Aṣṭāvakra Saṃhitā
A Dialogue on Self-realization
Chapter 17, Verse 18
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Ashtavakra Gita 17.18 -
समाधानासमाधानहिताहितविकल्पना: ।
शून्यचित्तो न जानाति कैवल्यमिव संस्थित:
samādhānāsamādhāna-hitāhita-vikalpanāḥ .
śūnya-citto na jānāti kaivalyam-iva saṃsthitaḥ .. 17-18..
Seated as it were in absolute aloneness, the one of void-full mind knows not the distractions of contemplation and non-contemplation as well as likes and dislikes.
Commentary by Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha
Ordinary people only know about the extensive world surrounding them and to interact with its objects ceaselessly. Even if they withdraw and rest for a while, their mind would still be thinking about the visibles alone. There is no recognition nor even a prompting to know where they see the objects and how.
All visions and experiences take place within the body, in the mind. None wonders at the majesty of the mind, the inner presence. For them the external alone is the fullness of perception.
The Knower’s experience and realization are completely distinct. For him the whole seeing process proceeds from the mind, subsists on it and also terminates there. Everything emerges and subsides in the mind, but nothing prevails there. What survives is the substratum of all, the inner presence, the supreme sentience.
The Knower clearly feels that he abides in this inner absoluteness. Nothing else is there. It is a complete, full presence, sovereign in every way. He abides in it. As a tree on its root, a branch on the trunk, he rests on this inner spiritual sovereign presence. For him neither contemplation nor non-contemplation matters.
Likewise, there is no like or dislike either. It is all a homogenous presence, unaffected and full in every way. No object or its perception can outweigh it. On the other hand, it overwhelms every impact from the senses and sensory objects.
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