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Aṣṭāvakra Saṃhitā
A Dialogue on Self-realization
Poojya Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha
Chapter 18, Verse 66
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Ashtavakra Gita 18.66 -

क्व संसार: क्व चाभास: क्व साध्यं क्व च साधनम् ।
आकाशस्येव धीरस्य निर्विकल्पस्य सर्वदा

kva saṃsāraḥ kva cābhāsaḥ kva sādhyaṃ kva ca sādhanam.
ākāśasyeva dhīrasya nirvikalpasya sarvadā .. 18-66..

For the wise one, who is like space and always free of all doubts, where is worldliness, where is appearance, where is the attainable, where is the means to attain it?

Commentary by Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha

One becomes wise when he knows the supreme truth for certain and has no doubt of any kind about it or anything else. Equally so, he will not have any kind of bondage caused by anything whatever. Doubtlessness is indispensable in spiritual realization. Unlike the body, gross and limited in every way, the Self one realizes is a formless expansive presence like space!

The last doubt to assail the seeker is whether he has realized the truth, and whether what he has realized is true! Self is invisible, internal. How to be sure then ‘whether I have realized what I was looking for’? But true realization is such that it will not give room for any such thought. When one reaches such certainty, absoluteness, that is the nirvikalpa state of singularness.

For such a one where and how will worldliness shine? First, it is not there! If it is a mere appearance, why think of it at all, this way or that? It becomes groundless. Leave it all for ever.

If there is nothing to be attained, where is any means, sādhanā, for it? It is like searching for a starting point in empty space or the destination point!

The Knower himself becomes like space. Self is indescribable. He is the Self. And so he too is indefinable, immovable, changeless. Any talk of affirmation or denial is irrelevant and inapplicable. What an ineffable state is the Knower’s!

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