Chapter-12, Verse 1

Ashtavakra Gita Verse 12.1

जनक उवाच 

कायकृत्यासहः पूर्वं ततो वाग्विस्तरासहः। अथ चिन्तासहस्तस्मादेवमेवाहमास्थितः॥१॥

1. I became intolerant first of physical action, then of extensive speech and then of thought. Thus do I, therefore, abide in myself. 

Activities spring forth mainly from three sources – physical, oral and mental. Earlier seekers are advised to discipline their physical activities, their speech and their thoughts in such a way that all of them are geared to the thoughts of the Divine and thereby the seeker is helped to turn his attention away from its usual preoccupations with the world of sense gratifications. 

Religious activities like yajña, pūjā and so on and dedicated secular activities as social work, political work and so on, are the methods by which the physical activities are divinised. Similarly, singing the glories of the Lord, reading the scriptures aloud, repeating an inspiring mantra according to the technique of japa, are all accepted methods by which speech can be disciplined to turn towards the spiritual path. Again, thoughts which are generally running out into the world of sense objects, when turned to contemplate upon the Lord of the universe, constitute the thought discipline for a strict spiritual life. 

When a student, having disciplined his body, speech and mind, practises meditation for long, he slowly climbs into the higher scales in meditation.  Therein, he discovers that even these prayerful exercises of the body and the study of the scriptures at the speech level, and all the conscious attempts at concentration in the practice of meditation at the intellectual level, are all distractions for him in his higher flights into subtler meditation. 

In this spiritual autobiography of Janaka, the royal-saint confesses that he could no longer stand distractions caused by his dedicated physical activities, by prayers, by silent japa, and even by contemplation. He gave them all up. And he says, ‘Thus do I, therefore, abide in myself’. This is no blasphemy. The earlier sādhanās such as services of mankind and rituals, kīrtana and pūjās, practice of truthfulness and self-control, concentration and contemplation and so on, are all of immense significance to the seeker, because they, in their totality, shall lead the student to the take off pad for higher meditation. At this stage, in his subtle vision, he gains convincing glimpses of the oneness of the divine Self everywhere. 

As Yogavāsiṣṭha says: ‘The body is nothing but the effects of the past actions; and the mind that prompts the body is itself dynamised by the intelligent-ego (jīva); and this jīva is itself the expression of the Lord; and this Lord is the manifestation of the Ᾱtman, the Self. In short, in one word, we say everything is the one Śiva.’ (karmaiva deho nanu deha eva cittaṁ tadevāhamitīha jīvaḥ, saḥ jīva-eveśvaracit sa ātmā sarvaḥ śivastvekapadoktametat.  ~Yogavāsiṣṭha-3.65.13) Moments of such understanding are moments when the earlier paths of sādhanā are themselves insufferable mental distractions.