WISDOM OF ASHTAVAKRA (GITA )

Ashtavakra said:
1.2 To be free,shun the experiences of the senses like poison.Turn your attention to forgiveness, sincerity, kindness, simplicity, truth. 1.3 You are not earth, water, fire or air.Nor are you empty space.Liberation is to know yourself as Awareness alone the Witness of these. 1.4 Abide in Awareness with no illusion of person.You will be instantly free and at peace. 1.5 You have no caste or duties.You are invisible, unattached, formless.You are the Witness of all things. Be happy. 1.6 Right and wrong, pleasure and pain,exist in mind only.
They are not your concern.You neither do nor enjoy.You are free. 1.7 You are the Solitary Witness of All That Is,forever free.Your only bondage is not seeing This.1.8 The thought: “I am the doer”is the bite of a poisonous snake. To know: “I do nothing” is the wisdom of faith.Be happy. 1.9 A single understanding:“I am the One Awareness,”consumes all suffering in the fire of an instant.Be happy.1.10 You are unbounded Awareness—Bliss, Supreme Bliss--in which the universe appears like the mirage of a snake in a rope. Be happy. 1.11 It is true what they say:“You are what you think.”If you think you are bound you are bound.If you think you are free you are free. 1.12 You are Self—the Solitary Witness.You are perfect, all-pervading, One.You are free, desireless, forever still. he universe is but a seeming in You. 1.13 Meditate on this: “I am Awareness alone--Unity itself.”Give up the idea that you are separate, a person,that there is within and without. 1.14 You have long been bound thinking:“I am a person.” Let the knowledge: “I am Awareness alone” be the sword that frees you. 1.15 You are now and forever free, luminous, transparent, still.The practice of meditation
keeps one in bondage.1.16 You are pure Consciousness—the substance of the universe.The universe exists within you.Don’t be small-minded.1.17 You are unconditioned, changeless, formless.You are solid, unfathomable, cool.Desire nothing.You are Consciousness. 1.18 That which has form is not real.Only the formless is permanent.Once this is known,you will not return to illusion. 1.19 Just as a mirror exists both within and without the image reflected,the Supreme Self exists both within and without the body
1.20 Just as the same space exists both within and without a jar,the timeless, all-pervasive One exists as Totality As a pot returns to clay,a wave to water,a bracelet to gold,so will the universe return to Me.3.2 Having realized yourself as One,being serene and indestructible,why do you desire wealth?3.3 Having realized yourself as That in which the waves of the world rise and fall,why do you run around in turmoil? 3.4 Having realized yourself as pure Awareness,as beautiful beyond description,how can you remain a slave to lust? 3.5 It is strange that in a sage who has realized Self in All and All in Self
this sense of ownership should continue. 3.6 Strange that one abiding in the Absolute,intent on freedom,should be vulnerable to lust and weakened by amorous pastimes. 3.7 Strange that knowing lust as an enemy of knowledge,
one so weak and nearing deathshould still crave sensual pleasure. 5.1 You are immaculate,touched by nothing.What is there to renounce?The mind is complex—let it go.Know the peace of dissolution.5.2 The universe arises from you ike foam from the sea.Know yourself as One.Enter the peace of dissolution.
5.3 Like an imagined snake in a rope the universe appears to exist in the immaculate Self but does not.Seeing this you know: “There is nothing to dissolve.”5.4 You are perfect, changeless,through misery and happiness,
hope and despair,life and death.his is the state of dissolution. 8.1 When the mind desires or grieves things,accepts or rejects things,is pleased or displeased by things--this is bondage.8.2 When the mind does not desire or grieve,accept or reject,become pleased or displeased,liberation is at hand.
8.3 If the mind is attached to any experience,this is bondage.When the mind is detached from all experience,this is liberation. 8.4 When there is no “I” there is only liberation.When “I” appears bondage appears with it.Knowing this,it is effortless to refrain from accepting and rejecting.10.1 Give up desire,which is the enemy.Give up prosperity,which is born of mischief and good work. Be indifferent.10.2 Look upon friends, lands, wealth, houses, wives, gifts-- and all apparent good fortune--as a passing show,as a dream lasting three to five days.10.3 Where there is desire, there is the world.
Be firm in non-attachment.Be free of desire.Be happy.10.4 Bondage and desire are the same.Destroy desire and be free.Only by detaching from the world does one joyfully realize Self.10.5 You are One—Awareness itself.The universe is neither aware nor does it exist.Even ignorance is unreal.What is left to know?
11.1Existence, non-existence, change--this is the nature of things.Realizing this,stillness, serenity and bliss naturally follow.11.2 One who knows for certain that “Self creates All and is alone”becomes still, desireless, unattached.11.3 One who knows for certain that adversity and success come and go in obedience to destiny becomes content.He neither desires nor grieves. 11.4 One who knows for certain that birth and death, happiness and misery, come and go in obedience to destiny sees nothing to accomplish. He engages in non-action, and in action remains unattached.11.5 One who has realized that only by caring is misery caused in the world becomes free, happy, serene, desireless. 11.6 “I am not the body, nor is the body my possession—I am Awareness itself.” One who realizes this for certain has no memory of things done or left undone.There is only the Absolute.
11.7 “From Brahma to the last blade of grass-- I alone exist.” One who knows this for certain becomes immaculate, serene, unconflicted. Attainment has no meaning. 11.8 One who knows for certain that this manifold and wonderful universe is nothing becomes desireless Awareness and abides in the stillness of No-thing.( courtesy -B.Marshal )