Chapter-2, Verse 5

Ashtavakra Gita Verse 2.5

तन्तुमात्रो भवेदेव पटो यद्वद्विचारितः। आत्मतन्मात्रमेवेदं तद्वद्विश्वं विचारितम्॥५॥

5. Just as cloth, when analysed, becomes nothing but thread, even so this universe, when examined carefully is found to be nothing but the Self. 

The unique visions of the mystic sages are not readily comprehensible to the seekers in their early stages of study and practice. And this is as it should be. The vision of the Masters is the intuitive apprehension of the Reality, when they transcend their intellects. But the student is rooted in his body consciousness and is trying to comprehend the Reality with his intellect. Necessarily the intellectual faculties of logic and reason must stand aghast at the daring words of the mystic apprehension. Yet, the function of the scriptures is to help the student to conceive and understand the Reality as clearly as possible for the rational comprehension of man. This communication is accomplished by the scriptural Masters of the world all over, through the use of effective examples and eloquent analogies, boisterous metaphors and expressive similes. 

Aṣṭāvakra here employs a familiar example of the Upaniṣads. Ordinarily, in our day-to-day transactions, we use cloth and view it from its utility standpoint. But a little thoughtful examination can easily reveal that what we consider as cloth is nothing but threads woven together. Yet, if you go to a trader in textile goods and demand a pound of thread, how few of them would really cut a piece of cloth to the weight of one pound! Every shopkeeper would declare that he has no thread for sale! In the vision of the cloth, the existence of the thread is not generally recognised. To see the thread, a little discriminative thinking is necessary. 

In our day-to-day life, we are jostled about by the moment-to-moment happenings around us and in the laughter and tears of living through them, we take the world of plurality (viśvam) for its face value. Here the Ᾱcārya reminds the student that with a little discrimination, world can be discovered as nothing but the Consciousness, the Self. ‘A stress in Consciousness’ is a thought. ‘A continuous stream of thoughts maintained in our bosom’ provides us with a delusory expression of the mighty and the powerful mind. Through the mind we see the world of names and forms projected upon the Consciousness. 

Thus the perceived objects and the perceiving equipments are all ‘stresses’ in Consciousness. When these illusion creating, delusion breeding 'stresses' are relinquished, through deep meditation, the thoughts cease; the mind is lifted; and the hallucination of the universe rolls away. With a little scientific thought the essential reality of the universe can be detected as the Pure Consciousness only.