Does death subtract anything from You? | Ashtavakra Gita

The Ashtavakra Gita. Knowledge of the Self.

Ashtavakra said:

"A man of open intuition may realize the Self upon hearing a casual instruction, while a man of cluttered intellect inquires bewildered for a lifetime. Aversion to the world's offerings is liberation.

Attraction to the world's offerings is the suffering of bondage. This is the truth. Now do as you please. This knowledge of Truth turns an eloquent, wise and active man mute, empty and inert. Lovers of the world, therefore shun it.

You are not the body. You do not have a body. You neither do nor enjoy. You are Awareness only – the timeless Witness. You are free. Go in happiness.

Attachment and aversion are attributes of the mind. You are not the mind. You are Consciousness itself – changeless, undivided, free. Go in happiness.

Realize Self in All and All in Self. Be free of personal identity and the sense of 'mine'. Be happy. You are That in which the universe appears like waves appearing in the ocean.

You are Consciousness itself. No need to worry. Have faith, my son, have faith. You are Awareness alone, the Self, the One.

You are the Lord of Nature. The body is made of worldly stuff. It comes, it lingers, it goes. The Self neither comes nor goes, yet remains. Why mourn the body?

If the body lasts until the end of time or perishes today – is there gain or loss for you? You who are Awareness? Let the waves of the universe rise and fall as they will. You have nothing to gain or lose.

You are the Ocean. You are the substance of Consciousness. The world is You. Who is it that thinks he can accept or reject it? And where does he stand? In you who are One – immaculate, still Awareness – from where can birth, action or a separate person arise?

Whatever You perceive is You and You alone. How can bracelets, armlets and anklets be other than the gold they are made of? Leave behind such distinctions as 'I am He, the Self,' and 'I am not this.' Consider everything Self.

Be desireless. Be happy. Your ignorance alone creates the universe. In reality, One alone exists. There is no person or god other than You.

One who knows for certain that the universe is illusion, a no-thing becomes desireless, pure Awareness, and finds peace in the existence of nothing. In the ocean of existence, only One is, was, and ever will be. You are neither bound nor free. Live content and be happy.

Do not stir the mind with 'yes' or 'no.' You are pure Consciousness. Be still, and abide in the bliss of Self. Give up completely all contemplation. Hold nothing in the mind or heart.

You are the Self, forever free. Of what use is thinking to You?"

Did you notice Ashtavakra is no longer addressing Janaka? The one being addressed now is you.

Ashavakra's instructions and Janaka's descriptions of realization now culminate in this direct transmission to point you back to you.

"A man of open intuition may realize the Self upon hearing a casual instruction, while a man of cluttered intellect inquires bewildered for a lifetime."

The Truth is simple and ever true. You are not a thing, nor an individual subject, but simply Awareness alone.

If you approach this with intellectual rigor, you miss the point and go down the tunnel of endless thinking. If you approach this as a state or experience to arrive at, you are on a stairway to nowhere. Instead, with an open mind, gates unbarred, listen. The wisdom teachings are just describing what you are.

You are present, aware, real. All else is transient, subjective, illusory. In imagination, Awareness is a field contained within space, a possession of separate selves. But in truth, Awareness is what you are, and cannot be a possession as there is no separate self to be found. In truth, Awareness is not an inexplicable phenomena that you somehow came to possess, but the very Nature of Self – of what You Are.

So now, from this standpoint, consider life.

"Aversion to the world's offerings is liberation. Attraction to the world's offerings is the suffering of bondage. This is the truth. Now do as you please."

It is not being said that liberation is better than bondage. It is just being explained how things are. If the attraction of the world's offerings is still there, then there will be enjoyment and suffering. And whenever the world's offerings lose their appeal, then naturally there comes the calm of peace.

Simply know your role in all this; your true place in all this, and do as you please.

"This knowledge of Truth turns an eloquent, wise and active man mute, empty and inert. Lovers of the world therefore shun it."

People talk about people and the affairs of people.

Even among spiritual aspirants, each is concerned with their own progress. In such a world, the Truth renders one into a quiet recluse. What is there to talk about and with whom? What is left to do and to what end?

But ask the right question and that mute, empty and inert man may burst into eloquent wisdom. It is just that this Truth is completely useless for lovers of the world.

"You are not the body. You do not have a body. You neither do nor enjoy. You Are Awareness only – the timeless Witness.

You are free. Go in happiness."

When there is enjoyment, the enjoyment is witnessed. When there is suffering, the suffering is witnessed. The enjoyment and suffering merely represent the underlying activity.

They are the witnessing of the body's activity. This universe's activity. You neither do nor enjoy nor suffer. You only witness all these. You are Awareness, the timeless Witness. To witness means to be uninvolved except in the witnessing of whatever may be happening.

This is what it means to be aware – to be the Witness. The Timeless is knowing the transient. The Unseen is seeing. The Silence is listening.

"Attachment and aversions are attributes of the mind. You are not the mind. You are Consciousness itself – changeless, undivided, free. Go in happiness."

Attachment and aversion, bondage and liberation – these are the concerns of the mind. You who are not the body, not the mind, uninvolved in any event except in the witnessing of it: As the Awareness, as the pure Consciousness allowing for the happening – You are forever unbound, ever free. You cannot be born or die. You cannot be split into two or change in any way.

Because to be aware is just to be the timeless Witness. If the mind seeks happiness, let it find it in this Fact: The Self is not a thing that was born and will die. The Self is not dependent on this body or even on this universe. The Self has no desires or needs.

The Self – You, are this Intrinsic Awareness. Fundamental, perfect, changeless. Knowing this, the mind has no imaginary master to serve, no self to worry over, no great deeds to accomplish. Thus, knowing this, be free. Be happy.

"Realize Self in All and All in Self. Be free of personal identity and the sense of mine. Be happy."

This is the only condition to be happy. Forget that sense of me and mine. Don't go back to the wrong conception of self.

Take your stand in the changeless, ever-true, universal presence of Awareness and look from this right Standpoint. You are free of being a person. You don't even have a fixed persona. Just drop all that baggage and be free.

"You are that in which the universe appears like waves appearing in the ocean. You are Consciousness itself. No need to worry."

Don't refer to the mind to describe what you are. Look at yourself as you are, without reference to any passing experience or states of mind. All that can be said, truthfully, factually, is that you are aware. You are this Aware-ness.

You are not a thing that has gained consciousness. You are Consciousness Itself. This world, all worlds, all universes depend upon what You are. The depth of the ocean, the distance to the stars, they are all describing this Infinity that You are. If the mind falls back to its old habits, let it then ask itself, "If the Self is All, what is there to worry about?"

"Have faith, my son, have faith. You are Awareness alone, the Self, the One. You are the Lord of Nature."

Can there be a higher principle than Awareness?

Does not every perception, every possible experience depend upon Awareness? And is not Awareness the only principle in Nature that can contain even space and time? It is just so. Thus, you have arrived at the Ultimate Reality.

And not just found "it", but found that you and Reality are One and the same. This most intimate meaning of I... this Aware-ness.

"The body is made of worldly stuff. It comes, it lingers, it goes. The Self neither comes nor goes, yet remains.

Why mourn the body? If the body lasts until the end of time or perishes today, is there gain or loss for you? You who are Awareness?"

When there is joy, the joy will be experienced. When there is sorrow, the sorrow will be experienced. This is natural.

To know this space opera through each character, from the simplest to the grandest, that is your role as the timeless Witness. But as these countless lives are lived out, is there any gain or loss for You who are Awareness? Do any of these lives add to Awareness? And does death subtract anything from Awareness?

"Let the waves of the universe rise and fall as they will. You have nothing to gain or lose. You are the ocean. You are the substance of Consciousness. The world is You.

Who is it that thinks he can accept or reject it? And where does he stand?"

From this true Standpoint, can there be a world separate to You? The substance, the very Fabric of Reality is You – pure Consciousness. Then who can stand as a separate self in this world and look to accept or reject it?

On what ground would such a self stand? It is not possible. When the Basis is sentient there can be no separate sentient entities.

"In You who are One – immaculate, still Awareness – from where can birth, action or a separate person arise? Whatever You perceive is You and You alone.

How can bracelets, armlets, and anklets be other than the gold they are made of?"

This Awareness in Itself, the Unknowable Reality is all there is. But in this Unknowable Reality there is this knowing. How can this be?

It must be that what is known is in fact also the Unknowable. Consider anything the mind says it knows. Question it. A sight, a sound, a feeling. Does it really know what this is? Only by adding the veneer of words and concepts can the Unknown be cast as the known.

In truth, all forms are the Unknowable Reality. The Formless taking form. This is the pure Awareness that transcends forms and emptiness, knowing and not knowing, being and non-being.

"Leave behind such distinctions as, 'I am He, the Self' and 'I am not this.' Consider everything Self. Be desireless. Be happy.

Your ignorance alone creates the universe. In reality, One alone exists. There's no person or god other than You."

Your ignorance is not really ignorance but the consequence of being the Unknown – the Unknowable One. Life does not begin containing in it the knowledge of what You are.

In fact, each life is actively portraying you wrongly; as only the organism, which is what is being witnessed. It is portraying you as the thing, which is in fact just what is being experienced. In Truth, there are no persons, no sentient beings, no gods. There's just this pure Awareness in which all lies are lived out.

Each an epic of its own, but all in the One Reality that alone exists.

"One who knows for certain that the universe is illusion, a no-thing, becomes desireless, pure Awareness, and finds peace in the existence of nothing. In the ocean of existence only One is, was and ever will be. You are neither bound nor free.

Live content and be happy. Do not stir the mind with 'yes' or 'no.' You are pure Consciousness. Be still, and abide in the bliss of Self.

Give up completely all contemplation. Hold nothing in the mind or heart. You are the Self, forever free. Of what use is thinking to You?"