Ashtavakra Gita 1.6 - Teachings on Self-Realization and Liberation

Aṣṭāvakra Maharshi explains the concept of liberation without giving any room for doubt or question. What is freedom or liberation in reality? General idea is that it is for the jeeva, the living soul, encased in the body. In liberation, the jeeva, living soul, becomes free of transmigration, meaning repeated births and deaths, which are sure to follow the bodily death upon the earth.

In accepting such a state of liberation, the seeker does not care to think as to what this jeeva is, if it is not the body. Where is the locus standi for such a soul? Before accepting anything like jeeva, should not one discreetly consider matters well and try to know what is our life, what is embodiment itself?

Right in the second verse the Sage Teacher analysed life and made it clear that the ‘I’ every one refers to is not anything like the pañca-bhūtas, which constitute the world, but is truly their witness. There are only two factors in creation and in our life. It is the world with its myriad objects, and the one that sees, witnesses them. Where is any place for a third factor?

The seeker should therefore understand that he is not the object he sees and interacts with. He is instead the one who witnesses all, minute and majestic. That witness, by virtue of the fact that it witnesses the whole universe, has a dimension even greater than the universe. Besides him, the witness, everything and all are objects alone. He alone is the sole subject.

Where is any personality like the jeeva, as is construed generally?

Dharma and adharma, righteousness and unrighteousness, are considerations within the field of religion and ethics, which govern the jeeva and its course and fate. The Sage says that in truth these are all made by the mind and subsisting on the mind. They are like sukha and du:kha, which are mind’s own creation. For one who is the sole witness throughout his life and interactions, who is all-pervading, how can there be any of these states and conditions? Dismiss and disown them altogether, as unfounded imaginations. Mind fosters them, in a state of ignorance and delusion alone.

The Sage emphasizes that one is not a performer, or enjoyer or sufferer of the result or outcome of any performance. Every one is the singular witness. In the event of an action being done, or its result surfacing, he or she remains as its witness. Where is then any virtue or sin for him? In any action, you are the witness alone, ever and ever. What result or fruition of anything can come to you, cling to or affect you then?

You have already separated yourself from the body and senses, and hence from all that they perceive and experience. Then, where is anything at all, one can predicate to the witness? He remains singularly aloof, away from, alone and full. This indeed is liberation, freedom. It is not that one has to make himself free, from any kind of bondage that prevails now. One, every one, as the singular witness, is and will be ever free, absolutely, unquestionably. Be so, says the Maharshi instructor.

Claim your status, quality, enrichment and fullness. Do not lag behind in this process of true enlightenment.