ASHTAVAKRA GITA | When you bow down to your Self, you have bowed down to everything in the universe

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        🌺 ASHTAVAKRA GITA🌺

    

                 🌿Chapter - 8🌿

"Without Conflict Rejoice In The Self"

                   🌱 Day - 46 🌱

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अहो अहं नमो मह्यं दक्षो नास्तीह मत्समः ।

असंस्पृश्य शरीरेण येन विश्वं चिरं धृतम् ॥

It's beautiful; even wonderful! Janaka said, 'There is none cleverer than me'. Remember this. For Janaka to utter this was a revolution, as he was the most humble. The king, filled with humility, the personification of humility, suddenly said that there was no-one more skilled than he was, ever!

When you bow down to your Self, you have bowed down to everything in the universe. All your stiffness and resistance - the diving factors in you - have disappeared. From solid ice, you have become vapour. You have vapourised. Vapours have no obstruction, they move. What is your problem? Why are you stiff? Why do you resist? What is the source or the root of your conflict? 'I'. 'I'. 'I'. You withdraw. The same 'I' creates conflicts: "I like this. I don't want this. 'I' want things to be done in time. I don't want people to do it this way. 'I' don't like this. I don't like..." 'I'. 'I'. 'I'. This is the root of your conflict with people around you? Have you ever observed what the root is? "I like this. I want this. I am somebody. I am the authority. People should listen to me. People should respect me. People should regard me. Everyone else should follow and understand me, because I am decent; I am right. And I am also telling them for their own good." People go around to set people right. What are you going to set right? This stiffness and resistance in you, prevents you from bowing down to your Self. Because you are not bowing down to your Self, you have not surrendered to that Infinity that is you. You want to. It's not that you don't want to! You crave and long for it, but there is no skill to do it with. Janaka said, 'There is no-one more skilled than me. There is nothing more skilled than me or equal to me. I am unique.' Wanting to be unique is a very natural tendency in everyone. It's and innate tendency; wanting to be the highest, wanting to be the best, and wanting to be unique. This need has arisen because the little mind does not know the big mind already is that. You are already unique. There is nothing like you. God or nature is not fond of prototypes. No two leaves are ever the same. Everything is unique. Not only unique, there is only one.

असंस्पृश्य शरीरेण येन विश्वं चिरं धृतम् । 'Though I have not touched his universe with my body, I am pervading in all of them.' I think whatever this body touches is only mine or belongs to me. I perceive it as though I possess it. Do you see this? You see a nice piece of cloth in the store. You buy it and put it in your wardrobe. Now you sleep happily. In reality, what difference has it made whether the dress was in the shop or in your wardrobe? Has it made any difference? Only mentally because now you think you possess it; you have the freedom to touch it and wear it. Your sense of possession is very limited. You think you possess whatever you touch with this body, whatever you see with your eyes, but that is very limited. Your ability to look is limited. Your ability to hear is limited. You may have one thousand music cassettes but you can only listen to one tape at a time. But mentally and psychologically, you feel that you have all these tapes, you can listen to them whenever you want. It is as good as having a radio and tuning to a station.

A false sense prevails in us i.e. if I touch something with this body it belongs to me. Although I have not touched the entire universe with this body (impossible as the body has limitations) I still am touching everything in this universe. Our sense of nearness comes with touch. Our sense of belongingness comes with touch. That's why when you greet somebody, you hug them or shake hands. This has been so from childhood; from the time we were aware of our body. A child knows his or her parents and goes and hugs the mom or sits on the dad's lap. Then they know that mommy or daddy belongs to them. That is how we stayed perceiving this universe; having a sense of belongingness to the universe; If a child sees a nice flower, he or she will pluck and touch it. They even want to touch fire or light, because then they can feel it belongs to them. Janaka said that there was no need for him to touch the feet (bow down to the feet), but he was still doing it. That, he was touching from the depth of his consciousness. His mind and his awareness was hugging everything, and was present in the entire universe when the craving had disappeared and dissolved. Though his body was in one place and it could see, experience and feel limited things, in fact, he was not so. He was in touch with everything.

We are very fortunate to know this which somebody so long ago (seven to ten thousands years ago) recorded or experienced and is available to us now, today. Because this is all present in the consciousness, all the meanings open up by themselves.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

ASHTAVAKRA GITA 

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