Ashtavakra

Che cos'è l'Assoluto? Dio esiste?

The Absolute is the witnessing consciousness, one, full and actionless

Un Assoluto impersonaleLo dice espressamente

The Aṣṭāvakra Gītā does not speak of a God to be addressed but of a consciousness that the disciple already is. In the first chapter the teacher describes the Self as witness, all-pervading, full, one, free, pure consciousness and actionless (1.12), and compares it to space, which is at once inside and outside a jar: so the eternal brahman is in the multitude of beings (1.20). The whole world appears in it like the snake in the rope (1.10) or the waves in the ocean (2.4), adding nothing to it and taking nothing away. The text does not expressly deny a personal God, but grants him no role: the ultimate is not someone who creates or judges, but the conscious ground of all experience, identical with the one who asks.

Chi sono io? Esiste un vero sé?

You are not the elements: you are the witness, whose form is consciousness

Il Sé è l'AssolutoLo dice espressamente

The Aṣṭāvakra Gītā answers the question from its third verse: the disciple is not earth, water, fire, air or space, but the witness of them all, whose form is consciousness (1.3). That witness belongs to no caste or stage of life, neither acts nor enjoys (1.5–1.6), and is one with the brahman that is in all beings as space is in jars (1.20). Bondage consists in seeing the seer as if it were another, that is, in taking oneself for an object (1.7). That is why the poem does not propose building a higher self, but recognising what one already is: whoever considers himself free is free, and whoever considers himself bound is bound (1.11).

Perché soffriamo?

The bite of the serpent of ego: believing oneself the doer

L'ignoranza di ciò che siamoLo dice espressamente

The Aṣṭāvakra Gītā places the root of suffering in a mistaken identification. The disciple, says the teacher, has been bitten by the great black serpent of the pride of thinking «I am the doer», and the antidote is to drink the nectar of the conviction «I am not the doer» (1.8). Bondage consists in taking the seer for another, that is, for an object (1.7), and in identifying for a long time with the body (1.14). Desire, aversion, pleasure and pain belong to the mind, not to the Self; whoever separates from the body and rests in consciousness is happy and serene right now (1.4). Suffering is neither punishment nor trial: it is the price of not knowing what one is.

Che cosa accade dopo la morte?

The witness is neither born nor dies; the sage neither craves life nor fears death

Ciò che sono non nasce e non muoreLo dice espressamente

The Aṣṭāvakra Gītā does not describe what happens after death, because for it death affects something the disciple is not. From the first chapter it asks him to recognise himself as the witness of the elements (1.3) and to stop identifying with the body, the rope by which he has long been bound (1.14). Body and world arise and dissolve in consciousness like waves in the ocean (2.4); consciousness neither comes nor goes. Chapter XVIII, devoted to one liberated in life, describes someone who neither desires life nor fears death, indifferent to pleasure and pain. The text neither discusses rebirth nor expressly denies it: it simply leaves it on the side of what is not the Self.

Come si raggiunge la liberazione o la salvezza?

You are already free: your bondage is that you keep practising concentration

Con la conoscenza direttaLo dice espressamente

The Aṣṭāvakra Gītā understands liberation as recognition, not achievement. The teacher asks Janaka to burn the forest of ignorance with the fire of the conviction «I am the one pure consciousness» (1.9), and assures him that if he rests in consciousness, separating from the body, he will be free right now (1.4). The most radical feature of the poem is its distrust of discipline: Janaka is already free, actionless and luminous, and his bondage consists precisely in continuing to practise concentration (1.15). Hence the text states that a disciple of pure mind reaches his goal through a mere instruction, while the other seeks all his life (15.1). In chapter II Janaka does indeed awaken at the first dialogue.

Serve un maestro?

One instruction suffices for the ripe disciple; in the end there is no teacher or disciple

Utile ma non indispensabileSi deduce dalla sua dottrina

The Aṣṭāvakra Gītā is a dialogue between teacher and disciple, and its very form grants a role to the sage's word: Janaka asks, Aṣṭāvakra answers, and in the second chapter the king declares that he has awakened. The text explains why: the disciple of pure mind reaches his goal through a mere instruction, while the other goes on seeking all his life (15.1). But the instruction conveys nothing the disciple does not already have; it only points to what he already is. Hence the poem distrusts learning (16.1) and, in its last chapter, lists among the things that no longer exist for the liberated one the scriptures, knowledge and the distinction between the one who teaches and the one who learns. The teacher is an occasion, not a condition.

Il mondo è reale?

The world appears through not knowing the Self, like the snake in the rope

Apparenza sull'unica realtàLo dice espressamente

The Aṣṭāvakra Gītā treats the world as a superimposition on consciousness. It appears through not knowing the Self and ceases to appear when the Self is known, as the snake appears through not recognising the rope and vanishes once it is recognised (2.7). The poem also uses other classical Vedānta images: the silver seen in mother-of-pearl, the water of a mirage (2.9). But alongside them it offers a more conciliatory one: as waves, foam and bubbles are not different from water, the universe that has arisen from the Self is not different from it (2.4). The world is unreal as an independent reality and, at the same time, nothing but the Self appearing. That is why the liberated one need not flee it: it is enough not to take it for what it is not.

Che cos'è l'amore?

It does not speak of love: it describes the sage free from attachment and aversion

Non si è pronunciato

The Aṣṭāvakra Gītā contains no teaching on love. Its vocabulary is that of detachment: desire and aversion belong to the mind, not to the Self (15.5), and the liberated one of chapter XVIII is indifferent to pleasure and pain, praise and blame, with neither affection nor hatred towards anything. It would be a mistake to read coldness there: the text describes someone who has stopped dividing the world into what is his and what is another's, and who acts without feeling himself the doer. But it does not call that state love, nor develop it as compassion towards others. If anything follows from its doctrine, it is that the sage's equanimity arises from seeing himself in all beings and all beings in himself (6.4).

Siamo liberi o è tutto determinato?

Drink the nectar of the conviction «I am not the doer» and be happy

Non c'è un agenteLo dice espressamente

The Aṣṭāvakra Gītā answers the question by displacing it. The problem is not whether the self chooses freely or is determined, but the very belief in a self that acts: the disciple has been bitten by the great black serpent of the pride of thinking «I am the doer», and the antidote is the nectar of the conviction «I am not the doer» (1.8). The Self is witness, actionless (1.12); merit and demerit, pleasure and pain, belong to the mind (1.6). Chapter XVIII describes the liberated one as someone who does what comes without feeling himself the author, gaining nothing by acting and losing nothing by not acting. The freedom that concerns the poem is not that of the will, but that of not being identified with any agent.

Perché meditare o pregare?

Your bondage is precisely that you practise concentration

La meditazione non è una tecnicaLo dice espressamente

The Aṣṭāvakra Gītā is one of the texts most critical of meditative practice in all Indian literature. In the first chapter the teacher tells Janaka that he is already free, actionless, self-luminous and stainless, and that his bondage consists precisely in continuing to practise concentration (samādhi) (1.15). The idea recurs throughout the poem: whoever strives to still the mind still presupposes a self that strives and a goal to be reached, and the sage neither meditates nor ceases to meditate. This is not a recommendation of laxity: what the text points out is that what is sought is not a produced state. All it asks is to rest in the consciousness one already is (1.4).

Può la ragione conoscere l'ultimo?

Though you read and hear many scriptures, you will find no rest until you forget all

L'ultimo è al di là della menteLo dice espressamente

The Aṣṭāvakra Gītā distrusts study as much as practice. In chapter XVI the teacher tells Janaka that he may expound or hear many scriptures, again and again, but that he will not attain rest in himself until he forgets everything (16.1). Reason and learning belong to the mind, and what is sought is that to which the mind appears: the witness, which is not an object of the senses or of thought (1.5). The poem does not despise instruction —it is what awakens Janaka— but it understands it as a pointer that is exhausted once understood. In the last chapter, the liberated one no longer has any scripture or knowledge to defend.

Ritirarsi dal mondo o trasformarlo?

King or ascetic, it matters not: the liberated one acts without feeling the author

Contemplazione nell'azioneLo dice espressamente

The Aṣṭāvakra Gītā is a dialogue with a king, Janaka, whom tradition considers liberated without leaving his throne, and its answer to the question is consistent with that frame. Chapter XVIII describes the sage liberated in life as someone not distinguished by outward conduct: he may act or not act, live at court or in the forest, because he no longer feels himself the author of what he does. He neither seeks solitude nor flees it: in the fool, the poem observes, even abstention turns into activity, while in the sage activity itself bears the fruit of abstention (18.61). Nor is there in the text any programme for reforming the world: the sage's action happens, but pursues nothing. What changes is not where one lives, but who one believes is living.