ಅಷ್ಟಾವಕ್ರ ಗೀತಾ is a 20-chapter dialogue of radical ಅದ್ವೈತ, alternating between ಅಷ್ಟಾವಕ್ರ's precise instruction and ಜನಕ's ripening recognition. Again and again it points to one correction that changes everything: you are the awareness that knows experience, not the body-mind that appears in experience. The work does not aim to create a new spiritual personality; it aims to dissolve the old habit of identification, so life can be lived with responsibility but without inner bondage.
Up to this point, the dialogue has moved through a clear arc. Chapter 1 answers ಜನಕ's questions about ಜ್ಞಾನ, ಮುಕ್ತಿ, and ವೈರಾಗ್ಯ, warning against compulsive attachment to ವಿಷಯs while pointing to the witness (ಸಾಕ್ಷೀ). Chapter 2 expresses the "afterglow" of recognition through metaphors like wave-water and rope-snake, loosening fear and ownership.
Seen as a whole, Chapter 5 is the "laya chapter": it points to freedom as a collapse of false identification, not as a project of self-improvement.
ಅಷ್ಟಾವಕ್ರ ಉವಾಚ ॥
ನ ತೇ ಸಙ್ಗೋಽಸ್ತಿ ಕೇನಾಪಿ ಕಿಂ ಶುದ್ಧಸ್ತ್ಯಕ್ತುಮಿಚ್ಛಸಿ ।
ಸಙ್ಘಾತವಿಲಯಂ ಕುರ್ವನ್ನೇವಮೇವ ಲಯಂ ವ್ರಜ ॥ 5-1॥
Translation (ಭಾವಾರ್ಥ):
Ashtavakra said: You have no real attachment to anyone. Why do you, being pure, wish to renounce? Dissolve identification with the aggregate, and in this way enter dissolution.
ಉದೇತಿ ಭವತೋ ವಿಶ್ವಂ ವಾರಿಧೇರಿವ ಬುದ್ಬುದಃ ।
ಇತಿ ಜ್ಞಾತ್ವೈಕಮಾತ್ಮಾನಮೇವಮೇವ ಲಯಂ ವ್ರಜ ॥ 5-2॥
Translation (ಭಾವಾರ್ಥ):
The world arises from you like a bubble from the ocean. Knowing yourself as the one Self, in this very way enter dissolution.
ಪ್ರತ್ಯಕ್ಷಮಪ್ಯವಸ್ತುತ್ವಾದ್ ವಿಶ್ವಂ ನಾಸ್ತ್ಯಮಲೇ ತ್ವಯಿ ।
ರಜ್ಜುಸರ್ಪ ಇವ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಮೇವಮೇವ ಲಯಂ ವ್ರಜ ॥ 5-3॥
Translation (ಭಾವಾರ್ಥ):
Even though it is directly seen, the world has no independent substance in you, O stainless one; it is like the snake imagined on a rope. In this very way enter dissolution.
ಸಮದುಃಖಸುಖಃ ಪೂರ್ಣ ಆಶಾನೈರಾಶ್ಯಯೋಃ ಸಮಃ ।
ಸಮಜೀವಿತಮೃತ್ಯುಃ ಸನ್ನೇವಮೇವ ಲಯಂ ವ್ರಜ ॥ 5-4॥
Translation (ಭಾವಾರ್ಥ):
Be even in pleasure and pain, full and complete; be even in hope and hopelessness, even in life and death. In this very way enter dissolution.
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