Astavakra Gita Quotes

1. Bondage is when the mind is tangled in one of the senses,
   and liberation is when the mind is not tangled in any of the senses.
    
2. It is through your ignorance that all this exists.
   In reality you alone exist.
   Apart from you there is no one within or beyond samsara.
    
3. You are neither earth, water, fire, air or even ether.
   For liberation know yourself as
   consisting of consciousness, the witness of these.
    
4. When was that age or time of life
   when the dualism of extremes did not exist for men?
   Abandoning them, a person who is happy
   to take whatever comes attains perfection
   .
5. Yogis who identify themselves with their bodies
   are insistent on fulfilling and avoiding certain actions -
   but I live as I please abandoning attachment and rejection.
    
6. Let the body last to the end of the Age,
   or let it come to an end right now.
   What have you gained or lost -
   who consist of pure consciousness?
    
7. Have faith, my son, have faith.
   Don't let yourself be deluded in this, sir.
   You are yourself the Lord, whose property is knowledge,
   and are beyond natural causation.
    
8. Whether feted or tormented, the wise man
   is always aware of his supreme self-nature
   and is neither pleased nor disappointed.
    
9. Liberation is when the mind does not long for anything,
   grieve about anything, reject anything,
   or hold on to anything, and is not pleased about anything
   or displeased about anything.
    
10. If you are seeking liberation,
    my son, shun the objects of the senses like poison.
    Practice tolerance, sincerity, compassion,
    contentment and truthfulness like nectar.
     
11. One's inclinations are samsara.
    Knowing this, abandon them.
    The renunciation of them is the renunciation of it.
    Now you can remain as you are.
     
12. Knowing that all this is an illusion,
    one becomes free from desire,
    pure receptivity and at peace,
    as if nothing existed.
     
13. Truly the yogi feels no excitement -
    even at being established in that state
    which all the Devas from Indra down
    yearn for disconsolately.
     
14. Desire springs from usage, and aversion from abstention,
    but the wise man is free from the pairs of opposites like a child,
    and becomes established.
     
15. You are not the body, nor is the body yours,
    nor are you the doer of actions -
    or the reaper of their consequences.
    You are eternally pure consciousness, the witness,
    in need of nothing - so live happily.