Chapter-1, Verse 6

Ashtavakra Gita Verse 1.6

धर्माधर्मौ सुखं दुःखं मानसानि न ते विभो। न कर्ताऽसि न भोक्ताऽसि मुक्त एवासि सर्वदा॥६॥ 

6. Virtue and vice, happiness and sorrow are all attributes of the mind, not of yourself, O all-pervading one! you are neither the ‘doer’ nor the ‘enjoyer’. Indeed, you are ever free.

So long as the ego exists, it asserts in two ways – in the sense of ‘doership’, and in the sense of ‘enjoyership’. The ego in its relationship with the outer world maintains a vanity, ‘I am the doer’. The same ego functioning within the bosom constantly maintains a vanity, ‘I am the enjoyer’. Both these assertions together constitute the illusory sense of ego.

Now, this ego, while functioning in the world of objects, pursues virtues and indulges in vices. As a doer, one cannot but get oneself involved in actions, both good and bad. Again, the same ego, as an enjoyer, must necessarily get tossed about in its experiences of ‘happiness and sorrow’. In short, the ego cannot escape the conflicts created by the pairs of opposites.

Ashtavakra advises that the conflicts of good and bad and the struggles for pleasure and against pain, are all in fact in your mind and therefore, they belong to the mind only, never are they yours. You are nothing but the all-pervading Consciousness. As the pure Self you are ever free from the conflicts and confusions of your own ego.

Virtue and vice are the evaluations of the intellect, identifying with which the sense of ‘doership’ is maintained. Happiness and sorrow are the values of the mind, identifying with which the sense of ‘enjoyership’ is sustained. Thus, identifying with the intellect and the mind respectively, the sense of ‘doership’ and ‘enjoyership’ gush forth from us and they, in their confluence, become the ego in us. When once all its identifications with the intellect and the mind are ended, the ego disappears to become the blissful Self.