Astavakra

[Guest guest]

Talking of various kinds of Gita. I have found the Astavakra very useful.

This was the text Swami Vivekananda was asked to read aloud by Sri

Ramakrishna

it has some very focused ideas on spirituality. Let us examine:-

 

In first sloka King Janaka asks Sage Astavakra

 

(1) How can knowledge be acquired? ( 'How do we know what all this is all

about?')

(2) How can liberation be attained? ('How do we gain freedom from our

limitations?)

(3) How is renunciation possible? ('How can we stop chasing after things ?')

 

All three are very interesting questions.

 

In reply Sage Astavakra says:-

 

If you aspire liberation my child, shun the objects of the senses

- then he adds

'You are neither earth, nor water, nor fire, nor air, nor space. In order to

attain liberation know the Self as the witness of all these and as

Consciousness itself.'

 

The idea of liberation or freedom from limitations is one of the key

approaches

to spirituality. This idea of gaining liberation from limitations may sound

like some old religious rhetoric but covers far wider issues which are

relevant today.

 

At the moment science is studying the concept of 'Consciousness'. It is

trying to reduce consciousness as something that is generated by neuronic

activity through chemical and electrical processes in the brain. I

suggest that the thing that distinguishes a real conscious being from an

elaborate computer network (AI -Artificial intelligence) is this concept of

'looking to overcome limitations. Searching for freedom from all

limitations'. If you build in this searching for liberation into a software

programme of an AI robot - I think it would cause severe contradiction and

failure in it's operation. Liberation is a serious concept which science has

yet to tap into.

 

Again this idea of gaining liberation is seen in evolution too. A single

cell

continues to replicate --- continues to evolve into more and more complex

being in a direction which gives it more freedom. A fish will try and

evolve wings...as it wants to overcome the limitation of staying in water

etc.

What gives this process of evolution a direction?

Why does evolution from time to time not slip into reverse and complex

beings become less complex beings? This is a question we have to ask the

scientists -- they may not find many examples.

 

What gives these replicators a push in one direction only? The answer may be

in this idea of 'search for liberation (looking to overcome limitations) --

Which is the speciality of conscious beings.

 

jay