The Quantum Leap Into The Absolute: Essence of Ashtavakra Gita

by Swami Shatatananda Puri

Ashtavakra Gita (known also as Ashtavakra Samhita) is a unique treatise on the Non-dualistic (Advaita) philosophy which guarantees to transport a seeker instantaneously by a direct path from time to eternity, from the relative to the Absolute and from bondage to liberation (MUKTI). There is no pre-requisite, no rituals no control of breath (Pranayama) or thoughts, no Japa or chanting of sacred syllables and not even any meditation or contemplation. It is all an effortless quantum flight to the ultimate goal (MOKSHA). One second, you are here on what you consider as the terra firma of the phenomenal world and the next you find yourself in a summit of timelessness and bliss, where both the world and yourself are dissolved into nothingness. When "I' ceased to exist, there was liberation and so long as "I' existed, there was only bondage. Ashtavakra does not lay down any pre-condition or prior qualification. He accepts his clients on an "as is where is' basis. There is neither any cultivation of particular qualities nor any renunciation of existing conditioning. It is just Being and no becoming. How and where can anyone think of acceptance or rejection? His mind neither renounces nor accepts; neither rejoices nor gets angry'. The entire process seems to be revolutionary and contradictory to all accepted norms of traditional Sadhana.

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