Chapter-1, Verse 16

Ashtavakra Gita Verse 1.16

त्वया व्याप्तमिदं विश्वं त्वयि प्रोतं यथार्थतः। शुद्धबुद्धस्वरूपस्त्वं मा गमः क्षुद्रचित्तताम्॥१६॥ 

16. You pervade this universe and this universe is woven only in you. Really, by nature, you are Pure Consciousness. Do not give way to petty mindedness.

The material cause of a thing must pervade the thing made out of it. Mud, the cause, pervades the entire pot made out of mud. The Self – the Consciousness – from which the world gets projected, must necessarily pervade the entire universe. Out of the human mind when a dream gets projected, the mind should pervade the entire world dreamt by the dreamer. You are this Self; therefore, ‘you pervade this universe.’ 

Not only the mind pervades the dreamworld of the dreamer, but the entire dream is woven into or strung upon the mind. In the mud is the pot supported and the pot form exists only in the substance of the pot – the mud. Thus, you, as the Self, carry ‘this universe strung, or woven, only in yourself’. 

Though, the universe thus exists in you and though it has no existence apart from you, yet, you are not involved in, or in any way conditioned by the universe; for, as the infinite Self, ‘really, by nature, you are Pure Consciousness’. In Consciousness the ‘subject’ and ‘object’ get woven as the warp and woof of this magnificent tapestry of the universe. 

When you are thus the very substratum of the universe, upon whom the universe of names and forms is but a delusory projection, you should not get identified with these misapprehensions and come to suffer the limitations and sorrows of the little ego. To do so is mean. Cautions Aṣṭāvakra, ‘Do not give way to petty-mindedness.’ To live, feeling and acting as the limited ego, is unbecoming of your divine and infinite true nature. There is nothing greater than your essential spiritual being.