Liberation is at hand | Ashtavakra Gita

The Ashtavakra Gita.

Nature of Self-Realization.

The mind is stuck to a local viewpoint: This life, a handful of people, perhaps the entire human species, or at best, all the life on this planet. But Reality cannot be understood from a local viewpoint.

Self-Realization is in seeing the very same view from a very different viewpoint.

The Absolute Standpoint.

This is from where Janaka now speaks.

Janaka said:

"In me, the shoreless ocean, the ark of the universe drifts here and there on the winds of its nature.

I am not impatient.

In me, the shoreless ocean, let the waves of the universe rise and fall as they will.

I am neither enhanced nor diminished.

In me, the shoreless ocean, the universe is imagined.

I am still and formless.

In this alone I abide.

The Self is not in objects, nor are objects in the pure and infinite Self.

The Self is tranquil, free of attachment and desire.

In this alone I abide.

I am Awareness alone.

The world is passing show.

How can thoughts arise of acceptance or rejection? And where?"

The dialogue now shifts back to Ashtavakra, who brings us back to earth. How does one see from this Absolute Standpoint? He now clarifies.

Bondage and Liberation.

Ashtavakra said:

"When the mind desires or grieves things, accepts or rejects things, is pleased or displeased by things — this is bondage.

When the mind does not desire or grieve, accept or reject, become pleased or displeased, liberation is at hand.

If the mind is attached to any experience, this is bondage.

When the mind is detached from all experience, this is liberation.

When there is no 'I' there is only liberation.

When 'I' appears bondage appears with it.

Knowing this, it is effortless to refrain from accepting and rejecting."

Let us revisit some of the key verses here.

"In me, the shoreless ocean, the ark of universe drifts here and there on the winds of its nature.

I am not impatient.

In me, the shoreless ocean, let the waves of the universe rise and fall as they will.

I am neither enhanced nor diminished."

This is not speaking from a human point of view but from the Absolute Standpoint.

Beyond cause and effect, most fundamental, timeless, prior to all creation. This is what is realized as the Self. The Ultimate Reality on which even the universe depends, in which space and time appears, and everything in it.

In regards to this Reality, there can be no change, no increasing or decreasing, being or non-being, no gain or loss, no awakening or sleeping.

Reality is aware.

Always aware, always real, fundamental.

In the pure Awareness of Self, the universe appears.

"In me, the shoreless ocean, the universe is imagined.

I am still and formless.

In this alone I abide."

How can the sage say so confidently that the Ultimate Reality is Awareness while the scientists are still not clear? It is simply because without Awareness there is no universe, and Awareness itself has no form. It does not exist at a point in time or space.

And when looking at the Self, inquiring, "Who am I?" the answer is: Only This Awareness.

You find in yourself the Ultimate Reality as the Self.

"The Self is not in objects, nor are objects in the pure and infinite Self."

This Capacity, in itself formless and empty, is the Expanse in which all forms appear. And what they express, are expressing, is that Reality cannot be described in terms of any one form, but is the basis of all these forms. The Awareness that cannot be described in terms of shapes, colors, emotions, or any kind of experience.

But every kind of experience is describing the depth of what Awareness is — The clear and obvious Reality.

"The Self is tranquil, free of attachment and desire.

In this alone, I abide."

No matter what is going on in this one life, Awareness is not affected. The sky stays blue, the wind keeps blowing, water flows the same way as ever, no matter how the mind may be disturbed.

In the whole world before you, you take one scrap and think of it as me, and that is the problem.

The whole world is an expression of the Self. All worlds taken as a whole are only describing the depth of Self. Awareness is not contained inside any object, nor are there any real objects except as expressions of Awareness.

In fact, this whole duality of subject and object falls apart here. All objects are subjective, and there are no separate subjects.

There is only Awareness — every form an expression of Awareness, and Awareness is the basis of all forms.

Seeing Awareness as the Self, you know that the Self is ever at peace, serene, unattached, and unaffected by any passing form.

After any achievement, any loss, any experience, can it be said that Awareness was gained or lost? It was only the experience that happened and passed by. Perceived with and by the constant factor that is I, this Awareness.

"I am Awareness alone.

The world is passing show.

How can thoughts arise of acceptance or rejection, and where?"

As the Self is Awareness, can there be any reality to thoughts of a person accepting or rejecting things in the world? Awareness does not reject, nor need to accept. Those are the convolutions of the mind.

The world itself has been seen as an illusion. This solid ground, the sight in front of you, when even that is an illusion, where are the thoughts?

How insubstantial. Where can they arise except in imagination, as unseen hallucinations within a hologram?

Now let's come back to Earth. Back to this life where all kinds of thoughts do arise.

How is one to be free of them? How do you take your stand in the Absolute when the mind gets mired in the relative?

"When the mind desires or craves things, accepts or rejects things, is pleased or displeased by things — this is bondage."

This is bondage to the mind, to the body, to the world, to the persona and all its baggage.

This is being ruled by thoughts.

Those insubstantial thoughts which have really no substance.

"When the mind does not desire or grieve, accept or reject, become pleased or displeased, liberation is at hand."

This is the way to peace, the loving calm of the Sage, the happiness of being content in the moment, whatever it may be.

"If the mind is attached to any experience, this is bondage.

When the mind is detached from all experience, this is liberation."

This is the root cause of misery and the way to liberation.

Every question the Sage is asked is a question about experience. How can I experience Awareness, reside in Awareness, overcome trauma, experience bliss, be free of thoughts. This is all being attached to experience. To judge and evaluate yourself based on the passing experiences, to tie your ideal of Enlightenment to them, is to remain tied to them.

That is bondage.

To be free is to stop being obsessed with experience itself.

It is all yours. Every single experience, in any single life, belongs to the Self.

Why lust after the meager scraps available in this life? There's one link for this obsession to break, and then you get something beyond experience.

The Realization of Self.

"When there is no 'I' there is only liberation.

When 'I' appears bondage appears with it.

Knowing this, it is effortless to refrain from accepting and rejecting."

You must see this in action. When there is misery, look and you will find all the thinking and feelings roiling around the concept of "I". And you will find how you are chasing an experience, or running away from it.

And when you are at peace, look and you will find you had forgotten all ideas of self, any sense of "I". You were not chasing anything, or running away. You remained standing just as you are, in the moment, just as it was perceived.

As this silent living Awareness.

Just as You are.

Only without being obsessed with the thought of "I".

When this thought appears, the craving for experience or the aversion to it appears with it. Knowing this, it is effortless to step away from misery, to walk past the hooks of such thinking. When you know the cause of misery as something so simple, you know the way to peace.

When you know the fire is hot, you don't put your hand in it. It is instinctive, natural, effortless.

In the Peace of Dissolution you find what is true Detachment. You learn of the true Self.

You arrive at the Absolute Standpoint. Not knowing yourself in thought, or as some particular experience, but simply realizing what is being pointed out by the fact of being aware.

"Liberation is to know yourself as Awareness alone."