Ashtavakra Gita : contemplations on random verses

[Unseeking Seeker]

20.3
“Where is Knowledge and ignorance?
Where is “I”?
Where is “this”?
Where is “mine”?
Where is bondage and liberation?
Self has no attributes”

Verse revisited on 27-August-2022

The veil of maya illusion and instrument of mind
Narrow sensory spectrum that too does bind
Useful no doubt for the world of transience
Yet reveals not our soul’s luminescence
Whilst wisdom directly imbibed in stillness
When entwined with universal consciousness
Merely dropping away of mind-body instrument
That we become aware of the inner bliss current
Becoming in effect that who we always were
In active cognition feeling nodes within stir
Head-heart fusion, both now act as one
‘I’, ‘this’ and ‘mine’ become light of the sun
Wherein all that is, is consciousness singular
One appearing as the many as boundaries blur
The all pervading spiritual light self-luminescent
Renewing within itself God’s rapturous bliss current

[Unseeking Seeker]

20.4
“Where is the unfolding of karma?
Where is liberation-in-life,
or even liberation at death?
There is only One”

Verse revisited on 14-September-2022

When fully undifferentiated is our awareness
Fully integrated with God consciousness
There then remains no separate doer
And God alone is the divine mover
In which case feeling complete
Vaporised self is bliss replete
Knowing that God alone is
Felt within as a bliss fizz

However for the deluded
Duality reality as concluded
Even if glimmers of truth are seen
The soul has acquired not lustrous sheen
Thus attention oscillating between body and soul
Consciousness not quite God’s light we extol
Challenges of earth life’s learning curve
Oft mitigates soul’s gusto and verve

Law of cause and effect stern
Rotates life roles until we so learn
That all are one and the truth is love
Enabled when head-heart hand in glove
In resonance with enlivening throb of bliss
When our heart truthfully exclaims ‘I Am This!’
Until then oh weary hermit, it’s work in progress
As the pulsations of love divine slowly make ingress

[Miss Hepburn]

Thought provoking...'Self has no attributes."

[Unseeking Seeker]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

Thought provoking...'Self has no attributes."

Yes, indeed, bringing up the debate between Advaita Vedanta and Kashmir Shaivism to the forefront yet again. Dynamic stillness, the Word, the vibration, Spanda, Ohm (ॐ), dance of Shiva, fully immersed in the flow of life, in vibrancy though detached yet playful ~ all this versus the unchanging underlying reality, perhaps the noumena prior to the Word, the initial pulse.

What is still? Even space, omnipresent, in all, yet apart, seemingly unaffected, boundless, apparently attribute-less ~ it is alive, shimmering with living light, which I can affirm. I understand someone else known to a close friend (Vijay) has determined likewise. Kind of corresponds with what Blavatsky wrote in ‘The Secret Doctrine’.

We hold our breath!

[Unseeking Seeker]

20.5
“Where is the doer or enjoyer?
Where is the origin or end of thought?
Where is direct or reflected knowledge?
There is no person here”

Verse revisited on 07-October-2022

Hirayangarbha, cosmic egg, the womb of existence
The one splits becoming two, borne of heart's insistence
Maya spins a web of cosmic illusion, within which we descend
Origin forgotten, soul needs to transcend space and time to ascend
Ensouling mind-body, the ego is created as an earth life interface
Memory erased, we become a doer, relying not on God's grace
Bemused by myriad illusions, we're plunged into delusion
With head and heart misaligned, arises deep confusion
We create thereby by our own hand, cause and effect
A destiny dark; we're the cause but don't suspect

Given this preamble, we may now so analyse
That since ego is false, it's futile to weigh and size
Thought’s but an instrument to be used when needed
Fears and desires by ego spawned, require to be weeded
All this is attained effortlessly by shifting into tranquil stillness
As the false falls away, restored. is soul's innate wellness
Within our body, the Holy Spirit ignites feeble form
Our false identity is swept away in a bliss storm
One that became two again becomes one
Luminosity of the central spiritual sun

Doubts disappear as we become the answer
Requiring thereafter and forever no translator

[Unseeking Seeker]

20.6
“Where is the world?
Where is the seeker of liberation”
Where is the contemplative?
Where is the man of Knowledge?
Where is the soul in bondage?
Where is the liberated soul?
My nature is Unity”

Verse revisited on 11-October-2022

All that’s manifest, is God-consciousness
A singular love and light field of Oneness
Where God, to behold His own splendour
Splits Ardhnarishwar, manifesting gender
Manifesting thus, an illusion of separation
Extrapolated continuously is this creation

The womb of existence is invisible space
Omnipresent and enigmatic is God's face
Immediate, intimate, hidden in plain sight
God in-dwells each form by day and night
What then remains by us here to be done
Save aligning with His love, till we be one

Love uses no force, waits for us to awake
Be still oh hermit, for liberation is at stake

Notes: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardhanarishvara

[Unseeking Seeker]

20.7
“Where are creation and destruction?
Where is the end and the means?
Where is the seeker?
Where is attainment?
I am One”

Verse revisited on 04-November-2022

Dipping in and out of dreams that appear
Bliss is the constant that does form spear
And whilst mind-body too we see in decay
Bubbling rapture of is-ness is here to stay
We feel complete when with love we meld
In that continuum there is no will to bend
For all that is, is singular blissful presence
Vibrance of love and light's luminescence

The aspect of seeming ego consciousness
Arises and subsides in the sea of oneness
Awareness self-aware that's always alive
In and out of myriad illusions does so dive
Thus when we negate both fear and desire
There remains no fleeting object to aspire
Jiva, Atma and Paramatma merge as one
Singular soft white light of the central sun

Notes: Jiva = mind-body; Atma = Soul; Paramatma = God

[Unseeking Seeker]

20.8
“Where is the knower?
Where is knowing?
Where is the known,
or knowledge itself?
Where is anything?
Where is nothing?
I am pure Awareness”

Verse revisited on 27-November-2022

Standing in, within yet apart from the template of space-time
Beyond all phenomenal worlds, resides consciousness sublime
Positioned at a centreless fulcrum, devoid of any ego residuum
I Am presence cognises the all-ness of the manifest continuum
Holding at the Bindu point of singularity Sat-Chit-Ananda bliss
Upon which the mystic affirms all that is, is God, here now this

[Miss Hepburn]

I wait for these, btw....thought i would mention. xo

[Unseeking Seeker]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

I wait for these, btw....thought i would mention. xo

Thank you, Miss H.

Actually, the concluding verses cannot be commented upon because that’s when King Janak recognised the truth, whereupon sage Ashtavakra was silent, since he saw that his student has grasped the core essence of his teaching. Still, being audacious and impudent perhaps, I write whatever I feel I can express!

Enjoy this story ~ https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/sto...and-ashtavakra