The Secret of Self Realization- Astavakra Gita

Of all the books in the world, by far my favorite is Bhagavad Gita. It tells you everything you need to know, if you know how to read it, digging into it, and absorb it fully.  I have often said that it's my "only one book on an island" volume that I wouldn't want to live without. 

However, coming in a pretty close second, is the Ashtavakra Gita (or Ashtavakra Samhita), which is a relatively short book, less than half the size of Bhagavad Gita's 700 verses, with a mere 303 verses in 20 chapters.  

It is a dialogue between King Janaka, and the sage Ashtavakra.  There is a backstory to the book, before it starts, where the King is suddenly graced with the recognition of Self and the book begins at that point.  The king asks Ashtavakra 3 questions:  1. How does one obtain wisdom; 2. How does one become liberated, and 3. How does one achieve detachment. 

Ashtavakra responds: muktim ichhasi chettat vishayana vishavattyaja | kshama arjava dayatosha satyam piyushavad bhaja

IF you desire liberation, abandon the objects of the senses as if they are poison, and worship forgiveness, honesty, compassion, contentment, and truth as nectar!  

Anyone who is familar with spiritual texts, knows that there are always some Do's and Don't's, or yamas and niyamas, in the beginning.  These are like the prerequisites for attaining a higher state. First one has to see where they are, and recognize that the senses and sense objects are a distraction - a HUGE distraction.  And distractions are the enemy of Truth.  And what IS important? More divine qualities! Forgiveness, Honesty, Compassion, Contentment, and Truth.  You might start by asking yourself to what degree to you find these qualities in your own life?  How content are you?  How honest are you?  How forgiving are you?  How attached to varous sense objects, of any kind, are you? Hmm?  

In the next verse, Ashtavakra then explains what you ARE: "You are neither earth, water, fire, air or space. (In other words, anything which is solid, liquid, light, heat, air, space, etc.) For liberation know that YOU are the Witness of all these, the Self, Pure Consciousness."   

Witness!  When someone is asked WHO they are, the first responses are all related to the body and mind - "I'm MR/MS so-and-so. I do this for a living. I'm so many years old. I'm part of this community. I believe in this and that. My hopes and dreams are this and that."  NONE of this has anything to do with who you truly are.  You are not any of these solid or liquid or mental things - YOU are the Witness of all these things - the Pure Consciousness that is aware of them.  

The next verse (4) is one of my all time favorite Sanskrit verses:

yadi deham pruthak krutya chiti vishramya tishthasi | adhunaiva sukhi shanto bandhamukto bhavishyasi

"If you separate yourself from your body/mind, and stay resting in the shelter of/as Awareness. Even NOW, you are happy, peaceful and FREE from Bondage!"  

So that's it!  Right there.  Recognize that you are NOT any of the senses, the body, the mind, or any of the things that the body/mind associates with and as. You are the Witness of it all. You are the Awareness, which is always and already happening NOW.  

So for a moment, let's go back to those Do's and Don't's - seeing the objects of senses as poison and the other qualities as nectar.  You might ask, 'What do they have to do with the pure awareness, if you are the witness of those things, and not those things themselves?'   Good question. On one level - Nothing.  You are the Awareness whether your senses are engaged in sense objects of not; if you are forgiving or not; if you are honest or not.  You are still the witness if you're stealing a car or feeding millions of children. Those things don't change that YOU are Pure Awareness, and not any of those things.....

BUT until one is able to totally rest AS Awareness, the individual will IDENTIFY as those things going on. They will identify themselves as a bad person or a good person, or even Godly person. They will consider themselves as intelligent or stupid, or fat or short or whatever.  So, the purpose of seeing the sense objects as poison, and instead acting on level of Goodness, is to help one DISidentify or detach from the normal day-to-day humanness and their activites and distractions!  

This body/mind complex is more or less a machine. Call it karma or genetics or environment or fate, but a lot of the things about you will never really change.  And they don't need to, because those things don't really matter.  The question is how to achieve wisdom, liberation and detachment.  Not how to get smarter or richer or more beautiful - those are all in the earth, water, fire, air etc categories.  Not in the category of Pure Awareness.  

Those do's and don't's are to help you recognize the distractions and come back to:

"If you separate yourself from you body/mind, and stay resting in the shelter of/as Awareness. Even NOW, you are happy, peaceful and FREE from Bondage!"  

So, keep coming back to I AM AWARNESS.  

Verse 6 then tells us that happiness and distress, goodness and badness - these are all things of the MIND and not to the eternal Self. You are not the doer or enjoyer, YOU are already always liberated.  

So keep coming back to rest in Awareness.  

Who is reading this right now?

Keep coming back to Awareness who is aware of the reading now.  

Let go of the person you have so long identified with and Rest as Pure Awareness, and you are happy, peaceful and free from bondage....RIGHT NOW!  

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Linktr.ee/ajathomas

हरे कृष्ण हरे कृष्ण कृष्ण कृष्ण हरे हरे 

हरे राम हरे राम राम राम हरे हरे