The Ashtavakra Gita - Chapter 01
Religion and irreligion, happiness and pain, exist merely in the mind
The Ashtavakra Gita, a dialogue between Sage Ashtavakra and King Janaka, explores Advaita Vedanta teachings, highlighting the body as a temple of the Supreme Self.
King Janaka's journey illustrates the pursuit of Self-realisation beyond worldly success. The Ashtavakra Gita's twenty chapters impart transformative wisdom, focusing on knowledge, liberation, and renunciation.
Analogies like those of the earthen pot convey the omnipresence of the Self, leading to the realisation of 'Aham Brahmasmi', meaning one’s ‘I’ or subjective awareness is Brahman, the Supreme Reality.
Sage Ashtavakra's teachings help a seeker in transcending duality and delusion, and guiding them towards oneness with the Supreme Brahman.
The Ashtavakra Gita shines with its lucid elucidation of reality's essence and the path to liberation through understanding it. It boldly affirms the complete illusory quality of the external world and the undeniable unity of existence. Those who are entrenched in dualistic thinking or bound by theistic religions may find this disconcerting. However, the truth is that it represents the pinnacle of Advaita Vedanta, where seekers grasp that all-pervasive subjective awareness is nondual, and that all perceivable phenomena are manifestations of this nondual truth.
Please watch this video presentation of the first chapter of this amazing ancient work.
You are not your body. Aham Brahmasi…you are your consciousness, your awareness. You are your thoughts. The SELF is within you…and others and everywhere. Body is just made up of uncountable cells which are renewed in this continuous time and space.
Tat Tvam Asi…you are that. The self is within you.
You are your consciousness…you are just a dead body when you are asleep or in deep slumber.
Without any feeling of separation from the space..which is all pervading and everything that exist, including the planets, stars, humans, animals, exist in this space which are in constant touch with the space.