Ashtavakra Gita : contemplations on random verses

[Unseeking Seeker]

1.3
“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”


As the kundalini ascends
From root to sacral to plexus to heart
Either straight up or through bends
Even as breath flows in and does depart
There are stirrings within from a source enigmatic
We see no difference between form & formlessness
And whilst within form we are enlivened & ecstatic
We feel within our heart the Absolute awareness
We know too at this stage of energy centres above
Which may endow us with enhanced enableability
Yet having awakened at the heart we know only love
Our awareness as love is our being in certainty
Knowing love alone our awareness thus free flowing
Observing & witnessing happenings upon earth
We are as we are in sync with love so blossoming
With blissful joy and an equal eye in bubbling mirth

Epilogue:
What’s love got to do with witnessing & liberation one may ask
Well says the witness when we truly know ourself and so align
The knowing is in the warmth of divine love within which we bask
Both receiving & transmitting exalted pulsations of the Divine

***

[Unseeking Seeker]

***

1.18
“That which has form is not real
Only the formless is permanent
Once this is known
you will not return to illusion”


A koan, a quiz
Let us begin by saying it like it is
We bleed, we experience pain
We live through loss & gain
If a dream within a dream ad infinitum
The dream is real within the continuum
Beginning thus with a contrary view
Let us rotate polarity to live anew
Thought rested in intuitive stillness
The external replaced with Divine connectedness
As oscillations slow down
Fears & desires drown
There is felt within a definite consciousness shift
Magnetism within rising that does uplift
The essence of our being at the core
Enlivening us with ineffable bliss we never felt before
Our being-ness thus in permanence in stillness
Whereupon we recognise the eternal attribute of formlessness
The external being ephemeral
The internal being eternal

***

[Unseeking Seeker]

***

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”


Our mandate
In stillness sedate
Is not knowledge vicarious
But direct knowing sagacious

It may be affirmed
As of our knowing confirmed
That He Himself in our heart resides
As well as in all space outside & inside

The knowing thus not by any doing
But by Divine grace the vision so bestowing
By a boundless loving osmotic percolation
Within & without form in our meditation

Our form has grid lines along which energy moves
No doubt wondrous as it pulsates through these grooves
Yet the heart centre alone is unfettered & free
For from therein God Himself graces us in continuity

***

[Unseeking Seeker]

***

2.21
“I see no differences or separation
Even the multitudes appear
as a single formless desert
To what should I cling?”

2.22
“I am not the body
I do not have a body
I am Awareness, not a person
My thirst for life bound me
to a seeming of life”


As we make our daily entrée
In our seeing what do we see

Searching for happiness we sweat & toil
Yet each fleeting joy, suffering does foil

Comes a time we tire of chasing the rainbow
Looking within we truly wish to know

The realisation then is simply this
Divine love alone renews unending bliss

Rejecting then as unreal all forms fleeting
We embrace dynamic stillness as the Divine pulse beating

The One dividing Itself into two as Self & self
Love multiplying exponentially pouring Itself into itself

Everything energy and energy vibration
Doing nothing we ascend by simply being in resonation

In renewal of unending continuation

***

[Unseeking Seeker]

***

3.07
“Strange that knowing lust
as an enemy of knowledge,
one so weak and nearing death
should still crave sensual pleasure”

3.13
“Why should a person of steady mind,
who sees the nothingness of objects,
prefer one thing to another?”

3.14
“He who is unattached,
untouched by opposites,
free of desire,
experiences neither pleasure nor pain
as events pass through”


Ah! Reading verse three point seven
Words of wisdom flowing from heaven
The clue seen by very few
Is that we may engage in pleasure if we renew
Renew renew renew our free flowing attention
Avoiding at all times indulgence & stagnation

Moving on to verses thirteen & fourteen
We see that it are weeds of ferality we need to wean
Recognising that fear & desire imagery
Are ego contaminants of delusion & memory
Let events unfold and karma play its role
What matters images moving as long as we are whole

***

[Unseeking Seeker]

***

5.1
“You are immaculate,
touched by nothing.
What is there to renounce?
The mind is complex—let it go
Know the peace of dissolution”

5.2
“The universe arises from you like foam from the sea
Know yourself as One
Enter the peace of dissolution”

5.3
“Like an imagined snake in a rope
the universe appears to exist
in the immaculate Self
but does not
Seeing this you know: “There is nothing to dissolve.”

5.4
“You are perfect, changeless,
through misery and happiness,
hope and despair,
life and death
This is the state of dissolution”


Consciousness upside down
Tail wagging the dog
Are we in a circus as a clown
Or simply lost in the fog

We ourselves create the bubble
The bubble of delusion
Stagnation causing our troubles
Imbalanced and in confusion

The mind an instrument
That should do our bidding
But the ego glue contaminant
Blocks the Divine within us vibrating

So use thought by all means
As and when needed
For mundanity to glean
Thereafter let its cries go unheeded

The Universe and we are One in interconnectedness
Just as in-form consciousness may expand to higher awareness
If we quieten promptings external in a continuum of stillness
No renunciation needed for all we possess is joy of wellness

As for the famous snake and rope illusion
We simply follow the scent
Choosing expansion & rejecting contraction avoid delusion
Ensuring our ascent

Emotions rise and fall
As well as change colouration
Unabating bliss within being the all
We sidestep ego precipitation

There is no doing and yet the doing is done
All coordinates on the Ferris wheel holding equal appeal
Shedding conditioning of our past aligned with the Divine as one
Our heart awakens as we begin to feel

The shift within an automatic happening
We stand still in an orientation of allowing
In being becoming and slowly blossoming
Elixirous in the flow the Divine nectar imbibing

In a flow unending

***

[Unseeking Seeker]

***

8.4
“When there is no “I”
there is only liberation
When “I” appears
bondage appears with it
Knowing this, it is effortless to refrain
from accepting and rejecting”


’I’ as in i-dentity
Not the ‘I’ as in i-infinity
The doer
Not the mover
With this knowing
Let our contemplation keep flowing

Bondage however is not in the doing
Rather in indulgence resulting in stagnating
If we choose to seamlessly embrace-hold-release
With nonchalant ease
We become like Krishna in midst of lovely maidens many
Dancing in ecstasy yet not attached to any

This verse too imparts this knowing
Distancing from both accepting & rejecting
For any action that be not in effortlessness
Is ego manifest in serpentine surreptitiousness

Looking a little deeper what does this entail
What should be the attribute to effortlessly sail
Flowing in the timeless here & now continuum
We find ourselves at the fulcrum of the awareness pendulum

The periphery moves but we are not there
Although we witness its movement in darkness & the glare
All images unreal and yet we engage
In but not of the world as would a sage

***

[Unseeking Seeker]

***

9.1
“Opposing forces,
duties done and left undone—
when does it end
and for whom?
Considering this, be ever desireless,
let go of all things,
and to the world turn an indifferent eye”

9.3
“Seeing all things as threefold suffering,
the sage becomes still
Insubstantial, transient, contemptible--
the world is fit only for rejection”


Sacrilege but we beg to differ
Based upon what we do infer
Detachment not indifference
Why anaesthetise sentience

Celebration not rejection
Exuberance not dejection
Pain may be but suffering imaginal
If we feel it is real not conjectural

As for the rest and reading between the lines
We do divine
That being not the doer there is no doing
In dynamic stillness too the Divine alone is moving

If we are here it is of our own choosing
Let our stillness then be our consciousness so accepting
Surrendering the illusionary ephemeral to the flow
Erasing negativity within to reveal our presence aglow

In stillness slow

***

[Unseeking Seeker]

10.8
“For how many lifetimes
have you done hard and painful labor
with body, mind and speech?
It is time to stop”


Ah! This entreaty
It has this ring of compassionate divinity
Emanating from a true seer moved by our plight
Enmeshed in delusion oblivious to the light

We are already free but we choose to indulge in illusion
We know our conscience is real but are addicted to delusion
Fear of freedom keeping us bound
So we reincarnate again & again upon this ground

The reality is simple in that we co-create
A partner in crime with the ego that agitates
Misaligning our attention blocking the divine connection
Reclaimable instantly in stillness of meditation

***

[Unseeking Seeker]

***

11.6
““I am not the body, nor is the body my possession—
I am Awareness itself.”

One who realizes this for certain
has no memory of things done or left undone.
There is only the Absolute.”


We now enter still waters deep
Rejecting all knowledge we so far chose to keep

The reason we invariably tend to self destruct
Is owing to sole dependence upon the mind body construct

Whilst we are endowed with the power of discrimination
We choose to be blind to reality being caught up in stagnation

Though knowing that in this world of duality everything has polarity
Only the few detached rotate images viewing their sphericality

Simply stated to exit the evident confinement
We need to bring about inner alignment

In thought & word & deed
Employing the mind-body as our steed

First we must recognise the coordinates of reference
Before plotting path of preference

Let us then begin by taking the opposing view
That the mind body is the all with thought senses & sinews

We immediately see that it is a cage bound in narrowness and limitation
Our divine connection through conscience promising boundless bliss & elation

Seeing this polarity we have on one hand the external ephemeral
And on the other the unknown but seemingly limitless internal eternal

We know we are awareness independent of senses and thought
But we are now swamped by fears & desires all ego begot

Our dilemma then akin to a drug addict
In denial of truth even if succinct

Awareness survives death of bodily form
As does Divine Love felt within as magnetism warm

The truth then clear yet the realisation elusive
For as long as we dwell in symbols and illusions allusive

No sooner we choose to internalise our consciousness
We reclaim our freedom as formless awareness

All we need to do is to use our free will
To exit delusion by keeping our attention still

Allowing our cup of joy to overspill

***