Test of Self-Realization | Ashtavakra Gita

The Ashtavakra Gita.

Test of Self-Realization.

We now get to the part of the dialogue where it gets more subtle. Ashtavakra's pointer has worked on Janaka.

He now sees that he is not a person. The Self is Awareness beyond consciousness. So now, this dialogue is not between two people; it is the Self conversing with the Self, and the Realization itself is put to the test.

Ashtavakra said:

"Having realized yourself as one, being serene and indestructible, why do you desire wealth?

Just as imagining silver in mother-of-pearl causes greed to arise, so does ignorance of Self cause desire for illusion.

Having realized yourself as That in which the waves of the world rise and fall, why do you run around in turmoil?

Having realized yourself as pure Awareness, as beautiful beyond description, how can you remain a slave to lust?

It is strange that in a sage who has realized Self in All and All in Self, this sense of ownership should continue.

Strange that one abiding in the Absolute, intent on freedom, should be vulnerable to lust and weakened by amorous pastimes.

Strange that, knowing lust as an enemy of knowledge, one so weak and nearing death should still crave sensual pleasure.

Strange that one who is unattached to the things of this world and the next, who can discriminate between the transient and the timeless, who yearns for freedom, should yet fear the dissolution of the body.

Whether acclaimed or tormented, the serene sage abides in the Self.

He is neither gratified nor angered.

A great soul witnesses his body's actions as if they were another's.

How can praise or blame disturb him?

Realizing the universe is illusion, having lost all curiosity, how can one of steady mind fear death?

With whom can we compare the great soul who, content knowing the Self, remains desireless in disappointment?

Why should a person of steady mind, who sees the nothingness of objects, prefer one thing to another?

He who is unattached, untouched by opposites, and free of desire, experiences neither pleasure nor pain as events pass through."

It's worth reading another translation of this last bit:

"He is beyond all duality, free from desire.

He has driven from his mind all longing for the world.

Come what may, joy or sorrow, nothing moves him."

There's a bit of a conundrum here, a test that Ashtavakra has put to Janaka. This is how Janaka responds:

Janaka said:

"Surely one who knows Self, though he plays the game of life, differs greatly from the world's bewildered, burdened beasts.

Truly, the yogi feels no elation, though he abides in the exalted state yearned for by Indra and all the discontented gods.

Surely one who knows That is not touched by virtue or vice, just as space is not touched by smoke, though it seems to be.

Who can prevent the great soul, who knows the universe as Self, from living life as it comes?

Of the four kinds of beings, from Brahma to a blade of grass, only the sage can renounce aversion and desire.

Rare is he who knows himself as One and no other, the Lord of the Universe.

He acts as he knows and is never afraid."

Do you think Janaka passes the test of Self-Realization?

There is a flaw in the thinking he has put forward, and that was exactly what Ashtavakra wanted to bring out and question.

We will now go into this.

Both Janaka and Ashtavakra have realized the root cause of misery, the reason for all craving and clinging. It is the belief in being a person, an individual in the world, apart from the true Self, that is just pure Awareness. Seeing this, all the mind's failings can be counted off and discarded.

In this Realization, you become perfectly calm, desireless, content in your own True Nature. All the desires are based on the idea of "me," a particular individual with its needs and wants. Letting go of that identity, there's the peace that is your own.

In the Realization that there is no individual self, that the true Self is Awareness, the idea that passions or desires may return seems impossible.

But in the same Realization is the knowledge that there is no person behind desires. There's no individual willpower or anyone in control. So, it is also clear that desires, passions, and cravings can and will return.

It is strange, but it is so.

Because there's no person to stop desiring, or who was ever there to desire anything. The desires are only the experience of what is going on in the body.

The devotees want to believe that their sage is perfect, but the lesson has been repeated many times over, through the many sages who were put on a pedestal and then regressed to their base desires. You may think they were simply ignorant from the beginning, but it is very much true that the truth of Nonduality can be realized, and yet the mind still continues through its old patterns of thought.

Ashtavakra's aim is now to guide Janaka past the point of no return, to cement the understanding beyond a temporary spiritual high.

"Whether acclaimed or tormented, the serene sage abides in the Self.

He is neither gratified nor angered."

Because to abide in the Self is to know that there is no self except Awareness alone. To be gratified or angered requires the idea of being a person; an individual self.

"A great soul witnesses his body's actions as if they were another's.

How can praise or blame disturb him?"

But if anger arises, or if self-gratification arises, is that your doing? That is the patterns of the brain activity; how the mind works. So, the sage is neither gratified or tormented by the states of the mind.

The states of the mind cannot be used to judge Enlightenment.

What Janaka says makes the sage sound like a perfect human being. If he sets this standard, he will eventually fail. Because the bliss that floods the mind upon Self-Realization cannot be sustained forever.

The true Bliss is subtle. It is the peace of knowing the true Self, as well as the knowledge that there is no individual self.

The idea of there being better beings and lesser beings, separate souls, some of them who are enlightened, that itself is not compatible with Self-Realization.

The Realization Janaka had is that there is no person; there is no self other than Awareness alone.

The same Awareness that must be present prior to any experience being possible. The same Awareness that shines in every instant of consciousness.

In the moment that this Self-Knowledge is present, that is the mind of a Sage.

And in the moment this Realization is forgotten, that is the mind of a beast.

No one has become enlightened or attained anything.

Nothing has really changed.

And yet, at the same time, whenever and wherever this Realization returns in any life, in any mind, that is the mind of Krishna.

This is the Unity of Atman and Brahman.

Now paradoxically, knowing this itself can be your shield from the convolutions of the mind.

"A great soul witnesses his body's actions as if they were another's.

How can praise or blame disturb him?

Realizing the universe is illusion, having lost all curiosity, how can one of steady mind fear death?

With whom can we compare the great soul who, content knowing Self, remains desireless in disappointment.

Why should a person of steady mind, who sees the nothingness of objects, prefer one thing to another?

He who is unattached, untouched by opposites, free of desire experiences neither pleasure nor pain as events pass through."

There will still be disappointment, and joy and sorrow, and pleasure and pain.

But to know the nature of Self, to see the illusion of objects, the insubstantial nature of all that appears, that is to be the great soul. That is the path to detachment and calm.

Pain or pleasure, joy or sorrow, they are all there. They pass through, yet the true Self, that is Awareness, remains unmoved.

All these experiences are local phenomena.

You are Pure Consciousness, the Substance of the Universe, Unbounded Awareness.

The passing forms have no real effect on You.

But to think that one who knows this is greatly different to the beasts, that the yogi has achieved some exalted state, or that the sage is some perfect being, is to again fall into error.

It is once again thinking in terms of persons and individual selves.

Ashtavakra easily sees this in Janaka's response and delivers his next pointer. I will just read it out now, and we will return to it when we next continue this series on the Ashtavakra Gita.

Ashtavakra said:

"You are immaculate, touched by nothing.

What is there to renounce?

The mind is complex — let it go.

Know the peace of dissolution.

The universe arises from you like foam from the sea.

Know yourself as One.

Enter the peace of dissolution.

Like an imagined snake in a rope, the universe appears to exist in the immaculate Self but does not.

Seeing this, you know: 'There is nothing to dissolve.'

You are perfect, changeless, through misery and happiness, hope and despair, life and death.

This is the state of dissolution."