Ashtavakra Quotes

Recognise that the apparent is unreal, while the unmanifest is abiding. Through this initiation into truth you will escape falling into unreality again. ~ Ashtavakra

He who is desireless, self-reliant, independent and free of bonds functions like a dead leaf blown about by the wind of causality . ~ Ashtavakra Gita

You are really unbound and actionless, self-illuminating and spotless already. The cause of your bondage is that you are still resorting to stilling the mind. ~ Ashtavakra

Some of the verse in "AshthavakraGIta" are so powerful that will take you to the far beyond cosmos and you will feel oneness with everything in the universe and all cosmos will be projected inside you. The day you know that all the things are the object is perceivable by the subject(knower) that is you, and you are not the body not the mind but the pure consciousness that illuminates the entire world. ~ Pawan Parashar

If you are seeking liberation, my son, shun the objects of the senses like poison. Practise tolerance, sincerity, compassion, contentment and truthfulness like nectar. ~ Ashtavakra

You do not consist of the elements - earth, water, fire, air or even ether. To be liberated, know yourself as consisting of consciousness, the witness of these. ~ Ashtavakra

Attachment and aversion
are attributes of the mind.
You are not the mind.
You are Consciousness itself--
changeless, undivided, free.
Go in happiness. ~ Ashtavakra Gita

2.7 Shining is my essential nature, and I am nothing over and beyond that. When the world shines forth, it is simply me that is shining forth.

-Ashtavakra Gita ~ Janaka

This existence is just imagination. It is nothing in reality, but there is no non-being for natures that know how to distinguish being from non being. ~ Ashtavakra Gita

Just as a mirror exists everywhere both within and apart from its reflected images, so the Supreme Lord exists everywhere within and apart from this body. ~ Ashtavakra

Desire and anger are objects of the mind, but the mind is not yours, nor ever has been. You are choiceless, awareness itself and unchanging - so live happily. ~ Ashtavakra Gita

All things arise,
Suffer change,
And pass away.

This is their nature.

When you know this,
Nothing perturbs you,
Nothing hurts you.

You become still. ~ Ashtavakra

Bondage is when the mind longs for something, grieves about something, rejects something, holds on to something, is pleased about something or displeased about something. ~ Ashtavakra

Trying to think the unthinkable, is doing something unnatural to thought. ~ Ashtavakra Gita

The third one is culturing the mind. One who has never meditated has no right to even touch the book of Ashtavakra. ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar