IV
Ashtavakra said:
1. Certainly the wise person of self-knowledge, playing the game of worldly life, bears no resemblance whatever to the world’s bewildered beasts of burden.
2. Truly the one centered in mystic union feels no excitement even at being established in that state which all the gods from Indra down yearn for disconsolately.
3. He who has known That is untouched within by good deeds or bad, just as the sky is not touched by smoke, however much it may appear to be.
4. Who can prevent the great-souled person who has known this whole world as oneself from living as one pleases?
5. Of all the four categories of beings, from Brahma down to the dryest clump of grass, only the person of knowledge is capable of eliminating desire and aversion.
6. Rare is the person who knows oneself as the undivided Lord of the world; no fear occurs to one who lives the truth.
V
Ashtavakra said:
1. You are not bound by anything. What does a pure person like you need to renounce? Putting the complex organism to rest, you can go to your rest.
2. All this arises out of you, like a bubble out of the sea. Knowing yourself like this to be but one, you can go to your rest.
3. In spite of being in front of your eyes, all this, being insubstantial, does not exist in you, spotless as you are. It is an appearance like the snake in a rope, so you can go to your rest.
4. Equal in pain and in pleasure, equal in hope and in disappointment, equal in life and in death, and complete as you are, you can go to your rest.
VI
Ashtavakra said:
1. I am infinite like space, and the natural world is like a jar. To know this is knowledge, and then there is neither renunciation, acceptance or cessation of it.
2. I am like the ocean, and the multiplicity of objects is comparable to a wave. To know this is knowledge, and here there is neither renunciation, acceptance or cessation of it.
3. I am like the mother of pearl, and the imagined world is like the silver. To know this is knowledge, and here there is neither renunciation, acceptance or cessation of it.
4. Alternatively, I am in all beings, and all beings are in me. To know this is knowledge, and here there is neither renunciation, acceptance or cessation of it.
VII
Janaka said:
1. It is in the infinite ocean of myself that the world ark wanders here and there, driven by its own wind. I am not upset by that.
2. Let the world wave of its own nature rise or vanish in the infinite ocean of myself. There is no increase or diminution to me from it.
3. It is in the infinite ocean of myself that the imagination called the world takes place. I am supremely peaceful and formless, and as such I remain.
4. My true nature is not contained in objects, nor does any object exist in it, for it is infinite and spotless. So it is unattached, desireless and at peace, and as such I remain.
5. Truly I am but pure consciousness, and the world is like a conjuror’s show, so how could I imagine there is anything here to take up or reject ?