How Liberation Is Achieved

Janaka, looking at the one standing before him, saw something past appearance. Ashtavakra, crooked in body, was an enlightened master within. The one who was liberated. Janaka fell at his feet and exclaimed: How is knowledge acquired? How is liberation achieved?

Ashtavakra looked deeply into Janaka’s eyes. He smiled, and he began to instruct.

First, the Practice

Reject sense objects and worldly pleasures as if they were poison. Partake of forgiveness, sincerity, compassion, and truthfulness as if they were nectar.

The words can sound confusing or strange at first. But what is being said is this: one must become aware of the stimulation that the external universe produces in oneself. All objects, whether they attract or repel, function the same way. They stimulate. They produce a movement in the mind which becomes attachment or aversion. The instruction is to see this stimulation itself as poison, so that whenever any movement arises, the one remains balanced.

Look at the parallel he draws. Everything that can be acquired is to be treated as poison. The virtues he names — forgiveness, sincerity, compassion, truthfulness — all have the nature of giving, not acquiring. The instruction grounds the one, allows stillness to settle, and stops the chase through an endless maze.

Second, the Body

Then Ashtavakra spoke of the body. Because of appearance, one assumes oneself to be the body, the flesh and the bones, the thoughts and the emotions. In reality, one is none of these. One is not even the five elements from which the body is composed. And since one is not the body, all that the body carries — caste, creed, colour, history — is also not the Self.

Knowing this, one is immediately free from the bondage of the body. One is the Self. The very form of Consciousness. The witness, distinct from the body.

Third, the Witness

The Self remains in a constant state of liberation. The Self is never the doer, never the enjoyer. The Self has no part in righteousness or unrighteousness, in happiness or pain. These are mental projections, nothing more. The one remains only as the witness. The witness of all happenings.

Through the delusion of the ego, it appears as though the One is the doer. It is not.

With the fire of conviction, set ablaze the forest of ignorance, and remain in bliss, knowing there is only Pure Awareness.