அஷ்டாவக்ர கீ³தா is a 20-chapter dialogue of radical அத்³வைத, alternating between அஷ்டாவக்ர's precise instruction and ஜனக'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 ஜனக's questions about ஜ்ஞான, முக்தி, and வைராக்³ய, warning against compulsive attachment to விஷயs while pointing to the witness (ஸாக்ஷீ). 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.
அஷ்டாவக்ர உவாச ॥
ந தே ஸங்கோ³ஸ்தி கேனாபி கிம் ஶுத்³த⁴ஸ்த்யக்துமிச்ச²ஸி ।
ஸங்கா⁴தவிலயம் குர்வன்னேவமேவ லயம் வ்ரஜ ॥ 5-1॥
Translation (பா⁴வார்த²):
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.
உதே³தி ப⁴வதோ விஶ்வம் வாரிதே⁴ரிவ பு³த்³பு³த:³ ।
இதி ஜ்ஞாத்வைகமாத்மானமேவமேவ லயம் வ்ரஜ ॥ 5-2॥
Translation (பா⁴வார்த²):
The world arises from you like a bubble from the ocean. Knowing yourself as the one Self, in this very way enter dissolution.
ப்ரத்யக்ஷமப்யவஸ்துத்வாத்³ விஶ்வம் நாஸ்த்யமலே த்வயி ।
ரஜ்ஜுஸர்ப இவ வ்யக்தமேவமேவ லயம் வ்ரஜ ॥ 5-3॥
Translation (பா⁴வார்த²):
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.
ஸமது³:க²ஸுக:² பூர்ண ஆஶானைராஶ்யயோ: ஸம: ।
ஸமஜீவிதம்ருத்யு: ஸன்னேவமேவ லயம் வ்ரஜ ॥ 5-4॥
Translation (பா⁴வார்த²):
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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