Astavakra Gita Quotes

1. Happiness belongs to no-one but that supremely lazy man
   for whom even opening and closing his eyes is a bother.
    
2. Bondage is when the mind longs for something,
   grieves about something, rejects something,
   holds on to something, is pleased about something
   or displeased about something.
    
3. Wherever a desire occurs, see samsara in it.
   Establishing yourself in firm dispassion,
   be free of passion and happy.
    
4. You may, as a learned man, indulge in wealth, activity and meditation,
   but your mind will still long for that -
   which is the cessation of desire, and beyond all goals.
    
5. Giving up such distinctions as "This is what I am",
   and "I am not that", recognise that "Everything is myself",
   and be without distinction and happy.
    
6. When there is no 'Me" that is liberation,
   and when there is "Me" there is bondage.
   Considering this earnestly,
   do not hold on and do not reject.
    
7. Desire and anger are objects of the mind,
   but the mind is not yours, nor ever has been.
   You are choiceless, awareness itself and unchanging -
   so live happily.
    
8. Realising that all this varied and wonderful world is nothing,
   one becomes pure receptivity, free from inclinations,
   and as if nothing existed, one finds peace.
    
9. The wise man has the joy of being complete in himself
   and without possessions, acting as he pleases,
   free from duality and rid of doubts,
   and without attachment to any creature.
    
10. Blessed is he who knows himself and is the same in all states,
    with a mind free from craving whether he is seeing, hearing,
    feeling, smelling or tasting.
     
11. There is no distinction between pleasure and pain,
    man and woman, success and failure
    for the wise man who looks on everything as equal.
     
12. Free of "me" and "mine" and of a sense of responsibility,
    aware that "Nothing exists", with all desires extinguished within,
    a man does not act even in acting.
     
13. Burn down the forest of ignorance
    with the fire of the understanding that
    "I am the one pure awareness",
    and be happy and free from distress.
     
14. The body invested with the senses stands still,
    and comes and goes.
    You yourself neither come nor go,
    so why bother about them?
     
15. Your real nature is as the one perfect,
    free and actionless consciousness,
    the all-pervading witness - unattached to anything,
    desireless and at peace. It is from
    illusion that you seem to be involved in samsara.