संत साहित्य · Aṣṭāvakra · Verse by verse
Chapter 6 — Boundless as Space
Verse by verse
अष्टावक्र उवाच॥
आकाशवदनन्तोऽहं घटवत् प्राकृतं जगत्।
इति ज्ञानं तथैतस्य न त्यागो न ग्रहो लयः॥६- १॥
aṣṭāvakra uvāca||
ākāśavadananto'ham ghaṭavat prākṛtam jagat|
iti jñānam tathaitasya na tyāgo na graho layaḥ||6- 1||
Aṣṭāvakra said: I am infinite like space; the phenomenal world is like a pot [within it]. This is knowledge — and for one so established there is neither giving up, nor taking hold, nor dissolving.
Awareness (ātman) is boundless like space, holding the entire world of forms the way space holds a pot — without space bending to fit the pot's shape; grasping this, nothing remains to renounce or acquire, since container and content were never truly separate.
Notice the room you're in doesn't shrink to fit the furniture — practice letting your awareness stay that roomy no matter what fills it today.
महोदधिरिवाहं स प्रपंचो वीचिसऽन्निभः।
इति ज्ञानं तथैतस्य न त्यागो न ग्रहो लयः॥६- २॥
mahodadhirivāham sa prapamco vīcisa'nnibhaḥ|
iti jñānam tathaitasya na tyāgo na graho layaḥ||6- 2||
I am like the great ocean; this manifest world is like its waves. This is knowledge — and for one so established there is neither giving up, nor taking hold, nor dissolving.
The Self is like the vast ocean, and the world's flux of events is like its waves — waves that are never anything other than ocean, rising and falling without adding to or subtracting from the sea itself.
When your mood swings today, remember the wave and the water beneath it were never two different things.
अहं स शुक्तिसङ्काशो रूप्यवद् विश्वकल्पना।
इति ज्ञानं तथैतस्य न त्यागो न ग्रहो लयः॥६- ३॥
aham sa śuktisaṅkāśo rūpyavad viśvakalpanā|
iti jñānam tathaitasya na tyāgo na graho layaḥ||6- 3||
I am like the mother-of-pearl; the imagined universe is like the [illusory] silver [seen in it]. This is knowledge — and for one so established there is neither giving up, nor taking hold, nor dissolving.
The world of appearances is like the glint of "silver" someone mistakes in a piece of mother-of-pearl (śukti) — vivid, but never actually separate substance from the shell itself; once the shell is seen, there's nothing to reject or chase.
When you catch yourself chasing something you thought would complete you, look again — it may be the same shine you already have, just misnamed.
अहं वा सर्वभूतेषु सर्वभूतान्यथो मयि।
इति ज्ञानं तथैतस्य न त्यागो न ग्रहो लयः॥६- ४॥
aham vā sarvabhūteṣu sarvabhūtānyatho mayi|
iti jñānam tathaitasya na tyāgo na graho layaḥ||6- 4||
I am in all beings, and all beings are in me. This is knowledge — and for one so established there is neither giving up, nor taking hold, nor dissolving.
The Self pervades all beings, and all beings appear within the Self — a reciprocal containment that dissolves the boundary between self and other into a single field.
The next stranger who irritates you, try silently including them in your own sense of "I" for one breath before reacting.