Chapter-1, Verse 5

Ashtavakra Gita Verse 1.5

न त्वं विप्रादिको वर्णोनाश्रमी नाक्षगोचरः। असङ्गोऽसि निराकारो विश्वसाक्षी सुखी भव॥५॥ 

5. You do not belong to the Brāhmaṇa or any such other caste. Nor do you belong to any station in life (āśrama). You are not perceivable by the senses. Unattached, formless and ‘witness’ of all you are, be happy.

Humans are divided into four categories called ‘castes’. These divisions are essentially based upon the inherent qualities of the predominant vāsanās in each individual. Since the pure Self is beyond the vāsanās, it is not conditioned by any of these categories. Similarly men living in the society are considered as belonging to and functioning in different stations in life. These are called āśramas - student life (brahmacarya), house-holders’ life (gṛhastha), life of retirement (vāna-prastha) and life of renunciation (sannyāsa). It is vividly clear that these āśramas are classifications of the different attitudes of the growing mind and depend upon mind’s different relationships with the world around it. In the infinite Self, which is one without a second, there cannot be any attitudes and relationships and, therefore, the obligations of the different stations in life cannot bind the Self.

Neither caste and its duties, nor the different status of social life and their obligations can ever be predicated of the Self. These are extremely helpful in the early stages of self-discipline for spiritual growth, as long as a seeker is still identifying with his mind and body. As pure Consciousness you are not even perceivable by either the sense organs or conceivable by the mind or the intellect.

Pure Consciousness, as the illuminator, is completely detached from the entire world of objects, as the sunlight is unattached with the world of things and beings, which it daily illumines. Self is without any form (nirākāra), as It is unconditioned by anything other than Itself; the Consciousness in us is the ‘witness of the universe’ (viśva-sākṣī). The idea that the Self is a ‘witness’ is repeated some four times in this very chapter. The concept of sarvasākṣī and viśvasākṣī is found in the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad also, where the Lord is described as the all encompassing witness indicating that the Self is a disinterested onlooker upon all the pranks of the mind and the intellect.

Contemplating thus, that you are the Self, the formless ‘Witness’ of the universe, be happy. The sorrows, the tensions, and the stresses of the world and its problems, our passions and our lusts, all end at once and naturally, there is a growing sense of peace and happiness flooding the bosom of the seeker as he moves towards the sanctum of the Self.