Chapter-2, Verse 1

Ashtavakra Gita Verse 2.1

जनक उवाच 

अहो निरञ्जनः शान्तो बोधोऽहं प्रकृतेः परः। एतावन्तमहं कालं मोहेनैव विडम्बितः॥१॥ 

1. O! I am the taintless, serene, Pure Consciousness, and beyond nature. So long I have spent my days bewildered by delusion. 

The student of Realisation is here regretting the pitiable sorrows through which he had lived for aeons, due to his own delusions that he is his body and mind. Now he has realised that he is the Pure Consciousness, at once ‘taintless’ because he is beyond the vāsanās and ‘serene’ because he has transcended the agitation breeding mind. In fact, he experiences that he is ‘beyond matter’ (prakṛteḥ paraḥ) and is of the nature of Pure Consciousness.

The regret is that, for a span of time, rolling back to thousands of years, in various embodiments, he had, as an individualised ego continued his dream play of sense pursuits, seeking in them his satisfaction and happiness and had thus lived in sorrow and pain because of his own delusions. We have already described that this ‘delusion’ streams forth from one’s identifications with one’s body, mind and intellect. According to the Sāṅkhyan philosophy, the cause for the entire universe of names and forms is nature (Prakṛti); and the Spirit (Puruṣa) enlivens the inert nature. In his song, Aṣṭāvakra seems to have no patience with such rational explanations which are all views of the intellect, not the visions of the Spirit. Aṣṭāvakra recognises the Self alone as the one ultimate cause for everything and the Self as Consciousness is the illuminator of both matter (Prakṛti) and Spirit (Puruṣa).

This reiterates that at the base of everything is this unique divine energy without beginning or end (anadi) that forms the manifested universe (Nature or Prakriti) as well as the Souls of all Beings in it (Purusha).