Ashtavakra Gita Ch1

1: Instruction on Self-Realization 

Janaka said: 

Master, 

how is Knowledge to be achieved, 

detachment acquired, 

liberation attained?  

Ashtavakra said:  

To be free, 

shun the experiences of the senses 

like poison. 

Turn your attention to 

forgiveness, sincerity, kindness, simplicity, truth. 

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. 

Abide in Awareness 

with no illusion of person. 

You will be instantly free and at peace. 

You have no caste or duties. 

You are invisible, unattached, formless. 

You are the Witness of all things. 

Be happy. 

Right and wrong, pleasure and pain, 

exist in mind only. 

They are not your concern. 

You neither do nor enjoy. 

You are free. 

You are the Solitary Witness 

of All That Is, 

forever free. 

Your only bondage is not seeing This. 

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. 

A single understanding: 

I am the One Awareness, 

consumes all suffering 

in the fire of an instant. 

Be happy. 

You are unbounded Awareness

Bliss, Supreme Bliss-in 

which the universe appears 

like the mirage of a snake in a rope. 

Be happy. 

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. 

You are Self the Solitary Witness. 

You are perfect, all-pervading, One. 

You are free, desireless, forever still. 

The universe is but a seeming in You. 

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. 

You have long been bound thinking: 

I am a person. 

Let the knowledge:

I am Awareness alone 

be the sword that frees you. 

 

You are now and forever 

free, luminous, transparent, still. 

The practice of meditation 

keeps one in bondage. 

 

You are pure Consciousness

the substance of the universe. 

The universe exists within you. 

Dont be small-minded. 

You are unconditioned, changeless, formless. 

You are solid, unfathomable, cool. 

Desire nothing. 

You are Consciousness. 

That which has form is not real. 

Only the formless is permanent. 

Once this is known, 

you will not return to illusion. 

Just as a mirror exists 

both within and without 

the image reflected, 

the Supreme Self exists 

both within and without the body. 

Just as the same space exists 

both within and without a jar, 

the timeless, all-pervasive One 

exists as Totality.