Chapter-4, Verse 1

Ashtavakra Gita Verse 4.1

जनक उवाच हन्तात्मज्ञस्य धीरस्य खेलतो भोगलीलया। न हि संसारवाहीकैर्मू ढैः सह समानता॥१॥

Janaka said: 

1. O marvel! The man of understanding, the knower of the Self, who plays the sport of life, has no comparison with the deluded beasts of burden of the world. 

To step backwards, in Chapter-3 Ashtavakra is delighted for Janaka but sees inconsistencies. He fires off a series of confrontational verses about attachment to worldly pleasure. In reply to that, in Chapter-4 Janaka asserts that the Lord of the Universe, meaning the person who has discovered his Self and is in constant communion with It, can do as he pleases! 

In the very opening verse Janaka crystallises all his defences into this pithy statement. The behaviour of Man of Perfection in the world outside at his body level should not be compared with those of the ordinary people, who drag themselves through life as beasts of burden, carrying the loads of their vāsanās, panting in exhaustion, desiring to graze on sense gratifications, here and there, along its bridle path. 

One whose identity has been firmly established in the Higher Consciousness, he, thereafter, with his body, mind and intellect only ‘plays the sport of life’. To play is natural for a child, and if you ask children at play why they are playing, they are at a loss how to answer such a ridiculous question? 

Play (līlā) cannot be any longer a play if it is played for a purpose to achieve a profit. Sport is a natural explosion of one's inherent energy free and spontaneous. Play itself is its own fulfilment. 

It is in this spirit that a Man of Perfection exists in all fields of his endeavour, apparently functioning as any other man in the world. The difference between a worldly man of passions and a God-man of Inner Peace is not in the type of actions they perform but in the conscious understanding with which they enter their fields of actions. 

The idle crowds of unintelligent onlookers are not generally subtle enough in their perceptions to recognise this significant distinction between the selfish man of ignorance and selfless Man of Wisdom. In short, Janaka defends himself with the plea that his actions should not be measured with the same yardstick that is applied in measuring the size of worldly beings. 

The same idea is found in the Annapūrṇopaniṣad: ‘A man who has liberated himself completely from his inner attachments, whose thoughts are ever pure and sweet, such a man whether he undertakes action or not, there can never be in his bosom, at any time, under any circumstances, the sense of doership or enjoyership.’