Chapter-4, Verse 4

Ashtavakra Gita Verse 4.4

आत्मैवेदं जगत्सर्वं ज्ञातं येन महात्मना। यदृच्छया वर्तमानं तं निषेद्धुं क्षमेत कः॥४॥

4. The wise man, who has known this entire universe to be the Self alone, acts spontaneously. Who can forbid him? 

Even the Vedas dare not prescribe do’s and don'ts to such a Man of Realisation. In fact, the Vedic injunctions are records of the observed behaviours and attitudes of such Men of Realisation. The freedom has been allowed to a Man of Perfection by scriptures only because, in his transcendence, his ego has completely ended, and therefore, he has been rendered incapacitated to act wrongly or to think ever viciously! 

Just as a great musician cannot go wrong in his time and tune, just as a great dancer can never go wrong in her steps, so too, a Man of Perfection cannot step out from the righteous path. His actions might be misunderstood by his generation. How can the beasts of burden, panting with their instinctive activities, understand the harmony and rhythm in the bosom of the Perfect? 

In Mahābhārata (Śukāṣṭakam) Śukadeva himself says: ‘One in whom all the sense of distinctions has ended; concepts of virtue and vice have rotted away; māyā and its delusions have been lifted; all doubts have ceased; one who dwells beyond words and is without three qualities; who has awakened to the Reality; ever after moving on the path of egolessness; to him who can prescribe what he must do and what he should not do?’