Aṣṭāvakra Saṃhitā
A Dialogue on Self-realization
Chapter 18, Verse 11
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Ashtavakra Gita 18.11 -
स्वाराज्ये भैक्षवृत्तौ च लाभालाभे जने वने ।
निर्विकल्पस्वभावस्य न विशेषोऽस्ति योगिन:
svārājye bhaikṣavṛttau ca lābhālābhe jane vane .
nirvikalpasvabhāvasya na viśeṣo’sti yoginaḥ .. 18-11..
Whether in his inner spiritual kingdom of the Self or living on bhiksha (alms), in gain and loss, in the midst of the vibrant society of the planes or in the solitude of woods, for the yogin floating in nirvikalpa state, there is nothing special at all.
Commentary by Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha
This is another striking description of the same inner spiritual state of fullness, abundance and unaffectedness of the enlightened yogin. True, every one has a physical, gross, external body, with five senses, interacting with the object-full world. For 16 hours of the day, he lives and moves with this body.
But when the whole subject is enquired into, you cannot escape the truth that it is the mind that feels the presence of the body, employs the senses and causes interactions with the objects. But all this is but your inner experience alone. Only when you are conscious of the body, this interactional phase takes place. It starts when the mind wakes up from sleep, arousing bodily awareness and through that world awareness.
Think deeply: Who woke up? ‘The mind’ alone. Who drops the whole wakefulness, to be absorbed in sleep with no activity and interaction? So, is not the very wakefulness a state the mind generates and preserves? The same mind withdraws it to go back to sleep again? Is not then sleep the source of wakeful state? A very grave thought, no doubt!
Inner mind produces and preserves wakefulness for two thirds of the full day. It then goes to sleep. Sleep is the origin, the source. It goes back to the same sleep again at the end of the day.
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