| | English | | Devanagari | | Telugu | | Tamil | | Kannada | | Malayalam | | Gujarati | | Odia | | Bengali | | |
| | Marathi | | Assamese | | Punjabi | | Hindi | | Samskritam | | Konkani | | Nepali | | Sinhala | | Grantha | | |
|
अष्टावक्र गीता द्वादशोऽध्यायः अष्टावक्र गीता is a 20-chapter dialogue of direct अद्वैत, 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 (साक्षी) and warns against compulsive attachment to विषयs. Chapters 2-4 describe recognition and its lived texture. Chapters 5-9 emphasize लय and the dropping of grasping and renouncing, and Chapter 10 presses dispassion further by calling तृष्णा the essence of bondage. Chapter 11 then adds a stabilizer: firm inner conviction (निश्चय) that ends mental argument and allows the mind to settle naturally. Chapter 12 is जनक's response from that settledness. Instead of describing metaphors or debating philosophy, he repeatedly says: एवमेव अहमास्थितः - "thus, I abide." The verses describe a quiet withdrawal of inner compulsion. Not only does craving drop, but even the effortful project of "managing the mind" relaxes. जनक notices how the mind can get distracted by work, speech, thought, and even by spiritual practices, and he describes a natural settling beyond those swings. The next chapters continue this portrait of effortless freedom. Chapter 13 repeats यथा सुखम् - "as is comfortable" - describing ease amid life. Chapter 14 describes a mind so empty of inner story that ordinary desires and comparisons fall away. Then Chapter 15 returns to अष्टावक्र's voice with powerful direct pointers, building toward the longer later chapters that explore freedom in many more facets. 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. The summary is simple: recognition ripens into natural abiding. जनक उवाच ॥ Meaning (पदार्थ): Translation (भावार्थ): Commentary (अनुसंधान): This is a practical sign of वैराग्य. Dispassion is often misunderstood as forcing yourself to stop doing things. Here it is simply loss of appetite for compulsive patterns. When you see that the Self is already complete, you no longer need to keep proving yourself through activity, or soothing yourself through chatter, or controlling life through rumination. The earlier chapters pointed to this: bondage is inner compulsion, not outer situation. When compulsion drops, the nervous system begins to rest. Practice by noticing which layer is currently most active for you: body-busyness, speech-busyness, or thought-busyness. Then apply a gentle reduction, not a harsh suppression. If it is body-busyness, do one task slower and with full attention, and leave one unnecessary task undone. If it is speech-busyness, practice one minute of listening without interrupting, or skip one opinion you do not need to broadcast. If it is thought-busyness, set a two-minute timer and refuse rumination; return to breath and the present action. These small reductions create space for the abiding जनक describes. प्रीत्यभावेन शब्दादेरदृश्यत्वेन चात्मनः । Meaning (पदार्थ): Translation (भावार्थ): Commentary (अनुसंधान): This is a mature point: concentration is a tool, but clinging to concentration becomes another bondage. Advaita emphasizes that the witness is present even when the mind is scattered and even when the mind is focused. Therefore, freedom is not identical with a particular mental state. A scattered mind can still recognize the witness; a concentrated mind can still be egoic. जनक is describing a mind that has stopped turning states into identity. Practice by shifting from "state-chasing" to "witness-recognition." In a quiet moment, notice one sensory pull (sound, phone, taste). Instead of resisting, see it as an appearance in awareness. Then notice the opposite pull: the desire to control the mind and force stillness. See that too as an appearance. For a few breaths, rest as the knower of both pulls. Then return to life with a simple experiment: do one activity without distraction (one meal, one walk), not to prove concentration, but to taste simplicity. This trains the balance जनक describes. समाध्यासादिविक्षिप्तौ व्यवहारः समाधये । Meaning (पदार्थ): Translation (भावार्थ): Commentary (अनुसंधान): The point is not to reject meditation or to reject daily work. The point is to stop making "settledness" an achievement. In Advaita, the witness is already present; peace is not manufactured, it is uncovered. When the mind turns spirituality into achievement, it stays in the same pattern of becoming. Seeing this pattern (नियम) clearly is itself a kind of freedom: it lets you step out of the pendulum. Practice by checking your motive in practice. If you meditate, ask: "Am I meditating to be someone, or to see what I am?" If you work hard, ask: "Am I working to avoid myself, or as a clean expression of responsibility?" Then try a small shift: do one short meditation without any goal - simply noticing awareness - and do one small piece of work with full attention and no self-image attached. This breaks the cycle of spiritual achievement and worldly avoidance. Over time, you begin to live practice as अनुसंधान - reflective assimilation - rather than as a trophy hunt. हेयोपादेयविरहाद् एवं हर्षविषादयोः । Meaning (पदार्थ): Translation (भावार्थ): Commentary (अनुसंधान): This does not remove discernment. It removes compulsive valuation. You can still choose what is wholesome, avoid what is harmful, and act responsibly. But you stop turning every choice into identity. In Advaita, this is possible because the witness is already whole. When wholeness is recognized, the mind's frantic sorting slows down. The result is a quieter emotional tone: not flatness, but stability. Practice by noticing where you live inside हेय-उपादेय. It might be an emotion you refuse to feel, a result you demand, or a person you try to control. When you catch the demand, pause and ask: "Is this discernment, or is this fear?" Discernment is calm and specific; fear is urgent and absolute. Then rest for two breaths as the witness and choose a clean action: speak truthfully, set a boundary, take one step, or simply allow a feeling to be felt. This trains the nervous system out of swing and into steadiness. आश्रमानाश्रमं ध्यानं चित्तस्वीकृतवर्जनम् । Meaning (पदार्थ): Translation (भावार्थ): Commentary (अनुसंधान): This is a liberating point for modern life, where people often get stuck in comparisons: "I should have a different lifestyle," "If only I lived like a monk, I'd be peaceful," or the opposite, "If only I had a more successful life, then I'd be free." The verse points to a deeper freedom: use roles and practices as tools, not as identities. Advaita keeps returning to the witness: whatever role you play, you are the awareness in which the role is known. Practice by choosing one role-identity you lean on and loosening it gently. If you identify as "productive," practice one hour of being without proving; if you identify as "spiritual," practice one day of quiet sincerity without announcing it; if you identify as "undisciplined," practice one small discipline for seven days. The goal is not to pick the right identity; it is to see identities as विकल्प and rest as the witness. Then keep one simple practice - meditation, prayer, or self-inquiry - as a support, but without turning it into a badge. कर्मानुष्ठानमज्ञानाद् यथैवोपरमस्तथा । Meaning (पदार्थ): Translation (भावार्थ): Commentary (अनुसंधान): This does not mean realized people stop all action. The body-mind will still function. But the quality of action changes: less compulsion, less self-justification, less need to prove. In Advaita terms, कर्तृत्व (doer-identity) and भोक्तृत्व (enjoyer/owner-identity) loosen. Then action can become more like a response to what is needed rather than a strategy to fix your existence. Practice by observing where your action is driven by insecurity. Pick one daily area: work, helping, exercise, socializing. Ask: "Am I doing this to be okay, or because it is simply appropriate?" Then try one experiment: do one task with a relaxed body and without inner self-talk about your worth. If anxiety arises, pause and return to awareness for one breath, then continue. Also practice a small उपरम: stop one unnecessary action today (one extra email check, one extra explanation, one extra scroll) and see that you remain okay. This trains the mind to trust the Self rather than the compulsion to do. अचिंत्यं चिंत्यमानोऽपि चिंतारूपं भजत्यसौ । Meaning (पदार्थ): Translation (भावार्थ): Commentary (अनुसंधान): This is why Advaita often emphasizes direct recognition over conceptualization. Concepts can point, but they cannot substitute for seeing. The verse is not anti-intellectual; it is pro-clarity. A mind that keeps spinning subtle concepts can still avoid the simple fact of being awareness. When the mind drops the urge to grasp the Self as an object, it becomes easier to rest as the witness. That resting is what जनक calls abiding. Practice by noticing when you are using thought to avoid silence. If you read a verse and then immediately start constructing theories, pause. Ask: "What is aware of this theorizing?" Then stop for ten breaths and rest as that awareness. If the mind produces another thought, notice it and let it pass. After the ten breaths, return to the verse and see if it lands more simply. This builds a skill: you use thought as a pointer, then you drop thought and stand as what the pointer indicates. That is how study becomes liberation rather than another form of mental entertainment. एवमेव कृतं येन स कृतार्थो भवेदसौ । Meaning (पदार्थ): Translation (भावार्थ): Commentary (अनुसंधान): This is also why the chapter repeats "thus I abide" rather than "thus I achieved." The text keeps pointing to ease. When the mind stops objectifying the Self, stops chasing states, stops bargaining with dualities, and stops compulsive doing, what remains is simple awareness. That awareness is not special; it is ordinary and ever-present. The accomplishment (कृतार्थ) is simply no longer missing what has always been here. Practice by keeping both truths together. If you need discipline, keep a small daily practice and be steady. But do not make practice into a new identity. Each day, also pause and ask: "What is already true right now, before I improve anything?" Rest as the witness for a few breaths. Then act from clarity. Over time, practice becomes light, and freedom becomes less of a distant goal and more of a present fact. That is what this conclusion is pointing to.
|
