Ashtavakra (aSTAvakra) (Story From mahabharata)
- aSTAvakra samhitA (gItA) : The Conversation between Ashtavakra and Janaka : (Links to previous posts)
aSTAvakra said,
- A person of sattvabuddhi (whose learned knowledge is based on Reality), achieves his purpose through a teaching given in any manner (yathA tatha buddhimAn). Others though curious about knowledge throughout their life are deluded.
- Freedom is a distaste for sensations. Attachment to matters reported by the senses is bondage. This is knowledge. Now do as you please.
- This knowledge is shunned by those who wish to consume (enjoy) the world, because it converts a conscious, great achiever and orator into a silent, inert and apathetic person.
- You are not the body and it is not yours. You are neither the bhOktA (consumer), nor doer. You are cidrUpa (of the form of cit), the eternal witness, expecting nothing, move about happily (comfortably).
- Attachment and Aversion are dharmAs of the manas. The manas is never yours. You are without kalpa (projection). Your self is knowledge. You are unchanging, move about happily (comfortably).
- Know that your Self is in all beings and all beings in your Self, without I-ness and My-ness, you be happy!
- You are that in which this expansion (universe, vis’vam), manifests like waves in an ocean, there is no doubt. Oh, cinmUrti, one whose form is cit-consciousness, be free from anxiety.
- Oh revered one, have faith, have faith! Don’t be under illusion here. You are beyond prakRti – prakRTEh parah. Your Self is the bhagavAn, whose form is knowledge!
It gets harder and harder to write this series.
I know that among the vEdAntins only the advaitins will relate to this.
Even among the advaitins most people talk as if knowledge is ‘unrealisable in this birth’. This because inspite of repetitions they firmly identify themselves and others with the body and its physical and mental activities, as well as their relationships with each other.
And yet, there is one special reader for whom I continue to write this. One that I know about today. There may be others in the future.
All of us have one Self! It is cit – the consciousness. It is unchanging. It is bhagavAn, the dispenser of fortunes. Our bodies, minds, and actions (including thoughts) are all prakRti. prakRti has been translated wildly as nature because that is its meaning in today’s languages. But it literally means – the tendency towards doing.
The universe that our senses are reporting about are waves in our own cit.
My senses report lights and sounds and tastes and smells and touch-es. This mind makes up a universe out of all these. It likes the ‘pretty, clean, sweet sounding and sweet smelling, soft and silky bits’. It is likely to have its preferences. But this my-manas is not mine, nor is that your-manas mine. They are just a lot of neural activities. Given the different inputs they get, two manas-es will not agree about a lot of things. But they always try to convince each other!
Your Self and My Self, are the one and the same. You and I are One, the bhagavAn, the cit, the knowledge, the witness, the unchanging reality. We identify with different bits of prakRti and according to this gIta, that is a mistake. The We-I-Self does nothing, consumes nothing!
satyA
Photo by Self and Son : I-We-Self-cit is bhagvAn : The Universe is a wave in us.
“And yet, there is one special reader for whom I continue to write this. One that I know about today. There may be others in the future.”
Here is one other earthling blessed by your works. I feel like being found myself. The verses, ideas, feelings, etc whatever I had since I was a child of 10, yet I could not speak were presented here in your posts. Felt like the Brahman himself directed me here to be a part of his amusing illustrous, illusive play.
had been browsing your posts since this afternoon, still can not close the browser.
Out of words…………………….. Dhanyosmi……………… The Omnipresent and Omnipotent……….
Jai Sri Rama
Sri Gurubhyonamaha
Jai Jai Sita Rama!