Having no attachment for sound and other sense objects, and the Self not being an object of perception, my mind is freed from distractions and is one-pointed. Thus, therefore do I firmly abide.  – Ashtavakra Samhita

There are five lessons which we learn from the Ashtavakra Samhita (500-400 BCE). It is also known as the Ashtavakra Gita and is considered one of the greatest treatises on Advaita Vedanta. Ashtavakra was twelve years old, fully realized and enlightened, when he expounded his teachings to King Janaka, the ruler of Mithila and father of Sita.

1. True self-realization transcends the physical body. Ashtavakra encourages one to recognize that one is not only one’s physical form but the eternal consciousness within. One must detach oneself from the ego and the body, because this is the root cause of suffering.
2. Detachment leads to freedom. Detachment is to develop an inner sense of equanimity and one is not dependent on external factors for one’s happiness.
3. The mind is both friend and enemy.
4. Embrace the present moment. Mindfulness enhances one’s overall well being but also brings one to closer to the realization of one’s nature.
5. Seek knowledge not rituals. Asthavakra says that the path of self-enquiry and knowledge is the direct path to liberation.

Being beyond sorrow

Just to share the sense of it my dear ones. One is an observer of all and in reality, always free. One’s bondage is that one sees others and not oneself as the observer. ‘I am the doer,’ and the black serpent of one’s ego has bitten one. ‘I am not the doer,’ drink this divine nectar of trust and be happy. ‘I am the one pure awareness, ‘then having burnt the forest of one’s ignorance with this fire of certainty and being beyond sorrow, be happy. One becomes that bliss, within which this imaginary world is projected like a snake on a rope.

Now knowing this, one can wander happily. One is free if one considers him/her/hirself free. If one considers oneself bound then one is bound. The soul is the witness, all pervading, perfect, free, conscious, free from doing, alone, non-attached and desireless. Be not attached to the illusion and awaken within oneself that one is a non-dual soul.

Reference: Vishal Kukreti.

Aim Hrim Klim