Ashtavakra Gita 2.25 - Self-Realization and the Nature of Consciousness

Janaka’s ecstasy inspires him to articulate still further.

Everything in our life is a handiwork of our own mind. Mind is not physical or material. It is linked to the body, animating and activating it variously. The process cannot be compared with what transpires in the visible world between energy and matter. Everything occurs within the body, not in physical space, with inconceivable uniqueness.

That we have a body is itself a notion. Any perception of it is equally inner and notional. Like seeing oneself, we see others also. If one’s own body is notional, other bodies also are.

Notions are amazingly plural, mere flotations in the mind within the body. What a great wonder! All the jeevas, individual souls, emerge within one’s body, in the spiritual expanse. They hit one another, like waves and breakers in the sea. But unlike in the sea, it is a harmless inner sport. Nothing happens to the body or whatever is inside it. Innumerable thoughts and emotions arise in quick succession, sometimes interact also. But nothing happens to the mind, their source, or to themselves.

Everything is like a huge sport, with all players doing their part according to their own nature, leaving no vestige of any kind. As it is a great joy to witness a beautiful game, here too it is delightful to observe the inner game, leading to one team winning and the other losing. Together they make the full game!