Gems Of Wisdom From Ashtavakra Gita

[Shanmugam]

Ashtavakra Gita is one of the ancient texts regarding spirituality. Here are some selected quotes from it:

 

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.

1.13 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.

1.19 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.

2.5 Look closely at cloth, you see only threads. Look closely at creation, you see only Self.

3.10 A great soul witnesses his body’s actions as if they were another’s. How can praise or blame disturb him?

15.6 Realize Self in All and All in Self. Be free of personal identity and the sense of “mine.” Be happy

15.11 Let the waves of the universe rise and fall as they will. You have nothing to gain or lose. You are the ocean.

16.1 You can recite and discuss scripture all you want, but until you drop everything you will never know Truth.

16.8 Indulgence creates attachment. Aversion creates abstinence. Like a child, the sage is free of both and thus lives on as a child.

16.9 One who is attached to the world thinks renouncing it will relieve his misery. One who is attached to nothing is free and does not feel miserable even in the world.

16.10 He who claims liberation as his own, as an attainment of a person, is neither enlightened nor a seeker. He suffers his own misery.

17.4 Rare in the world is one who does not relish past enjoyments, nor yearn for enjoyments to come.

17.5 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.

17.17 The liberated one neither avoids experience nor craves it. He enjoys what comes and what does not.

18.9 Knowing for certain that all is Self, the sage has no trace of thoughts such as “I am this” or “I am not that.”

18.37 Because he desires to know God, the ignorant man can never become That. The wise man is God because he is free of desire and knows nothing.

18.40 For he who thinks knowledge is things and ideas how can there be Self-knowledge? The wise do not see separate things-- only the timeless Self.

18.42 Some believe in existence; others believe nothing exists. Rare is the one who believes nothing and is never confused.

18.43 Weak intellectuals may believe the Self is One without other. But being mired in illusion they do not actually know Self, so live out their lives in misery.

18.49 The sage does whatever appears to be done without thinking of good or bad. His actions are those of a child.

18.55 Though his servants, sons, wives, daughters, grandchildren and all his relatives ridicule and despise him, the yogi is undismayed.

18.56 Though pleased he is not pleasured; though pained he does not suffer. This wonderful state is understood only by those like him.

18.58 Even doing nothing the dull one is anxious and distracted. Even amidst great action the wise one remains still.

[Joseph Maynor]

@Shanmugam This sounds to Taoist to me.  Did Lao Tsu travel to India?   It's weird that Taoism and Buddhism are so similar.  Maybe the Taoists traveled to India and that's where Buddhism came from.  Kinda makes sense.  

Edited July 26, 2017 by Joseph Maynor

[SLICKHAWK]

To travel unprotected in our skin.  Take only what needs without worry. Find the path of unashamed be forgave to find only knock to open or ask to receive. It seems out of place only we have no 0place.

 

[Shanmugam]

5 hours ago, Joseph Maynor said:

@Shanmugam This sounds to Taoist to me.  Did Lao Tsu travel to India?   It's weird that Taoism and Buddhism are so similar.  Maybe the Taoists traveled to India and that's where Buddhism came from.  Kinda makes sense.  

Don't know much about Taoism.. Which verses do you find to be close to Taoism?

[Prabhaker]

@Joseph Maynor

Osho said in his talk Tao: The Pathless Path , "Ashtavakra and Tao s Lao Tzu say the same". 

Just a few days ago I was talking about Ashtavakra. Yes, he is exactly like Lao Tzu; he also praises the quality of sublime laziness. He calls it ALASI SHIROMANI. the emperor of laziness, a great king of laziness, the highest peak of laziness. But remember, inactivity plus energy, plus vitality. And not a single effort has to be made, because in the effort so much energy will be wasted that you will be less radiant. And God comes to you only when you are so vital -- optimumly vital, optimum... at the peak -- that you cannot be any more vital. At that peak you meet the divine. Your highest energy comes closest to God's feet; God's lowest energy is closest to man's highest energy, and there is the communion.
- Tao: The Pathless Path, Vol 1, Chapter #2

[Shanmugam]

@Prabhaker  Osho is a genius!!! 

@Joseph Maynor Are you aware of any Taoist master who is alive? I am interested to see how they interpret and explain Taoism according to the modern world.