17: The True Knower
Ashtavakra said:
One has attained Knowledge
and reaped the fruits of yoga
who is content,
purified of attachments
and at home in solitude.
The knower of Truth
is never miserable in the world,
for the whole universe
is filled with Himself alone.
As the foliage of the neem tree
does not please an elephant
who delights in sallaki leaves,
so do sense objects not please
he who delights in Self.
Rare in the world
is one who does not
relish past enjoyments,
nor yearn for enjoyments to come.
Those who desire pleasure
and those who desire liberation
are both common in the world.
Rare is the great soul who
desires neither enjoyment
nor liberation.
Rare is the right-minded person
who neither covets nor shuns
religion, wealth, pleasure,
life or death.
The man of Knowledge
neither cares for the universe
nor desires its dissolution.
He lives happily
on whatever comes his way.
He is blessed.
Knowing Self,
mind empty and at peace,
the sage lives happily,
seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating.
There is no attachment or non-attachment
for one in whom
the ocean of the world has dried up.
His look is vacant,
senses still.
His actions have no purpose.
The sage is neither asleep nor awake.
He neither closes nor opens his eyes.
Thus, for the liberated soul,
everywhere there is only This.
The liberated soul
abides in Self alone
and is pure of heart.
He lives always and everywhere,
free of desire.
Seeing, hearing, touching, smelling,
eating, taking, speaking, walking,
the great soul
exerts neither effort nor non-effort.
He is truly free.
The liberated soul
does not blame or praise,
give or take,
rejoice or become angry.
He is everywhere unattached
and free.
The great soul
remains poised and undisturbed,
whether in the presence
of a passionate woman
or observing the approach of his death.
He is truly free.
The sage sees no difference
between happiness and misery,
man and woman,
adversity and success.
Everything is seen to be the same.
In the sage there is neither
violence nor mercy,
arrogance nor humility,
anxiety nor wonder.
His worldly life is exhausted.
He has transcended his role as a person.
The liberated one
neither avoids experience
nor craves it.
He enjoys what comes
and what does not.
The sage is not conflicted
by states of stillness and thought.
His mind is empty.
His home is the Absolute.
Though he may perform actions,
the man of Knowledge
does not act.
Desires extinguished,
free of thoughts of I and mine,
he knows with absolute certainty
that nothing exists.
The sage is free.
His empty mind no longer projects
delusion, dreaming, dullness.
This state is indescribable.
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