ASHTAAVAKRA SAMHITAM
[GIST OF IT ALL IN SIMPLIFIED LANGUAGE]
To explain it all in modern
language-
BODHA
The ‘World you see’ is made
of information only.
In Sanskrit, you name it as Bodha.
INDRIYAS
What are the tools that bring
you this info-collection called the world?
They are referred to by the
term ‘senses’ -Indriyas.
Indriya means
the servant who serves the Aatman, the Self, the Indra, the ruler of all.
These senses are not physical
organs as eye etc.
They are subtle functions of
the mind.
Mind uses the senses of
knowledge to produce sense information.
Mind uses senses of action
for the mechanical processes of walking, talking etc.
BODY/WORLD
Actually physical body is
also a ‘collection of info’ only.
It is an object captured by
the senses.
Mind produces the first
object of knowledge as the body; and corrupts it with the ‘I’ concept. That
first corruption, acts as the seed of the entire corrupted forest of
information called the world.
MANAS/PRAANA
That which operates these
senses is also not a physical organ, but some function like agitations,
movements that keep on going without a stop.
The power of this movement is
known as Praana, the power which
enables the function of living.
This power of Praana which
acts as the mind also, (or vice versa also), is again sourced from some ‘indefinable
something’, which is not material or solid.
‘THAT SOMETHING’
That something is like some
potential state, where any knowledge, any information, any Bodha is ready to
rise up as the information perceived by the senses.
This Bodha is right or wrong.
VIDYAA/AVIDYAA
Right information is
liberation; wrong information is the ‘perceived world’.
Right information is
uncorrupted by the mind; and wrong information is corrupted by the mind. First
one is Vidyaa; second one is Avidyaa.
Absence of right information
is bondage; it is Avidyaa.
When wrong information is
discarded, then only you have access to the Right information.
This accessing the Right
information is the ‘Knowledge path that leads to liberation’.
VICHAARA
If one analyzes properly,
this is how the Vichaara process goes on:
Let us start with the object
that is in front of you; say a pot.
Is this pot really there or
not?
Sense of touch says that it
is solid.
Sense of sight says that it
is round and endowed with some colour.
Sense of taste says that it
is muddy.
Sense of sound says that it
makes noise.
Sense of nose says it smells
muddy.
Where is the so-called
solidity, image etc?
In the mind only!
Mind (the neural function in
the brain) alone has the code of sound, code of touch etc to decode (interpret)
some object-info from somewhere.
Sound, touch etc reside in the mind; not in the object
outside.
These codes of sound etc
produce in the mind, the concept of some solid body existing in some outside.
This so-called outside also
is information only, as the object’s location.
The object is said to exist
in some time and space measure; and occupy some place.
If the information of the
object is not produced or received, the object is said to be absent.
So you can discard the idea of existence and non-existence
of objects as just information of their presence and absence.
At one instance of
perception, you receive one set of information only as the perceived (Drshyam).
This inert information gets coloured by the agitation process called the mind.
Whatever object is seen,
comes with the package information of its origin and future destruction.
Any object of Knowledge has a
beginning and end as its innate quality.
We cannot perceive any object or action in this world
without the co-related information of beginning and end.
The entire world is just the
collection of Knowledge you receive, according to the capacity of your mind (or
brain-capacity).
This entire knowledge-information of the world is the
Jagat (the patterns which get produced to get destroyed only.)
Each mind has its own idea of
the world according to its understanding capacity; like each person sees a
different rainbow based on his location in space-measure; but yet a crowd of
people seeing different rainbows believe that they are seeing one single
rainbow only.
The different world-ideas seen by different minds are
understood by everyone as one single solid world under a single sky-roof.
WHO KNOWS IT ALL?
This Knowledge is understood
by some one called ‘you’.
Who is this ‘you’? (or ‘I’?)
You cannot be the body,
because body is also the information received or produced by the senses, and
the story-telling mind.
You cannot be the mind,
because it is also the information received or produced by the intellect (the
thinking level of the mind).
You cannot be the intellect,
because it is also the information received or produced by the intellect (the
thinking level of mind).
Intellect itself is the
information of its own existence!
Amazing! Is it not?
I AM NOT AN INFORMATION
Any term with meaning
(Shabda/Artha) is just information only.
When you are receiving or
producing any information, you cannot be the information yourself. So stop
producing information or receiving it, to get at yourself!
How?
Start from the outermost
point.
SENSE PLEASURES
The objects of the world are
the collection of information produced by senses.
Mind adds the qualities of
pleasure and pain to them.
Pleasure from sense objects
is just the imagined information that belongs to the mind.
So stop running after sense
pleasures for getting happiness.
(Actually brain produces some particular chemicals at
certain levels, which get interpreted as ‘joy’ by the humans.
‘Joy’ experienced by humans here is just a chemical
interpretation; not real.
The chemical which makes you happy is called dopamine.
Happiness level raises or lowers according to the
level of dopamine produced by the brain.
Any action that gives you joy, including meditation at
the highest level, or sadistic murder at the lowest level, is because of this
chemical called dopamine.
Objects do not contain the quality of pleasure.
Objects of Knowledge do not contain any pleasure.
Information is just the information of pleasure; not
actually the pleasure.
Brain secretes dopamine to deceive you into believing
that you are happy.)
FAMILY
Next look at the family and
friends!
They are also Bodha-forms
only; sense info corrupted as nearest and dearest.
PERCEIVED (DRSHYAM)
All that you see as the ‘perceived’ is nothing but
sense information misinterpreted by the mind.
This mind itself a
misinterpreted information.
It does not exist as anything
at all; it is just co-related to the perceived.
RENUNCIATION
Reject the perceived world as
wrong information.
Reject the body, the ‘I’ as
wrong information.
Ego is also information produced
by the mind based on the body-identity.
Ego is a heap of wrong
information. It is a story made by the mind! Pure fantasy!
Reject it.
KEVALATVAM
What is left back..?
If the senses and mind were
not there at all, where would the world exist?
What is out there as Reality
behind the shield of sense information?
There must be something which
cannot be converted into any information produced or received by the mind or
senses.
It cannot be the information
that can be received or produced by the intellect.
What is that, which cannot be
any information that can be corrupted by the mind?
It must be something; yet not
anything that the mind can grasp.
When the mind is not there at
all as agitations, when senses do not receive any information at all, what is there when nothing is there?
That something, which is
hunger-like, is a potential state of Knowledge; and is the Reality. It is the
potential state where any information is possible as a perceived.
Reality is what the world is; just Knowledge essence!
That Knowledge-essence alone
swells up as you, I and others.
Jagat is Brahman, the swollen up knowledge.
It is Chit, the Knowledge essence that is in each
information-content (object) as its basic ingredient.
Chit alone is Chitta
(mind-functions).
Chit alone is the Chetana
(perceiving consciousness).
Chit alone is the Chetya
(perceived).
Chit alone is as all!
Chit alone is! Chinmaatram is!
FINALLY…
When you discard the
information of the physical body, the mind, the senses and still are trying to
understand the Reality…, the thoughts stop; even the breath becomes shallow.
The world vanishes.
Just some unique peaceful
state rises as a ‘nobody’.
A silent state of awareness
alone exists, where no information of anything is there, but some state ready
to burst forth as information of space, time, objects, you, I etc.
That alone is!
A Knower goes up to this
point using the intellect as the ladder.
When he discards the
‘information receiving quality of the intellect’ also, there rises the absolute
state of silence, where no information of anything exists; not even the sense
of ‘I’.
After this dip into the
Supreme silent state of nectar, when the Yogi starts receiving the
information-set called the Jagat or world, he never is the same.
He is a JeevanMukta.
He is said to be liberated while living.
NO DEATH
He sees no solid world
outside; but only Bodha; knowledge unfolding as objects.
His body also appears for him
like some information only; as a ‘non-material knowledge-form’.
He sees birth and death as
information connected to the body-information.
He does not identify with the
body-information.
He does not die ever; for he
is just the potential state of all knowledge.
He is the formless state of
existence only.
He is no more any object of
information; but is the essence of all information.
How can Knowledge of death
die ever?
BODHA
Knowledge of death does not
die.
Knowledge of birth does not
die.
Knowledge of the body is
itself not the body.
Knowledge of change is
changeless.
Knowledge of the beginning and
end is without beginning and end.
Knowledge of ignorance is
bondage; knowledge is not bound.
Knowledge of knowledge is
liberation; knowledge is not liberated.
Knowledge of Jagat is not the Jagat.
Knowledge is not different
from the Known.
Knower is not different from
the Knowledge.
There is just the oneness of
all!
VISHVAM
The entire world is nothing
but a process of information passing through mind-systems and getting corrupted
in the process.
Vishvam (the changing pattern
called the world) is just the flow of continuous information. It comes out
through the mind as the world; goes back to the mind as Vaasanaas (lingering
taste for objects); and the world goes on existing without end.
This process never ceases to
be.
Perceive; receive; store as
Vaasanaas; Vaasanaas again create perceived fields; more information is
received; more Vaasanaas get stored; and the world keeps on appearing in minds
as agitations.
Like a seed producing
thousands of trees forever continuously, the world made of information or Bodha
swells up as reality.
There is no one; no person; no god; no world; but just
Bodha-ocean rising as the waves of perceptions.
DELUSION
Every one is drowned in the
flood of wrong information produced by the mind through the tools of senses.
The deluded ones, who are
lost in the mirage of the world, do not know of anything but the solid world
they see.
They identify with the
information called the body, which comes with the package information of birth
and death.
So they get born they think;
and they die also; so they think.
KNOWER
A knower on the other hand,
stays always in the state of ‘no
information received or produced’ state of awareness only.
He exists, no more as the
information called the body or ego.
He is the essence of the
entire perceived phenomena.
He is in the tranquil state,
where no corrupted information of the mind is received or produced.
He is not a person; but a state of existence which is
the essence of the entire perceived phenomenon.
His mind stays dead, unable
to corrupt the information any more.
It is a very pure state of
existence; unperturbed, uncorrupted, changeless, endless, beginningless,
‘Knowledge alone’ state.
It is Chinmaatram! It is Chit alone.
It is the potential state of
all information that is there as the world.
To be that is liberation.
Actually no one gets
liberated.
But you try to find out what
it is; and lose your little ego in it; like a salt doll trying to find the
depth of the ocean.
This is said to be the
Knowledge-path.
This cannot be attained by
receiving the information-content of gods, temples, holy places, gurus,
ashrams, scriptures, chants, penance, meditation, Praanaayaama or any such
thing involving outward action of body or mind.
Any outward action is
information corrupted by the mind.
To not receive or produce
information, you must not take recourse to any action, not even meditation.
You can only do Vichaara.
Use the intellect to discard
all information of anything and everything; then throw away the intellect also
as an information corrupted by the mind; and stay just as silence.
It is indeed a wonderful silence; so cool and so
blissful and so peaceful!
This bliss is not induced by
the dopamine content of the brain.
A mind trapped in the
brain-function can never know of it, like a rock cannot know of consciousness.
SILENCE SUPREME
It is the silence obtained by
Yogis, by just melting off the mind in the resonance of Omkaara.
It is the silence that is
adored as Aatman by all the Upanishads and Vedaanta scriptures.
It is the silence sought by
Devas like Indra also.
Just be that; as the
no-information state!
You stand above Gods also who
are also just information-contents!
[Blessed is the one who stays as ‘That
alone’!]
AUM
[END]
