Ashtavakra Gita 2.1 - Self-Realization and the Nature of Consciousness

Ashtavakra Maharshi’s instructions were clear, concise and conclusive. Janaka absorbed them well. Life, whether individualistic or interactional, is ‘experiential’. All experiences are inner, within the body, and they transpire in the sentience that animates the body. Even the body is an object, as the whole world is.

You are always the ‘witness’; the world and body are only ‘witnessed’. They cannot become you. Nor does ‘I’ become ‘you, she, it or they’. Separateness between them is evident, absolute. By the witnessed world, nothing will accrue to the witness ‘I’.
Realize this and be free instantly. Yes, King Janaka did so, and speaks out what he feels, what his understanding is. As a mere witness of the world and its objects, the ‘I’ is devoid of all their qualities and conditionings. Hence Janaka says “‘I’ am taintless, peaceful, Consciousness, I transcend the entire Nature.” You can add to these adjectives endlessly. In all cases the ‘I’ is different from all qualities the witnessed together has.

Janaka pities he has been deluded all along, and suffering. He will no more do so. The same identity, you or anyone else can discover and state as king Janaka does before the Sage.