Chapter-6, Verse 1

Ashtavakra Gita Verse 6.1

जनक उवाच 

आकाशवदनन्तोऽहं घटवत्प्राकृतं जगत्। इति ज्ञानं तथैतस्य न त्यागो न ग्रहो लयः॥१॥

Janaka said: 

1. Infinite as space am I and the world like a limited jar; this is ‘True Knowledge’. There is nothing then to be renounced nor to be accepted nor to be destroyed. 

In the previous chapter, the Teacher, Aṣṭāvakra, out of his infinite kindness, came down a little from the peak of the absolute and recommended to his student the path of dissolution (laya). Janaka, the disciple, however, from a still higher standpoint ridicules the very idea of merging the ego into the Supreme Consciousness which is ever infinite and one without a second. 

In the very opening verse Janaka takes the thunder away from Aṣṭāvakra's discourse on the technique of the merger (laya). The Supreme Self is often compared with the cosmic space in which the universes move and individualised ego consciousness as a limited, insignificant mud pot and its pot space stays. Space (ākāśa) is a very familiar comparison oft-repeated by various ṛṣis in different Upaniṣads. (ākāśaṁ ātmā – Bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣad-3.2.13; ākāśa ātmā – Taittirīyopaniṣad-2.2; äkäçaà brahma – Chändogyopaniñad -7.12.2)

Māṇḍūkya Kārikā is considered as a text in Vedānta that has come to be written after Aṣṭāvakra Gītā and the Kārikā is generally considered to have drawn its inspiration from this Gītā. The Kārikā elaborates this analogy of the space and the pot space, illustrating the infinite Consciousness and the limited ego consciousness. The elaboration by the author of the Kārikā is very illuminating for the students to reflect upon. (Māṇḍūkya Kārikā. – 3.7)

From the absolute standpoint of the one homogeneous Supreme Consciousness, there is neither an ego, nor an ego-perceived illusory world of plurality. No doubt, this is the goal – the highest state of Realisation. Janaka abiding in this Reality complains that he cannot practise ‘laya’, as in the pure Self ‘there is nothing to be renounced or to be accepted, or to be destroyed’. 

The Kārikā sings the same idea as a chorus to the song of Aṣṭāvakra : ‘There in the Self, which is the final fulfilment of the actions of the mind, there is neither any perception, nor any self-projection into ideas. Established in the Self, the Self revelling in Knowledge (the jñāna) reaches the state of immutability and homogeneity.’ (graho na tatra notsargaḥ cintā yatra na vidyate, ātmasaṁsthaṁ tadā jñānam ajāti samatāṁ gatam. – Māṇḍūkya Kārikā-3.38)

One who is the Self already; he has nothing to bring into ‘laya’. Mahopaniṣad sings: ‘One who dwells into Transcendental State, as full and perfect mass of Consciousness, neither perturbed nor fulfilled, he no more lives in the world of change.’ (sarvātītapadālambī paripūrṇaika cinmayaḥ, nodvegī na ca tuṣṭātmā saṁsāre nāvasīdati. – Mahopaniñad-6.63)