Containing 11 sacred Sanskrit shlokas with multi-author commentaries and translations.
अष्टावक्र उवाच
आचक्ष्व शृणु वा तात
नानाशास्त्राण्यनेकशः ।
तथापि न तव स्वास्थ्यं
सर्वविस्मरणाद् ऋते ॥
"Ashtavakra said: My son, you may recite or listen to countless scriptures, but you will not be established within until you can forget everything."
भोगं कर्म समाधिं वा
कुरु विज्ञ तथापि ते ।
चित्तं निरस्तसर्वाशाम-
त्यर्थं रोचयिष्यति ॥
"You may, as a learned man, indulge in wealth, activity, and meditation, but your mind will still long for that which is the cessation of desire, and beyond all goals."
आयासात्सकलो दुःखी
नैनं जानाति कश्चन ।
अनेनैवोपदेशेन धन्यः
प्राप्नोति निर्वृतिम् ॥
"Everyone is in pain because of their striving to achieve something, but no one realises it. By no more than this instruction, the fortunate one attains tranquillity."
व्यापारे खिद्यते यस्तु
निमेषोन्मेषयोरपि ।
तस्यालस्य धुरीणस्य
सुखं नन्यस्य कस्यचित् ॥
"Happiness belongs to no one but that supremely lazy man for whom even opening and closing his eyes is a bother."
इदं कृतमिदं नेति
द्वंद्वैर्मुक्तं यदा मनः ।
धर्मार्थकाममोक्षेषु
निरपेक्षं तदा भवेत् ॥
"When the mind is freed from such pairs of opposites as, “I have done this,” and “I have not done that,” it becomes indifferent to merit, wealth, sensuality and liberation."
विरक्तो विषयद्वेष्टा
रागी विषयलोलुपः ।
ग्रहमोक्षविहीनस्तु
न विरक्तो न रागवान् ॥
"One man is abstemious and averse to the senses, another is greedy and attached to them, but he who is free from both taking and rejecting is neither abstemious nor greedy."
हेयोपादेयता तावत्-
संसारविटपांकुरः ।
स्पृहा जीवति यावद् वै
निर्विचारदशास्पदम् ॥
"So long as desire, the state of lack of discrimination, remains, the sense of revulsion and attraction will remain, which is the root and branch of samsara."
प्रवृत्तौ जायते रागो
निर्वृत्तौ द्वेष एव हि ।
निर्द्वन्द्वो बालवद् धीमान्
एवमेव व्यवस्थितः ॥
"Desire springs from usage, and aversion from abstension, but the wise man is free from the pairs of opposites like a child, and becomes established."
हातुमिच्छति संसारं
रागी दुःखजिहासया ।
वीतरागो हि निर्दुःखस्-
तस्मिन्नपि न खिद्यति ॥
"The passionate man wants to eliminate samsara so as to avoid pain, but the dispassionate man is free from pain and feels no distress even in it."
यस्याभिमानो मोक्षेऽपि
देहेऽपि ममता तथा ।
न च ज्ञानी न वा योगी
केवलं दुःखभागसौ ॥
"He who is proud about even liberation or his own body, and feels them his own, is neither a seer nor a yogi. He is still just a sufferer."
हरो यद्युपदेष्टा ते हरिः
कमलजोऽपि वा ।
तथापि न तव स्वाथ्यं
सर्वविस्मरणादृते ॥
"If even Shiva, Vishnu, or the lotus-born Brahma were your instructor, until you have forgotten everything you cannot be established within."