ASTAVAKRA SAMHITA

The True Knower

Ashtavakra said —
1. He has gained the fruit of Knowledge as well as of the practice of yoga, who,
contented and with purified senses, ever enjoys being alone.

2. Oh, the knower of Truth is never miserable in this world, for the whole
universe is filled by himself alone.

3. No sense-objects ever please him who delights in the Self, even as the leaves
of the neem tree do not please an elephant who delights in the sallaki leaves.

4. Rare in this world is he on whom impressions are not left of things which he
has experienced or who does not desire things which he has not yet experienced.

5. Those desirous of worldly enjoyment and those desirous of liberation, both
are found in this world. But rare indeed is the great-souled one who is not desirous
of either enjoyment or liberation.

6. Rare is the broad-minded person who has neither attraction for, nor aversion
to, dharma (duty), artha (worldly prosperity), kama (desire), and moksa (liberation) as
well as life and death.

7. The man of Knowledge does not feel any desire for the dissolution of the
universe, or aversion to its existence. The blessed one, therefore, lives happily on
whatever subsistence comes as a matter of course.

8. Being fulfilled by the knowledge of the Self and with his mind absorbed, and
contented, the wise one lives happily, seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and eating.

9. There is no attachment or non-attachment in one for whom the ocean of the
world has dried up. His look is vacant, action purposeless and the senses
inoperative.

10. The wise one neither keeps awake nor sleeps, he neither opens nor closes his
eyes. Oh, the liberated soul anywhere enjoys the supreme condition.

11. The liberated one is always found abiding in Self and is pure in heart; he lives
freed from all desires, under all conditions.

12. Seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, taking, speaking and walking, the
great-souled one, free from all efforts and non-efforts, is verily emancipated.

13. The liberated one neither slanders nor praises, he neither rejoices nor is he
angry, he neither gives nor takes. He is free from attachment to all objects.

14. The great-souled one is not perturbed and remains self-poised at the sight of a
woman full of love as well as of approaching death. He is indeed liberated.

15. The steady one who sees the same everywhere, sees no difference between
happiness and misery, man and woman, and prosperity and adversity.

16. In the wise one whose worldly life is exhausted and who has transcended the
limitations of human nature, there is neither compassion nor any desire to harm,
neither humility nor insolence, neither wonder nor mental disturbance.

17. The liberated one neither abhors the objects of the senses nor craves for them.
Ever with a detached mind he experiences them as they come.

18. The wise one of vacant mind knows not the conflict of contemplation and
non-contemplation, good and evil. He abides as it were in the state of Absoluteness.

19. Devoid of the feeling of “I” and “mine”, knowing for certain that nothing is,
and with all his inner desires set at rest, the man of Knowledge does not act though
he may be acting.

20. An indescribable state is attained by the wise one whose mind has melted
away, its functions having ceased to operate, and who is free from delusion,
dreaming or dullness.