favoriate devotional poem--Astavakra Gita

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Ashtavakra Gita

translated by John Richards

 

I

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 yourself as consisting of

consciousness, the witness of these.

4. If only you will remain resting in consciousness, seeing

yourself 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, the opinion about

yourself that "I am the doer," 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.

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 yourself 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, unperturbable: so hold to nothing but

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.

 

II

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 oneself is no other than

oneself.

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

oneself.

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 myself.

7. From ignorance of oneself, the world appears, and by knowledge

of oneself 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 appears in me 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 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 in reality. 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 here 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 infinite ocean of myself, that, stimulated

by the colourful waves of the world, everything suddenly arises in the

wind of consciousness.

24. In the infinite ocean of myself, 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 infinite ocean of myself the

waves of living beings arise, collide, play, and disappear, in

accordance with their nature.

 

III

Ashtavakra said:

1. Knowing yourself 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 oneself, 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 oneself 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 nondual

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 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.

 

IV

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 nondual Lord of the

world, and he who knows this is not afraid of anything.

 

V

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 yourself 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.

 

VI

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.

 

VII

Janaka said:

1. In the infinite ocean of myself 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 infinite ocean of myself, I neither gain nor lose anything by

that.

3. It is in the infinite ocean of myself 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?

 

VIII

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.

 

IX

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.

 

X

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!

 

XI

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.

 

XII

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.

 

XIII

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.

 

XIV

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 an idiot, can only be

known by someone in the same condition.

 

XV

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 myself," and be without

distinction and happy.

16. It is through your ignorance that all this exists. In reality

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

yourself, the essence ofjoy.

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?

 

XVI

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 noone realises it. By no more than this instruction,

the fortunate one attains tranquillity.

4. Happiness belongs to noone 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 abstension, 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.

 

XVII

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 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

sustinence 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 hinself 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.

 

XVIII

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 nonbeing.

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 myself."

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 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 naturalman.

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

nonduality, 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 skillful 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 "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.

 

XIX

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

nonduality.

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 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 myself, there is no need for talk of the

three goals of life, of yoga or of knowledge.

 

XX

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 nondual nature.

7. There is no emanation or return, no goal, means, seeker or

achievement. I remain in my own nondual 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

myself, 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.