Serenity of the Sage | Ashtavakra Gita

The Ashtavakra Gita.

Happiness.

Janaka said:

"The tranquil state of knowing Self alone is rare — even among those who own but a loincloth. I therefore neither renounce nor accept and am happy.

The body is strained by practices. The tongue tires of scripture. The mind numbs with meditation. Detached from all this, I live as I am.

Realizing that nothing is done, I do what comes and am happy. Yogis who preach either effort or non-effort are still attached to the body. I neither dissociate nor associate with any of that and am happy. I have nothing to gain or lose by standing, walking, or sitting down.

So whether I stand, walk or sit, I am happy. I do not lose by sleeping nor attain by effort. Not thinking in terms of loss or gain, I am happy. Pleasure and pain fluctuate and are inconsistent.

Without good or bad, I live happily.

The tranquil state of knowing Self alone is rare — even among those who own but a loincloth."

Sri Ramana Maharshi is only remembered because he emerged from that state in which the mind and body had been rendered inert. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj only spoke of the Absolute after his sense of being, what he called beingness or consciousness, returned.

Avalokiteshvara only expounded the Heart Sutra after he saw emptiness take shape as form. The Tranquil State of knowing Self alone is rare. It is a dropping out of space and time. The falling apart of all ideas of self as the mind conceives of them.

The end of "consciousness" as you know it. It is cessation, the end of the world, the loss of self, an impenetrable gap in experience. It's over in an instant. And not even that, because it is a gap in the timeline. Whoever has been Here knows that the tranquil state of knowing Self alone is rare.

Even among those who own but a loincloth. But there's no need to go back. No need to stay in that state. To see the Truth once is to know the Truth. Once you have seen it, you know it.

I am forever That. That is my state. I need not maintain it or retain it. This is not better than That and That is not better than This. This or That, it is the One State.

All is the Self and the Self is All. This Form itself is Emptiness and Emptiness is none other than this Form. Thus... therefore, there is no need to renounce or accept. I am Here. I am Home.

"I therefore neither renounce nor accept and am happy.

The body is strained by practices. The tongue tires of scripture. The mind numbs with meditation.

Detached from all this, I live as I am."

All those practices leading up to the Realization, they seem pointless. It looks like none of them did anything. And yet any of them should have been sufficient.

It was just the mind unraveling. It was a knot being untied. The false ideas of self were falling apart. Perhaps some practice was necessary. The questioning was necessary.

But then This is what always is, was, and will be. Can the Truth ever be hidden? Can there be any confusion about This? The Self is not a thing in the world. Does not depend on the world.

In fact, there is no world apart from the Self. The Self / You / this Aware-ness, are that absolute prior-most Reality because of which "nothing" can become "something". Through which inexistence can erupt into existence. Forms can arise out of emptiness.

What can practice ever achieve? The scope is all wrong. Enlightenment has nothing to do with the state of one mind or one person. Reality is ever the same.

The Self has always been the Self. What You are cannot be changing moment to moment through practice. There was no seeker and no one was confused. It was just the thinking that was confused. Detached from the thinking and the practices, life flows on unimpeded.

"Realizing that nothing is done, I do what comes and I'm happy."

Nothing is ever done by anyone because there are no separate selves to do or not do. All of Now is flowing into all of Now, eternally. Even in conventional terms, every single point in this universe can be traced back to a single point.

It is impossible to divide and subdivide that single spaceless timeless point in which the universe emerges. That point never split. It never exploded. At most it can be said that it expanded, but that is only from the relative view of space and time. All that appears within the Singularity remains within the Singularity.

Nothing is ever really done. There is no real change. And, if it can be said that something has happened or is happening, in whatever happens, the actual fact of it; the happening of it, is Awareness in action. It is the flow of Consciousness. Emptiness arising as Form.

Realizing this, a flow state is not an occasional personal state of mind. The Flow is eternal and all-encompassing.

"Yogis who preach either effort or non-effort are still attached to the body. I neither dissociate nor associate with any of that and am happy."

The idea of effort assumes an individual person that has power over Reality. It assumes there's such a thing as a separate mind that can affect the laws of nature; That thought can somehow influence the naturally unfolding processes taking place in this universe. But thought only ever appears at the end of such a process. It is never the cause. The idea of non-effort still assumes there is an individual self that can stop making an effort and become one with the Flow.

To the Jnani it is not like that. The Flow is eternal. There is no individual self. The Self is All and All is the Self.

Knowing this, all problems are impersonal and all solutions work themselves out magically. Therefore, the perplexed mind can be rendered content, tranquil, happy.

"I have nothing to gain or lose by standing, walking or sitting down. So whether I stand, walk or sit, I am happy.

I do not lose by sleeping, nor attain by effort. Not thinking in terms of loss or gain, I am happy."

Seeing the nature of Self as this pure Awareness, prior to any forms; the fundamental basis of anything, it is absolutely clear that there can be no real gain or loss. Just as surely as the law of conservation of energy, but much more intimately, you can see that there can be no real gain or loss for You.

You were once born Pharaoh. Had the most magnificent white gold tipped pyramid built as your tomb. What does that pyramid look like now? Who remembers anything of that life now? The books must balance. There can be no gain or loss.

And this is not just over long periods of time. It applies to every scale. The moment of excitement brings the moment of tiredness. The depth of love carries in it the weight of grief. Thought moment to thought moment, everything is cancelling itself out.

There is no gain or loss possible for you. As soon as you realize that there is nothing in this game for you, you are out of it. Standing still, the foundation stone, the unchanging, ever-present Awareness. Everything arises and fades away, never summing up to more or less than zero.

It is all just flowing. The Dance of Shiva. Emptiness to Form to Emptiness.

"Pleasure and pain fluctuate and are inconsistent.

Without good or bad, I live happily."

Chapter 14. Tranquility.

Janaka said:

"Though appearing asleep like other men, one whose interest in the world is exhausted, whose mind has been emptied, who thinks only by inadvertence, is in Reality awake. When desire has melted, how can there be wealth, or friends, or the seduction of senses? What use is scripture and knowledge?

I have realized the Supreme Self, the Witness, the One. I am indifferent to bondage and freedom. I have no need for liberation. The inner condition of one who is devoid of doubt, yet moves among creatures of illusion, can only be known by those like him."