संत साहित्य · Aṣṭāvakra · Verse by verse
Chapter 5 — Four Ways to Dissolution
Verse by verse
अष्टावक्र उवाच॥
न ते संगोऽस्ति केनापि किं शुद्धस्त्यक्तुमिच्छसि।
संघातविलयं कुर्वन्नेवमेव लयं व्रज॥५- १॥
aṣṭāvakra uvāca||
na te samgo'sti kenāpi kim śuddhastyaktumicchasi|
samghātavilayam kurvannevameva layam vraja||5- 1||
Aṣṭāvakra said: You have no attachment to anything — pure as you are, what is it you wish to renounce? Dissolving the [body-mind] aggregate, just so, merge into dissolution.
The disciple has nothing genuinely attached to him because he is pure awareness (śuddha) already; the only "renunciation" possible is letting the illusion of the compound self (body-mind aggregate) fall away, since there was never real bondage to escape.
Stop trying to give up your problems one by one — instead let the whole sense of "me who has problems" go slack for a moment.
उदेति भवतो विश्वं वारिधेरिव बुद्बुदः।
इति ज्ञात्वैकमात्मानं एवमेव लयं व्रज॥५- २॥
udeti bhavato viśvam vāridheriva budbudaḥ|
iti jñātvaikamātmānam evameva layam vraja||5- 2||
The world arises from you like a bubble from the ocean; knowing yourself as the one Self, just so, merge into dissolution.
The entire visible world rises out of the Self the way a bubble momentarily rises from the ocean and returns to it; recognizing yourself as that one undivided ātman (self), let separateness dissolve back into its source.
When a worry balloons into a crisis in your mind, remember it's a bubble on the same ocean you are — it will return to it on its own.
प्रत्यक्षमप्यवस्तुत्वाद् विश्वं नास्त्यमले त्वयि।
रज्जुसर्प इव व्यक्तं एवमेव लयं व्रज॥५- ३॥
pratyakṣamapyavastutvād viśvam nāstyamale tvayi|
rajjusarpa iva vyaktam evameva layam vraja||5- 3||
Though apparent to the senses, the world, being unreal, does not exist in you, the stainless one — it appears like the snake [imagined] in a rope; just so, merge into dissolution.
Though the world is vividly present to the senses, it has no independent reality (avastu) apart from the immaculate Self — like the snake someone "sees" in a coiled rope in dim light, real as perception, unreal as fact.
Next time a fear feels utterly convincing, ask whether you're looking at a rope and calling it a snake.
समदुःखसुखः पूर्ण आशानैराश्ययोः समः।
समजीवितमृत्युः सन्नेवमेव लयं व्रज॥५- ४॥
samaduḥkhasukhaḥ pūrṇa āśānairāśyayoḥ samaḥ|
samajīvitamṛtyuḥ sannevameva layam vraja||5- 4||
Complete, the same in pleasure and pain, the same in hope and hopelessness, the same in life and death — being so, just so, merge into dissolution.
The liberated state is one of complete equanimity (sama) — indifferent alike to pleasure and pain, hope and despair, even life and death — because all these pairs are movements on the surface of something that itself never moves.
Practice treating today's good news and bad news with the same steady attention, neither gripping nor pushing away.