Chapter-2, Verse 17

Ashtavakra Gita Verse 2.17

बोधमात्रोऽहम़ज्ञानादुपाधिः कल्पितो मया। एवं विमृशतो नित्यं निर्विकल्पे स्थितिर्मम॥१७॥

17. I am Pure Consciousness. Through 'ignorance' I have projected my equipments, such as the body, upon the Self. Constantly reflecting thus I abide in the Self, purged of all mental activities. 

Here for the first time, we meet with the significant term ‘nir-vikalpa’ meaning ‘devoid of all imaginations’, suggesting ‘the spiritual state of thoughtlessness’. This seems to be an original phrase minted in the inspired bosom of Saint Aṣṭāvakra. Later on, however, Patañjali popularised it, and Śaṅkara and other Masters had freely employed it. But it is significant that we meet this phrase neither in major Upaniṣads, nor even in the Bhagavad Gītā. 

It is only when we come to forget our waking state personality that the dream is ever possible. To reflect constantly that ‘I am the Consciousness’ and to play with the equipments of experiences in the constant understanding that ‘they are mere illusory projections upon Me, the Self is the secret of abiding Myself ever in the Supreme State, without any mental disturbances (nirvikalpa).’ The body, mind and intellect may be allowed to mingle with and sport among their objects, emotions and thoughts. As long as the spiritual understanding is steady, the outer world can never penetrate into the sanctum of our personality to create even a ripple of disturbance in our mind. This state of thoughtlessness is indicated by employing the very same ‘term’ (nirvikalpa) some six times in this very textbook. 

Gauḍapāda’s Kārikā on the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad, a later work, which apparently has drawn much of its inspiration from the song of Aṣṭāvakra, has also liberally employed the term ‘nirvikalpa’ to indicate 'the final Experience Divine wherein the subject-object distinction has completely ended.