Ashtavakra Gita 2.10 - Self-Realization and the Nature of Consciousness

At the first hearing, the statement may strike as incredible. But, if you will take to tattva-vichāra, truthful introspection, matters will become clear, giving no scope for doubt at all.

Universe is stupendous and endless. How could such a creation have taken place and from where? No answer can be found by any, as none of us was before the Universe emerged, to see how it sprang up. So the subject is beyond sensory perception. How is it to be approached? Through inference, by applying our intelligence. Do so.

Universal display is not throughout the day. For about 7 to 8 hours, the whole of it becomes non-existent as one gets into sleep state. You go to the world from you, not that the world comes to you. One wakes up and then the world springs up within him. Likewise, at the end of wakefulness, he wipes off the world and goes to sleep. World being absent and you being there, what is the reliable presence? The world or you? Evidently you alone.

The world is an outcome of the individual wakeful state. It springs with wakefulness and dissolves as wakefulness transits into sleep. Is not Janaka then right in saying what he does?

Experience is the proof for any existence. And it rests with the individual, not with anything else. Judge the world, its presence, on the basis of your own individual presence, and stand by it firmly, as does Janaka. Do not doubt or falter. Be firm.