and be

happy.Burn down the wilderness of ignorance with the fire of the

knowledge, "I am the One and Pure Intelligence", and be free from

grief and be happy.Ashtavakra Gitap. 8,9

9. That (Consciousness) in which this universe appears, being

conceived like a snake in a rope, is Bliss - Supreme Bliss. You are

that Consciousness. Be happy.10. One who considers oneself free is

free indeed and one who considers oneself bound remains bound. "As

one thinks, so one becomes," is a popular saying in this world, which

is true.11.The Self is the witness and all-pervading perfect, one,

free, Intelligence, actionless, unattached, desireless and quiet.

Through illusion it appears of this world.12. Meditate on the Atman

as immovable, Intelligence and non-dual, having given up external and

internal self-modifications and the illusion that you are the

reflected self (individual soul).13. My child, you have long been

trapped by body consciousness. Sever the trap with the sword of the

knowledge " I am Intelligence" and be happy.14. You are unattached,

actionless, self-effulgent and without any blemish. This indeed is you

bondage that you practice Samadhi.15. You pervade this universe and

this universe exists in you. You are really Pure and Conscious. Do

not be small-minded.16. You are unconditioned, immutable, formless,

unimpassioned, of unfathomable intelligence and unperturbed. Desire

for Chit alone