You are already free! You are a Being! What is a need to contemplate? Why do you go in contemplating or studying and doing this and that? You are Being! You are clean, you are Self. You are that!'

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        🌺 ASHTAVAKRA GITA🌺

    

                🌿Chapter - 32🌿

             ~ Uncovering Bliss ~

                  🌱 Day - 190 🌱

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त्याजैव ध्यानं सर्वत्र मा किंचिद्धृदि धारय ।

आत्मा त्वं मुक्त एवासि किं विमृश्य करिष्यसि ॥

Ashtavakra removed both those sticks. One is contemplating. Some people sit and go on thinking, "I am Self; I am the blissful atman." Ashtavakra says, ' किं विमृश्य करिष्यसि ' When you know you are atman, why do you have to go on saying it? Once you know you are Thomas, you do not need to go on saying that you are Thomas. When you know you're in Bangalore, you do not need to go on saying that you are in Bangalore. He strikes off the idea of contemplation as foolishness!

Many people think they should sit in the morning and go on thinking that they are Brhama; that they are Atman; that they are everything. They put positive affirmations in their minds - that they are good and have no guilt; that all are supportive of then and their life is wonderful; and that all they think of will come true. They think that everything positive will happen. Art of positive thinking!

Ashtavakra dismisses it as 'nonsense'. He advises to drop meditation. त्याजैव ध्यानं सर्वत्र । Drop attention and everything! When you are awake, your attention is on this or that person - on what he or she does; what he or she says. Drop it all. त्याजैव ध्यानं सर्वत्र मा किंचिद्धृदि धारय । You are nothing, you are nobody! Who is there to meditate? Who has to get enlightened when there is nobody? When you sit for meditation, or do some practices, you say you want to gain something. You want to be enlightened or happy. You want to feel like or be like me.

Ashtavakra says, 'Drop it all. You are nobody. Wake up!' Ashtavakra shakes the last straw which one could hang onto. He says the time has come to wake up. He says, 'Come on. It's time.'

आत्मा त्वं मुक्त एवासि । You are already free! You are a Being! What is a need to contemplate? Why do you go in contemplating or studying and doing this and that? You are Being!

Someone once asked me if they would get enlightened by meditating and doing all the practices. I said that they could not. They asked why not. I replied that the husk can be removed. But removing the husk does not mean that rice comes inside the paddy afterwards. The rice has always been there. Only the husk had to be removed. You will not get knowledge but you will lose the ignorance i.e. by doing this you will only drop your ignorance. But sometimes people think their ignorance will never go. It will be there all the time. They think that it will take many lifetimes in order to remove it. So they go on straining endlessly.

Ashtavakra says, 'आत्मा त्वं' You are clean, you are Self. Stop thinking. 'I am Self. I am atman. I am this. I am that'. You know it. You are that!'

But be careful. Don't stop meditating. Do your meditation but not with the sense, 'I'm doing. I want to be enlightened.' 'I don't care whether I get enlightened or not. I meditate because it's just my nature.' Just drop. And if this is confusing, just drop it.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

ASHTAVAKRA GITA

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