অষ্টাবক্র গীতা is a 20-chapter dialogue of direct অদ্বৈত, moving from questions to recognition to the quiet stabilization of freedom. Its repeated teaching is simple: you are the awareness that knows experience, not the body-mind that is experienced. The aim is not to build a new spiritual identity, but to dissolve the old habit of identification that produces fear, craving, and inner struggle.
In the previous chapters, this recognition has been approached from many angles. Chapter 1 points to the witness (সাক্ষী) and warns against compulsive attachment to বিষয়s. Chapters 2-4 describe recognition and its lived texture. Chapters 5-9 emphasize লয় and the dropping of grasping and renouncing, and Chapter 10 presses dispassion further by calling তৃষ্ণা the essence of bondage.
Seen as a whole, Chapter 12 is a chapter of "resting as is." It shows the aftermath of clarity: aversion to noisy busyness, fading attraction to sensory distraction, and the dropping of the constant inner project of achieving a special state. The refrain is not laziness; it is the taste of freedom that comes when the mind stops bargaining with reality and stops trying to turn spirituality into another achievement.
জনক উবাচ ॥
কাযকৃত্য়াসহঃ পূর্বং ততো বাগ্বিস্তরাসহঃ ।
অথ চিংতাসহস্তস্মাদ্ এবমেবাহমাস্থিতঃ ॥ 12-1॥
Translation (ভাবার্থ):
Janaka said: Earlier I grew weary of bodily busyness; then I grew weary of excessive speech; then I grew weary of constant thinking. Therefore, in this way, I abide.
প্রীত্যভাবেন শব্দাদেরদৃশ্যত্বেন চাত্মনঃ ।
বিক্ষেপৈকাগ্রহৃদয় এবমেবাহমাস্থিতঃ ॥ 12-2॥
Translation (ভাবার্থ):
Because there is no attraction to sound and other sense-objects, and because the Self is not a visible object, my mind is free from both distraction and forced concentration. Thus I abide.
সমাধ্য়াসাদিবিক্ষিপ্তৌ ব্যবহারঃ সমাধয়ে ।
এবং বিলোক্য় নিযমমেবমেবাহমাস্থিতঃ ॥ 12-3॥
Translation (ভাবার্থ):
When one becomes distracted even by samAdhi and such pursuits, one turns to worldly activity for the sake of settling. Seeing this pattern, I abide as I am.
হেয়োপাদেযবিরহাদ্ এবং হর্ষবিষাদয়োঃ ।
অভাবাদদ্য় হে ব্রহ্মন্ন্ এবমেবাহমাস্থিতঃ ॥ 12-4॥
Translation (ভাবার্থ):
Because the inner habit of "reject this / accept that" has dropped, and because elation and dejection have faded, O Brahman, today I abide thus.
আশ্রমানাশ্রমং ধ্য়ানং চিত্তস্বীকৃতবর্জনম্ ।
বিকল্পং মম বীক্ষ্য়ৈতৈরেবমেবাহমাস্থিতঃ ॥ 12-5॥
Translation (ভাবার্থ):
Seeing as imagination the alternatives of ashrama or no ashrama, meditation, and taking or rejecting mental discipline, I abide thus.
কর্মানুষ্ঠানমজ্ঞানাদ্ যথৈবোপরমস্তথা ।
বুধ্বা সম্যগিদং তত্ত্বমেবমেবাহমাস্থিতঃ ॥ 12-6॥
Translation (ভাবার্থ):
Seeing that compulsive action arises from ignorance and that it naturally ceases when ignorance is understood, and understanding this truth rightly, I abide thus.
অচিংত্য়ং চিংত্যমানোঽপি চিংতারূপং ভজত্যসৌ ।
ত্যক্ত্বা তদ্ভাবনং তস্মাদ্ এবমেবাহমাস্থিতঃ ॥ 12-7॥
Translation (ভাবার্থ):
Even the unthinkable, when it is thought about, becomes only a thought-form. Therefore, giving up that kind of contemplation, I abide thus.
এবমেব কৃতং যেন স কৃতার্থো ভবেদসৌ ।
এবমেব স্বভাবো যঃ স কৃতার্থো ভবেদসৌ ॥ 12-8॥
Translation (ভাবার্থ):
The one by whom this is done is fulfilled; and the one whose natural state is like this is fulfilled.
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