(The Ashtavakra Gita as the most sublime non-dual text)
Dissolve into Infinity Ashtavakra Gita, also called the Ashtavakra Samhita, is a famous Vedantic text, which imparts the most sublime non-dual truth. When I stayed in the Himalayas, I took along only one book with me, the Ashtavakra Gita.
Reading the Ashtavakra Gita is equal to meditating. If you cannot have nirvikalpa samadhi, you can at least read this book! Reading it for an hour or two is as good as intense meditation. It is the most profound thing that has ever been put into words. I have read the sacred literature of the East and the West, and there is nothing that quite compares to this text. It is like looking straight at the sun, which is uncomfortable.
(Non-attachment as already accomplished fact, not a practice)
It is far beyond something that needs to be practised; it is not even something that needs to be realized – it is just something that needs to be noticed.
However, there is a progression too. The first three verses delve into the depths of non-duality, and the fourth one is the consequence of the insight gained in the first three.
You are never attached to anything in this universe, oh pure one, what are you trying to give up? In this way, the body–mind complex dissolves into infinity.
If everything has gone, is going away or will go away, what it means is that nothing sticks to you, you are not attached to anything in this universe. The impermanence of things means you who are experiencing these things that come and go are not attached to anything.
She slips into the unknowingness of deep sleep where the world including her most precious baby is forgotten. She enters this state without any hesitation. She does not think what will happen to my baby if I leave it behind. Notice carefully that Ashtavakra is not asking us to practice detachment. He is categorically saying that non-attachment is already a fact, whether you practice it or not, whether you like it or not!
Beyond the
mind there is the witness consciousness (Sakshi), which is not attached to anything, not to the world, not to the body, not even to the mind.
(Detachment from the perspective of pure witness consciousness)
William Blake once said, ‘He who binds to himself a joy, does the winged life destroy; but he who kisses the joy as it flies, lives in eternity’s sunrise.’
(Dream, samadhi, and the continuity of conscious being beyond the body)
The dream itself can be dismissed as false, but that you are experiencing it is not false. Your experience of your conscious self continues without any reference to your body, which is sleeping on the bed. This proves to you at least this much - as a conscious being you can continue without conscious experience of the physical body.
This is exactly what yogis do in samadhi. While we merely fall asleep, they “fall asleep” consciously. They still the body, then they strip away the external world by quieting the senses, and then they quieten the mind to isolate the consciousness behind the mind.
(Absolute purity as the self’s inherent nature — nothing to add or remove)
Ashtavakra tells us that we are already absolutely pure and perfect.
When something is perfectly pure, there is nothing impure to give up. What are you going to add and what are you going to give up?
Practices to make your life better should continue. Certainly, one can (and should) improve physically, morally and intellectually.
(Daily practice as polishing the mind, not purifying the self)
Once Ramakrishna asked his master Totapuri about why he meditated daily when he was an enlightened soul. Totapuri, who had no possessions except a brass water pot, said, ‘Look at this water pot, if I do not polish it, it will lose its shine. Similarly, even when enlightened, the mind must be immersed every day in the reality which the Self is, that is the knowledge that “I am Brahman”, so that it retains the light of enlightenment.’
But it could also mean that it is the mind which needs polishing, not the Self which is pure consciousness.
When non-attachment is taught as a practice, we are asked not to be attached to anything. But, Ashtavakra is not teaching us a practice. He is telling us that non-attachment is already an accomplished fact as it is the very nature of our real Self. We have to recognize this great truth.
For example, take the light in a room; people might come and go but the light continues to illuminate everything, nothing is attached to it. When the person goes away, the room’s light does not go with him. When the person comes in, the light does not follow or stick to the person. It just illuminates. Similarly, you are the light that illuminates everything that happens in life. All we are called upon to do is to recognize it. That unattached reality within us has no problems. You are completely free of problems forever. You can relax, even while dealing with daily life at the level of body-mind.
This life is just a page in the book of many lifetimes, which you turn over and go to another page, another life. The Atman, the pure consciousness, is experiencing this book of life, and it is not attached to it.
(The universe as bubbles in the ocean of the self)
The entire universe rises in you like bubbles in an ocean. Know thus the oneness of the self, the entire universe as one reality -You. Dissolve thus into infinity.
In the ocean, there are thousands of waves, separate from each other, big and small, arising and subsiding. There are millions of bubbles each seemingly separate from the other. Yet all those waves and bubbles are but one reality - water.
Whatever has been experienced, has been experienced in consciousness. That which is experienced in your consciousness is not separate from it – it arises in your consciousness, shines in your consciousness and disappears back into your consciousness.
(The universe borrowing its existence from the self as Brahman)
Using such credit cards, one can look and act rich, but he or she is not rich in reality. All that wealth is borrowed. Similarly, all that appears in the universe, seems to exist. Their existence is borrowed from Brahman, the infinite existence, which is your own Self. The universe borrows its existence from you and appears before you.
Only that one Existence, Consciousness, Bliss truly is, and that is what you are. Knowing this, let this universe appear, let the game continue, let birth and death, success and failure occur. Let the waves in the water roll on, the water is not afraid of the waves; the waves arise in the water, play in the water and disappear back into the water.
(Vast serenity as the self’s nature through all vicissitudes)
You are infinite (or complete) in yourself, therefore in pain and in pleasure, you are
serene. In hope and despair alike serene. In life and in death alike serene. In this way dissolve into infinity.
The consequence of this will be a vast serenity. Serenity is not a quality of the mind, it is the very nature of the Self.
He would sit in absolute serenity and peace even while the surgery was going on. We are not saying that Vedanta is a painkiller - pain will be experienced. However, you will know the serenity beyond the pain, and that would be the reality. At one point when he was suffering with poor health in his old age, Hari Maharaj was asked by a young monk, ‘Are you suffering too much, Swami?’ To this Hari Maharaj replied, ‘It is the suffering of the body, but by the grace of Thakur (Sri Ramakrishna), inside it is like a mass of ice. I am absolutely cool inside.’ This background serenity cannot be disturbed, even if you try to disturb it. It is always available to you. Serene in pain, serene in pleasure. Serene in hope, serene in despair. Serene in life, serene in death.
(The four recognitions: purity, oneness, falsity of world, serenity)
From the ultimate perspective, there is nothing you can add to it with any kind of spiritual or moral practice which will make it better. There is nothing that you need to get rid of to make it better. The second is Ekatvam, where we realize the oneness of all existence. The third is Mithyatvam, the falsity of the world where we realize the whole universe as an appearance in our Self. Finally, we realize Samatvam, both as the very nature of the Self, and as a great serenity through all the vicissitudes of life.