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Astavakra Samhita
(Astavakra Gita)
Translated by Swami Nityaswarupananda
1. Instruction on Self-Realization
En español: 01-instruction-sobre-la-autorrealizacion.htm
Janaka said –
1. How can knowledge be acquired? How can liberation be attained? How is renunciation possible? Tell me this, O Lord.
Ashtavakra said –
2. If you aspire after liberation, my child, shun the objects of the senses as poison and seek forgiveness, sincerity, kindness, contentment and truth as nectar.
3. You are neither earth, nor water, nor fire, nor air, nor space. In order to attain liberation, know the Self as the witness of all these and as Consciousness itself.
4. If you detach yourself from the body and rest in Consciousness, you will at once be happy, peaceful and free from bondage.
5. You do not belong to the Brahmana or any other caste or to any ashrama. You are not perceived by the senses. Unattached, formless and witness of all are you. Be happy.
6. Virtue and vice, pleasure and pain, are of the mind, not of you, O All-pervading One. You are neither doer nor enjoyer. Verily you are ever free.
7. You are the one seer of all and are really ever free. Verily this alone is your bondage that you see yourself not as the seer but as something other.
8. Do you who have been bitten by the great black serpent of the egoism "I am the doer," drink the nectar of the faith "I am not the doer," and be happy.
9. Burn down the forest of ignorance with the fire of conviction, "I am the One, and Pure Consciousness," and be free from grief and be happy.
10. You are that Consciousness, Bliss - Supreme Bliss, in and upon which this universe appears superimposed, like a snake on a rope. Live happily.
11. He who considers himself free is free indeed and one who considers himself bound remains bound. "As one thinks, so one becomes," is a popular saying in this world, and it is quite true.
12. The Self is witness, all-pervading, perfect, One, free, Consciousness, actionless, unattached, desireless and quiet. Through illusion It appears as if It is of the world (i.e. subject to the ever-repeating cycle of birth and death).
13. Having given up external and internal self-modifications and the illusion "I am the reflected (individual) self", meditate on the Atman as immutable, Consciousness, and non-dual.
14. My child, you have long been caught in the noose of body-consciousness. Sever it with the sword of the knowledge "I am Consciousness" and be happy.
15. You are unattached, actionless, self-effulgent and without any blemish. This indeed is your bondage that you practise meditation.
16. You pervade this universe and this universe exists in you. You are really Pure Consciousness. Do not be small-minded.
17. You are unconditioned, immutable, formless, of cool disposition, of unfathomable intelligence and unperturbed. Desire Consciousness alone.
18. Know that which has form to be unreal and the formless to be permanent. Through this spiritual instruction you will escape the possibility of rebirth.
19. Just as a mirror exists within and without the image reflected in it, so the Supreme Self exists inside and outside this body.
20. As the same all pervading space is inside and outside a jar, so the eternal all-pervasive Brahman exists in all things.