Aṣṭāvakra Saṃhitā
A Dialogue on Self-realization
Chapter 2, Verse 15
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Ashtavakra Gita 2.15 - Self-Realization and the Nature of Consciousness
ज्ञानं ज्ञेयं तथा ज्ञाता त्रितयं नास्ति वास्तवम् ।
अज्ञानाद्भाति यत्रेदं सोऽहमस्मि निरञ्जन:
jñānaṃ jñeyaṃ tathā jñātā tritayaṃ nāsti vāstavam .
ajñānād-bhāti yatredaṃ so’ham-asmi nirañjanaḥ .. 2-15..
The triad called knowledge, knowable and Knower is not true, does not exist at all. I am that unstained Self wherein is displayed through ignorance this threefold division.
Commentary by Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha
Everything in human life is experience and knowledge. Experience itself becomes knowledge, through a mystic process. Knowledge becomes so only due to a threefold division, a triad so to say, of Knower, knowable and knowledge. When the one to know undertakes a knowing process to reach at the knowledge, what results, becomes knowledge. Thus the three always go together – knowledge, knowable and Knower.
Our entire life, experience and interaction, seems to reduce itself to just these three. All these, in content and relevance, are inner, within the body. There is no doubt about this. The three are no special distinct entities. All are three identifications the one sentience, Consciousness brings about, displays. Like the short-living thoughts and emotions, these also are extremely ephemeral.
The lasting truth and presence is only one. Hence all the other expressional notes, whatever they may be in whichever way they manifest, are a sheer display; not true. As long as one does not take up a proper enquiry, examination and evaluation, all these appearantial notes will cause differential notions. But in reality they are not real or absolute at all.
The root cause, the singular source, is but one. And that is the ‘I’, the Self. How categorically king Janaka reveals it with a clarity and absoluteness!
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