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Aṣṭāvakra Saṃhitā
A Dialogue on Self-realization
Poojya Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha
Chapter 20, Verse 3
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Ashtavakra Gita 20.3 -

क्व विद्या क्व च वाविद्या क्वाहं क्वेदं मम क्व वा ।
क्व बन्ध क्व च वा मोक्ष: स्वरूपस्य क्व रूपिता

kva vidyā kva ca vāvidyā kvāhaṃ kvedaṃ mama kva vā .
kva bandha kva ca vā mokṣaḥ svarūpasya kva rūpitā..20-3..

Where comes knowledge, or even ignorance? Where comes the ‘I’, where is any ‘this’? Where is ‘mine’? Where is bondage, where is moksha too? For the Self that I am, different from all else known, can a quality or nature ever be attributed?

Commentary by Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha

Janaka goes on denying one quality after another as not applicable to the Self, that he is. Any extent of such denunciation will still be insufficient any time. All this indeed leads to powerful manana, introspection, for the seeker. Are not śravaṇa, hearing, and manana, introspection the first two steps in gaining Self-realization?

I, you, he, she, it and they are all referral points. We are able to make such references only because of the visible gross body each has. But every one is the Self, absolutely different from the body. All these words denoting distinct identities are thus totally meaningless, irrelevant, for one who has known the Self.

As knowledge is evolved from observing plural things and comparing and contrasting them, it is not relatable to the Self, which is singular and hence incomparable. Along with knowledge, ignorance, its contrast, also becomes meaningless, inapplicable.

‘I’, ‘this’ and ‘mine’, which are references possible and applicable only when many things are present, also become extinct. Where is then bondage by and on whom? Where is moksha, freedom therefrom, either? In short, what nature can the Self, which is different from the body, ever have? Natures are when plurality reigns. In singularness or homogeneity, these apply not.

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