tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44096581830198291542024-03-13T06:33:52.367-07:00Ashtavakra GitaGyan Dharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12370729774416928822noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4409658183019829154.post-68312160506447151532009-04-05T21:57:00.000-07:002009-10-24T10:11:25.912-07:00Ashtavakra GitaThe Ashtavakra Gita, or the Ashtavakra Samhita as it is sometimes called, is a very ancient Sanskrit text. Nothing seems to be known about the author, though tradition ascribes it to the sage Ashtavakra; hence the name.There is little doubt though that it is very old, probably dating back to the days of the classic Vedanta period. The Sanskrit style and the doctrine expressed would seem to Gyan Dharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12370729774416928822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4409658183019829154.post-19931949638003568972009-04-05T21:56:00.001-07:002009-09-14T21:57:57.621-07:00Ashtavakra Gitaअष्टावक्र गीता॥॥ श्री॥अथ श्रीमदष्टावक्रगीता प्रारभ्यते॥ atha śrīmadaṣṭāvakragītā prārabhyate || जनक उवाच॥कथं ज्ञानमवाप्नोति कथं मुक्तिर्भविष्यति।वैराग्यं च कथं प्राप्तं एतद् ब्रूहि मम प्रभो॥ १-१॥janaka uvāca ||kathaṁ jñānamavāpnoti kathaṁ muktirbhaviṣyati |vairāgyaṁ ca kathaṁ prāptaṁ etad brūhi mama prabho || 1-1||Janaka said:How is one to acquire knowledge? How is one to attain liberation? And Gyan Dharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12370729774416928822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4409658183019829154.post-7533955139547270342009-04-05T21:55:00.003-07:002009-04-05T21:55:58.687-07:00Janaka said:Truly I am spotless and at peace, the awareness beyond natural causality. All this time I have been afflicted by delusion. 2.1As 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. 2.2So now that I have abandoned the body and everything else, by good fortune my true self becomes apparent. 2.3Waves, foam, and bubbles do not Gyan Dharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12370729774416928822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4409658183019829154.post-16606833750993815482009-04-05T21:55:00.001-07:002009-04-05T21:55:34.302-07:00Knowledge, 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. 2.15Truly 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. 2.16I am pure awareness though through Gyan Dharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12370729774416928822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4409658183019829154.post-17615587881793627682009-04-05T21:54:00.003-07:002009-04-05T21:54:47.810-07:00Ashtavakra said:Knowing yourself as truly one and indestructible, how could a wise man possessing self-knowledge like you feel any pleasure in acquiring wealth? 3.1Truly, 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. 3.2All this wells up like waves in the sea. Gyan Dharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12370729774416928822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4409658183019829154.post-34776937678237086892009-04-05T21:54:00.001-07:002009-04-05T21:54:24.324-07:00Ashtavakra said:The wise person of self-knowledge, playing the game of worldly enjoyment, bears no resemblance whatever to samsara's bewildered beasts of burden. 4.1Truly the yogi feels no excitement even at being established in that state which all the Devas from Indra down yearn for disconsolately. 4.2He who has known That is untouched within by good deeds or bad, just as space is not touched by smoke, howeverGyan Dharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12370729774416928822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4409658183019829154.post-88296238990379704732009-04-05T21:53:00.000-07:002009-04-05T21:54:01.341-07:00Ashtavakra said: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. 5.1All this arises out of you, like a bubble out of the sea. Knowing yourself like this to be but one, you can find peace. 5.2In spite of being in front of your eyes, all this, being insubstantial, does not exist in you, spotless as you are. It is an Gyan Dharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12370729774416928822noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4409658183019829154.post-69380711425354590602009-04-05T21:51:00.000-07:002009-04-05T21:53:36.688-07:00Ashtavakra said: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. 6.1I 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. 6.2I am like the mother of pearl, and the imagined world Gyan Dharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12370729774416928822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4409658183019829154.post-7812754086642576572009-04-05T21:50:00.006-07:002009-04-05T21:51:11.765-07:00Janaka said: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. 7.1Whether the world wave of its own nature rises or disappears in the infinite ocean of myself, I neither gain nor lose anything by that. 7.2It is in the infinite ocean of myself that the mind-creation called the world takes place. I am supremely peaceful and formless, andGyan Dharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12370729774416928822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4409658183019829154.post-70163740817034851492009-04-05T21:50:00.005-07:002009-04-05T21:50:51.660-07:00Ashtavakra said: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. 8.1Liberation 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. 8.2Bondage is when the mind is tangled inGyan Dharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12370729774416928822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4409658183019829154.post-59042801349981440512009-04-05T21:50:00.003-07:002009-04-05T21:50:35.072-07:00Ashtavakra said: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. 9.1Rare 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. 9.2All Gyan Dharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12370729774416928822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4409658183019829154.post-1982590990178962632009-04-05T21:50:00.001-07:002009-04-05T21:50:15.589-07:00Ashtavakra said: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. 10.1Look 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. 10.2Wherever a desire occurs, see samsara in it. Establishing yourself in firm Gyan Dharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12370729774416928822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4409658183019829154.post-73003850653646350652009-04-05T21:49:00.005-07:002009-04-05T21:49:57.635-07:00Ashtavakra said:Unmoved and undistressed, realising that being, non-being and change are of the very nature of things, one easily finds peace. 11.1At 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. 11.2Realising that misfortune and fortune come in their own time from fortune, one is contented, one's Gyan Dharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12370729774416928822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4409658183019829154.post-72205442018175909032009-04-05T21:49:00.003-07:002009-04-05T21:49:37.053-07:00Janaka said: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. 12.1In 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. 12.2Owing to the distraction of such things as wrong Gyan Dharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12370729774416928822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4409658183019829154.post-9817438330743148382009-04-05T21:49:00.001-07:002009-04-05T21:49:12.642-07:00Janaka said: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. 13.1Sometimes 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. 13.2Recognising that in reality no Gyan Dharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12370729774416928822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4409658183019829154.post-67567953604669683522009-04-05T21:47:00.004-07:002009-04-05T21:48:18.730-07:00Janaka said: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. 14.1When my desire has been eliminated, I have no wealth, friends, robbers, senses, scriptures or knowledge. 14.2Realising my supreme self-nature in the Person of the Witness, the Lord,and the state of desirelessness in bondage or liberation, I feelGyan Dharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12370729774416928822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4409658183019829154.post-49035102790048662222009-04-05T21:47:00.003-07:002009-04-05T21:47:52.307-07:00Ashtavakra said: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. 15.1Liberation is distaste for the objects of the senses. Bondage is love of the senses. This is knowledge. Now do as you wish. 15.2This awareness of the truth makes an eloquent, clever and energetic man dumb, stupid and lazy, so it is Gyan Dharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12370729774416928822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4409658183019829154.post-8036024331232283262009-04-05T21:47:00.001-07:002009-04-05T21:47:27.083-07:00Ashtavakra said:My son, you may recite or listen to countless scriptures, but you will not be established within until you can forget everything. 16.1You 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. 16.2Everyone is in pain because of their striving to achieve something, but noone realises it. By Gyan Dharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12370729774416928822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4409658183019829154.post-13923715893947624972009-04-05T21:46:00.002-07:002009-04-05T21:47:03.791-07:00Ashtavakra said: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. 17.1The knower of truth is never distressed in this world, for the whole round world is full of himself alone. 17.2None of these senses please a man who has found satisfaction within,just as Nimba leaves do not please the elephant that has acquired the Gyan Dharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12370729774416928822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4409658183019829154.post-14323054816711183962009-04-05T21:46:00.001-07:002009-04-05T21:46:33.701-07:00Ashtavakra said:Praise be to That by the awareness of which delusion itself becomes dream-like, to that which is pure happiness, peace, and light. 18.1One 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. 18.2How can there be happiness, for one who has been burnt inside by the blistering sun of the Gyan Dharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12370729774416928822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4409658183019829154.post-65782327276214226282009-04-05T21:45:00.001-07:002009-04-05T21:45:16.732-07:00The mind of the liberated man is not upset or pleased. It shines unmoving, desireless, and free from doubt. 18.30He whose mind does not set out to meditate or act, still meditates and acts but without an object. 18.31A stupid man is bewildered when he hears the ultimate truth, while even a clever man is humbled by it just like the fool. 18.32The ignorant make a great effort to practise Gyan Dharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12370729774416928822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4409658183019829154.post-33655322309057359072009-04-05T21:44:00.003-07:002009-04-05T21:44:52.831-07:00By 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. 18.50When one sees oneself as neither the doer nor the reaper of the consequences, then all mind waves come to an end. 18.51The spontaneous unassuming behaviour of the wise is noteworthy, but not the deliberate purposeful Gyan Dharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12370729774416928822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4409658183019829154.post-55018648656216548432009-04-05T21:44:00.001-07:002009-04-05T21:44:34.146-07:00He who of his very nature feels no unhappiness in his daily life like worldly people, remains undisturbed like a great lake, cleared of defilement. 18.60Even abstention from action has the effect of action in a fool, while even the action of the wise man brings the fruits of inaction. 18.61A fool often shows aversion towards his belongings, but for him whose attachment to the body has dropped Gyan Dharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12370729774416928822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4409658183019829154.post-56423027745323451942009-04-05T21:43:00.002-07:002009-04-05T21:44:11.105-07:00There is neither heaven nor hell nor even liberation during life. In a nutshell, in the sight of the seer nothing exists at all. 18.80He neither longs for possessions nor grieves at their absence. The calm mind of the sage is full of the nectar of immortality. 18.81The dispassionate man does not praise the good or blame the wicked. Content and equal in pain and pleasure, he sees nothing that Gyan Dharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12370729774416928822noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4409658183019829154.post-89728720716972042792009-04-05T21:43:00.001-07:002009-04-05T21:43:34.784-07:00Janaka said: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. 19.1For me, established in my own glory, there are no religious obligations, sensuality, possessions, philosophy, duality, or even nonduality. 19.2For me established in my own glory, there is no past, future, or present. There is no space or even eternityGyan Dharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12370729774416928822noreply@blogger.com0