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I like the translation by Hari Prasad Shastri which I came across some 40 years ago.
The above four verses are rendered as:
1. Janaka said:
O Lord, tell me this: How does a man acquire Knowledge of Truth, and how liberation, and how the practice of renunciation?
2. Ashtavakra said:
O Friend! If thy aim in life is liberation, then shun sense objects as poison, and pursue as nectar, forgiveness, simplicity of life, compassion, contentment, and truth.
3. Thou art neither earth, water, fire, air, nor ether. Know thy Self (Atman) as Witness of all these, and different from them, if thou would’st attain liberation.
4. If, detaching thyself from thy sense of identity with the body, thou remains at rest in Intelligence, thine will be spontaneous bliss, eternal peace, and liberation from the imagined bondage.
And later in the same chapter:
12. The Self is the witness, all-pervading, perfect, free, one, consciousness, actionless, not attached to any object, desireless, ever-tranquil. It appears through illusion as the world.
13. Always contemplate the ever-fixed Intelligence, the non-dual Atman. Giving up all inner and outer identification of the Self with the non-self, abandon the notion of the individualized self.
14. O Child, the net of self-identification with the body has held thee imprisoned long enough. With the sword of the Knowledge, “I am Intelligence,” cut this illusion and be blissful.
15. Thou art wholly independent, actionless, self-luminous and without fault. Thy bondage is that thou deemest thyself to be liberated through the practice of Samadhi.
16. The Universe is pervaded by thee and exists in thee. Verily, by nature thou art Consciousness Absolute. Do not harbor narrowness of heart and think thyself to be otherwise.
17. Free art thou from modifications. Independent, calm, without dimension or form, imperturbable, thy nature unimaginable Intelligence. Know thyself to be pure Consciousness.
18. Know all that has form to be unreal, and the formless to be the Self. By means of this Knowledge, thou shalt avoid the possibility of rebirth.
Peace
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