Ashtavakra's Song

Selected verses from the Ashtavakra Gita. A beloved book from the Advaita Vedanta tradition. Translated by Thomas Byrom and published as "Heart of Awareness" by Shambhala Dragon Editions. Earlier translations are available through Vedanta Press.

"Rare is the broad-minded person who has neither attraction for nor aversion to: duty, prosperity, desire, liberation, life, and death." 

"A person of Knowledge does not desire the dissolution of the universe, nor has aversion to its existence. Therefore, One lives happily on whatever subsistence comes as a matter of course." 

"Where is delusion, where is the universe, where is renunciation, moreover, where is liberation for the One who is and rests beyond it all."

 "The steady One who sees the same everywhere, sees no difference between happiness and misery, man, and woman, prosperity and adversity." 

"The enlightened One neither abhors the objects of the senses, nor craves for them. Ever with a detached mind, he experiences them as they come." 

"Those desirous of worldly enjoyment, and those desirous of spiritual liberation, both are found in this world. But rare is one who is not desirous of either enjoyment nor liberation." 

"The knower of Truth is never miserable in this world, for the whole universe is filled by himself alone." 

"Let the body last to the end of the age or let it go even today. Where is there any increase or decrease for You, pure consciousness?"