38-41. “Being thus insulted by Varuna’s son, the whole assembly stood up to a man and said in anger: ‘You charlatan of a Brahmin! How dare you insult everybody here? What learning have you which is wanting in us? Wicked man that you are, you are only a bluffer! You shall not leave this place until you have proved your superiority over us. There are great pandits assembled here from all over the world. Do you hope to subdue all of them by your learning? Tell us your special subject in which you imagine yourself more proficient than us!’
Thus challenged, Varun’s son replied:
42-43. “I will in a minute outdo you all in debate; but that shall be only on the condition that if I am defeated, you will throw me into the sea; and if you are defeated, I will consign you to the sea, one after another. If you agree to this condition, let us have a debate.
44-45. “They consented and the debate began in right earnest. The pandits were shortly defeated by the fallacious logic of the opponent and they were sunk in the sea by hundreds.
46. “Varuna’s followers then took away the sunken pandits to his sacrifice where they were received with respect which much pleased them.
47. “There was one by name Kahoela, among those who were thus sunk. His son Ashtavakra, having heard of his father’s fate, hastened to Janaka’s court and challenged the debater skilled in fallacy. The masquerader was now defeated and straightaway condemned to the sea by the young avenger. Then Varun’s son threw off his mask in the court and restored back all the men formerly drowned in the sea. Kahoela’s son was now puffed with pride and behaved offensively before the assembled court. The pandits were made to feel mortified before the youth.
51-52. “Just then, a female ascetic appeared in their midst, to whom the offended assembly looked for help. Encouraging them in their hopes, the charming maiden with matted locks and hermit’s clothes was highly honored by the king and she spoke in sweet and yet firm tone’s:
53. “‘Oh child! Son of Kahoela! You are indeed very accomplished, for these Brahmins have been rescued by you after you defeated Varun’s son in debate.
54-56. “‘I want to ask of you a short question, to which please give a straight answer, explicit and unreserved. What is that condition reaching which there will be all-round immortality: knowing which all doubts and uncertainties will disappear; and established in which all desires will vanish? If you have realized that unbounded state, please tell me directly.'
“Being approached by the ascetic, the son of Kahoela replied with confidence:
57-58. “‘I know it. Listen to what I say. There is nothing in the world not known to me. I have studied all the sacred literature with great care. Therefore hear my answer.
59-63. “What you ask is the primal and efficient cause of the universe, being itself without beginning, middle or end, and unaffected by time and space. It is pure, unbroken, single Consciousness. The whole world is manifested in it like a city in a mirror. Such is that transcendental state. On realizing it, one becomes immortal; there is no place for doubts and uncertainties, as there is no more reason for ignorance as at the sight of innumerable reflected images; and there will be no more room for desire, because transcendence is then experienced.
“It is also unknowable because there is no one to know it, besides itself.
“Ascetic! I have now told you the truth as contained in the Scriptures.’
64-71. “After Ashtavakra had finished, the hermit spoke again: ‘Young sage! What you say, is rightly said and accepted by all. But I draw your attention to that part of your answer where you admitted its unknowability for want of a knower outside of consciousness; and also that its knowledge confers immortality and perfection. How are these two statements to be reconciled? Either admit that consciousness is unknowable, is not known to you, and thus conclude its non-existence; or say that it is, and that you know it—and therefore it is not unknowable.
“You evidently speak from secondhand knowledge, gathered from the scriptures. Clearly, you have not realized it and so your knowledge is not personal.
“Think now—your words amount to this—you have a personal knowledge of the images but not of the mirror. How can that be?
“Tell me now if you are not ashamed of this prevarication before King Janaka and his assembly.’
“Being thus reprimanded by the ascetic, he could not speak for some time because he felt mortified and ashamed; so he remained with bent head thinking it over.
72-73. “However, the Brahmin youth could not find any satisfactory answer to her question, so he submitted to her in great humility: ‘O ascetic! Truly I cannot find the answer to your question. I submit to you as your disciple. Pray tell me how the two scriptural statements are to be reconciled. But I assure you that I have not told a deliberate lie, for I know that any merits a liar may have are counteracted by his lies so that he is condemned as unworthy.’
74. “Thus requested, the ascetic was pleased with Ashtavakra’s sincerity and said to him in the hearing of the assembly.
75-84. “‘Child, there are many who being ignorant of this sublime truth, live in a state of delusion. Dry polemics will not help one to Reality for it is well guarded on all sides. Of all the people now assembled here, no one has experienced Reality, except the king and myself. It is not a subject for discussion. The most brilliant logic can only approach it but never attain it. Although unaffected by logic coupled with a keen intellect, it can however be realized by service to one’s Guru and the grace of God.
“O thou who art thyself the Son of a Sage, listen to me carefully, for this is hard to understand even when hearing it explained. Hearing it a thousand times over will be useless unless one verifies the teachings by means of investigation into the Self with a concentrated mind. Just as a prince labors under a misapprehension that the string of pearls still clinging to his neck has been stolen away by another and is not persuaded to the contrary by mere words but only believes when he finds it around his neck by his own effort so also, O youth, however clever a man may be, he will never know his own self by the mere teaching of others unless he realizes it for himself. Otherwise he can never realize the Self if his mind is turned outward.
85. “A lamp illumines all around but does not illumine itself or another light. It shines of itself without other sources of light. Things shine in sunlight without the necessity for any other kind of illumination. Because lights do not require to be illumined, do we say that they are not known or that they do not exist?
“Therefore, as it is thus with lights and things made aware by the conscious self, what doubt can you have regarding abstract consciousness, namely the Self?
“Lights and things being insentient, cannot be self-aware. Still, their existence or manifestation is under no doubt. That means they are self-luminous. Can you not similarly investigate with an inward mind in order to find out if the all-comprehending Self is conscious or not conscious?
“That Consciousness is absolute and transcends the three states (wakefulness, dream and slumber) and comprises all the universe making it manifest. Nothing can be apprehended without its light.
“Will anything be apparent to you, if there be no consciousness? Even to say that nothing is apparent to you (as in sleep) requires the light of consciousness. Is not your awareness of your unawareness (in sleep) due to consciousness?
“If you infer its eternal light, then closely investigate whether the light is of itself or not. Everybody falls in this investigation however learned and proficient he may be, because his mind is not bent inward but restlessly moves outward. As long as thoughts crop up, so long has the turning inward of the mind not been accomplished. As long as the mind is not inward, so long the Self cannot be realized. Turning inward means absence of desire. How can the mind be fixed within if desires are not given up?
“Therefore become dispassionate and inhere as the Self. Such inherence is spontaneous (no effort is needed to inhere as the Self). It is realized after thoughts are eliminated and investigation ceases. Reca
pitulate your state after you break off from it, and then will know all and the significance of its being knowable and unknowable at the same time. Thus realizing the unknowable, one abides in immortality for ever and ever.
“I have now finished. Salutations to you! Farewell!
“But you have not yet understood my words because this is the first time you hear the truth. This king, the wisest among men, can make you understand. So ask him again and he will clear your doubts.”
“When she had finished, she was honored by the king and the whole assembly, and then she instantly dissolved in air and disappeared from human sight.
“I have now related to you, O Rama, the method of SelfRealization.”
Thus ends the Chapter XV on Ashtavakra Section in Tripura Rahasya.
Chapter XVI
On Consciousness; Control of Mind; and Sleep
1. When Parasurâma had heard the story, he marvelled greatly and requested his Master to continue.
2-5. “Lord, this ancient legend is marvellous. Please tell me what Ashtavakra asked the king next, and the instructions he received. I had not hitherto heard this story full of sublime truths. Please continue the story. Master, I am anxious to hear it in full.”
Being so requested, Dattatreya, the great sage and Master, continued the holy narrative. “Listen, O Bhargava, to the discourse with Janaka.
6-7. “On the departure of the holy ascetic from vision, Ashtavakra, the son of a sage, asked Janaka who was surrounded by a whole group of pandits, the full explanation of the ascetic’s brief but recondite speech. I shall now tell you Janaka’s reply, to which listen attentively.
8-9. “Ashtavakra asked, ‘O King of Videha, I have not clearly understood the teaching of the ascetic because of its brevity. Please explain to me then, Lord of mercy, how I shall know the unknowable.’
Being thus asked, Janaka, as if surprised, replied:
10-13. “O thou son of a sage, listen to me! It is neither unknowable nor remains unknown at any moment. Tell me how even the ablest of Masters can guide one to something which always remains unknown. If a Guru can teach, it means that he knows what he says. This transcendental state is quite easy or may be well-nigh impossible according as one’s mind is inward bent in peace or out-moving in restlessness. It cannot be taught if it always remains unknown.
14. “The fact that the Vedas point to it only indirectly as ‘not this—not this’ shows that the knowledge can be imparted to others.
“Whatever you see becomes known by the very abstract intelligence.
15-19. “Now carefully analyze the underlying consciousness which, though abstract and apart from material objects, yet illumines them all the same. Know it to be the truth. O sage! What is not self-luminous can only fall within the orbit of intelligence and cannot be Intelligence itself. Intelligence is that by which objects are known; it cannot be what it is if it becomes the object of knowledge. What is intelligible must always be different from intelligence itself, or else it could not be made known by it. Intelligence in the abstract cannot admit of parts, which is the characteristic of objects. Therefore objects take on shapes. Carefully watch absolute Intelligence after eliminating all else from it.
20. “Just as a mirror takes on the hues of the images, so also the abstract Intelligence assumes the different shapes of objects by virtue of its holding them within itself.
21. “Abstract Intelligence can thus be made manifest by eliminating from it all that can be known. It cannot be known as such and such, for it is the supporter of one and all.
22. “This, being the Self of the seeker, is not cognisable. Investigate your true Self in the aforesaid manner.
Note: There is no other agent to know the Self nor light by which to know it.
23. “You are not the body, nor the senses, nor the mind, because they are all transient. The body is composed of food, so how can you be the body?
24. “For the sense of ‘I’ (ego) surpasses the body, the senses and the mind, at the time of the cognition of objects.
Commentary: The Self always flashes as ‘I’ due to its self-luminosity. The body and such things do not. The ‘I’ surpasses the body, etc., simultaneously with the perception of objects, for the bodily conception does not exist with the perception of objects. Otherwise the two perceptions must be coeval.
“The contention may be set out that the eternal flash of the Self as ‘I’ is not apparent at the time of the perception of objects. If ‘I’ did not shine forth at the time, the objects would not be perceived just as they are invisible in the absence of light. Why is not the flash apparent? Perceptibility is always associated with insentient matter. Who else could see the self-luminosity of the Self? It cannot shine in absolute singleness and purity. However it is there as ‘I.’
“Moreover everyone feels ‘I see the objects.’ If it were not for the eternal being of ‘I,’ there would always arise the doubt if I am or if I am not—which is absurd.
“Nor should it be supposed that ‘I’ is of the body, at the time of perception of objects. For, perception implies the assumption of that shape by the intellect, as is evident when identifying the body with the Self?
“Nor again should it be said that at the time of perception ‘I am so and so, Chaitra,’—the Chaitra sense over-reaches the ‘I’ sense, but the ‘I’ sense is never lost by the Chaitra sense.
“There is the continuity of ‘I’ in deep slumber and in samâdhi. Otherwise after sleep a man would get up as somebody else.
“The concentration is possible that in deep sleep and samâdhi, the Self remains unqualified and therefore is not identical with the limited consciousness of the ego, ‘I,’ in the wakeful state. The answer is as follows: ‘I’, is of two kinds—qualified and unqualified. Qualification implies limitations whereas its absence implies its unlimited nature.
‘I’ is associated with limitations in dream and wake: full states, and it is free from them in deep slumber and samâdhi states.
“In that case is the ‘I’ in samâdhi or sleep associated with trifold division of subject, object and their relation? No! Being pure and single, it is unblemished and persists as ‘I-I,’ and nothing else. The same is Perfection.
25. “Whereas Her Majesty the Absolute Intelligence is ever resplendent as ‘I,’ therefore She is all and ever-knowing. You are She, in the abstract.
26. “Realize it yourself by turning your sight inward. You are only pure abstract Consciousness. Realize it this instant, for procrastination is not worthy of a good disciple. He should realize the Self at the moment of instruction.
27. “Your eyes are not meant by the aforesaid word sight. The mental eye is meant, for it is the eye of the eye, as is clear in dreams.
28. “To say that the sight is turned inward is appropriate because perception is possible only when the sight is turned towards the object.
29-31. “The sight must be turned away from other objects and fixed on a particular object in order to see it. Otherwise that object will not be perceived in entirety. The fact that the sight is not fixed on it is the same as not seeing it. Similarly is it with hearing, touch, etc.
32. “The same applies to the mind in its sensations of pain and pleasure, which are not felt if the mind is otherwise engaged.
33. “The other perceptions require the two conditions, namely, elimination of others and concentration on the one. But Self-Realization differs from them in that it requires only one condition: elimination of all perceptions.
34. “I shall tell you the reason for this. Although consciousness is unknowable, it is still realizable by pure mind.
35-45. “Even the learned are perplexed on this point. External perceptions of the mind are dependent on two conditions.
“The first is elimination of other perceptions and the second is fixation on the particular item of perception. If the mind is simply turned away from other perceptions, the mind is in an indifferent state, where there is absence of any kind of perception. Therefore concentration on
a particular item is necessary for the perception of external things. But since consciousness is the Self and not apart from the mind, concentration on it is not necessary for its realization. It is enough that other perceptions (namely, thoughts) should be eliminated from the mind and then the Self will be realized.
“If a man wants to pick out one particular image among a series of images passing in front of him as reflections on a mirror, he must turn his attention away from the rest of the pictures and fix it on that particular one.
“If on the other hand, he wants to see the space reflected it is enough that he turns away his attention from the pictures and the space manifests without any attention on his part, for, space is immanent everywhere and is already reflected there. However it has remained unnoticed because the interspatial images dominated the scene.
“Space being the supporter of all and immanent in all, becomes manifest if only the attention is diverted from the panorama. In the same way, consciousness is the supporter of all and is immanent in all and always remains perfect like space pervading the mind also. Diversion of attention from other items is all that is necessary for Self-Realization. Or do you say that the Self-illuminant can ever be absent from any nook or corner?
46. “There can indeed be no moment or spot from which consciousness is absent. Its absence means their absence also. Therefore consciousness of the Self becomes manifest by mere diversion of attention from things or thoughts.
47. “Realization of Self requires absolute purity only and no concentration of mind. For this reason, the Self is said to be unknowable (meaning not objectively knowable).
48. “Therefore it was also said that the sole necessity for SelfRealization is purity of mind. The only impurity of the mind is thought. To make it thought-free is to keep it pure.
Tripura Rahasya Page 12