Aṣṭāvakra Saṃhitā
A Dialogue on Self-realization
Chapter 2, Verse 12
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Ashtavakra Gita 2.12 - Self-Realization and the Nature of Consciousness
अहो अहं नमो मह्यमेकोऽहं देहवानपि ।
क्वचिन्न गन्ता नागन्ता व्याप्य विश्वमवस्थित:
aho ahaṃ namo mahyam-eko’haṃ dehavān-api .
kvacin-na gantā nāgantā vyāpya viśvam-avasthitaḥ .. 2-12..
O Wonderful ‘I’! Prostration to myself. Though embodied, I am single, singular. I neither go anywhere nor come from anywhere. I remain pervading the Universe!
Commentary by Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha
Look at the hoary culture of our holy land. Right from immemorial times, the search for an external God gave place to the quest for supreme Reality. And this soon receded to the discovery of the immortal Self within, with no conflict or insufficiency.
The same mind that looked into the yonder heights of material sky, turned effortlessly to the sentient inner space, cid-ākāśa, with clarity and definiteness. And discovering clearly what he searched for, the seeker declared ‘I prostrate before Myself’ in all fullness and fulfilment. What a stunning enlightenment, humility and adoration! Where else is such an enlightening culture? The seeker declares his inner ‘I’ to be the Supreme!
As the material sky does not move or vibrate, even more so the inner sentience does not move or vibrate the least. Dismiss all ideas attributing movement to sentience or Consciousness. As Consciousness exists, it also pervades the whole Universe as well as objects in it. There is nothing besides itself any time. How can any interaction be then attributed to Consciousness? There cannot be any movement or vibration in a comprehensive presence!
Janaka thus says: “I have not come from anywhere. I do not go anywhere either. No action or its result transpires in me at all. I am free, unconditioned, ever the same.”
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