Self Realisation

[ashokjain]

Intensely yearning to know the highest truth, King Janaka sought all over his vast realm, among some of the most renowned scholars and pundits of the world, for a fully-realized being who had the spiritual power to instruct him in the highest wisdom. He could find none. But King Janaka's pure heart and anguished plea alerted the universal teacher to reveal himself and seek out the king.

One day, a young boy with a severely misshapen body appeared in the royal hall. It was during the time of a convocation called by the king to discuss the highest spiritual wisdom. The boy was obviously very poor and had on only a simple loin cloth. No one knew anything about his qualifications or why he was there, except that he had waited patiently for many days outside the palace walls requesting to be admitted to take part in the spiritual discussions. A kindly old scholar had seen him waiting by the door day after day and had mentioned him to the king. The king sent for the boy. His name was Astavakra, meaning the one with eight bends in his body.

When the assembly of great scholars saw Astavakra enter the hall they all laughed at his crooked appearance. But King Janaka did not laugh. He saw the deep inner peace surrounding Astavakra, and he saw the great dignity and self-confidence with which this young boy deported himself in such an august gathering. Most of all, the king was profoundly moved by the insightful answers Astavakra gave to all the spiritual questions that were posed to him. King Janaka realized that standing before him was a fully-awakened mahatma, a great soul luminous in wisdom and self-knowledge. Here in this unexpected form, was the true teacher he had been so fervently yearning for, the one who could impart to him the mystical knowledge of how to become free from the bondage of ignorance and illusion and end the cycle of birth and death.

[ashokjain]

With great humility, the king implored Astavakra to show him the way to enlightenment. Astavakra told the king that a king's palace was not the right setting for such sacred instruction. He asked the king to divest himself of all his royal paraphernalia, don some simple hermit's cloth and follow him to the forest. They left the royal city far behind and reached the serene surroundings of the forest. There, in a glade, Janaka prostrated to Astavakra and in a reverential tone said to him:

My Lord, please tell me, how does self-realization happen? How is liberation attained? How is the supreme knowledge of the absolute acquired?

Astavakra was very pleased with Janaka's one-pointed desire to know the truth. In answer to Janaka's fervent request, Astavakra began his discourse wherein he expounded to Janaka the ultimate truth of the infinite. Astavakra said:


My dear child, if you aspire after liberation turn away from your attraction to the five elements and the objects of the senses. Abandon your attachment to these, as you would shun poison. You are in no way connected with them. Fill yourself with the virtues of forgiveness, kindness, sincerity and contentment. Let these be your nectar, let these be your prime sustenance.

You are not made up of earth, water, fire, air or space. You are not the body. Nor are you the mind. You are not a particular name or form. You are not a member of a particular family or tribe. You are not connected with any nation or culture. You are not in any way related to the things of this world. You are not perceivable by the gross or the subtle senses. You are the witness of all these. You are the immortal self, the universal consciousness.

Once you detach yourself from the body and abide in pure awareness, you become your true self, ever peaceful, eternally happy. To know who you really are is liberation.

Concepts of right or wrong, virtue or vice, doing or enjoying, pleasure or pain are all of the mind. They are not of you. You are the self-luminous one, the one seer of all. You are forever free. Verily this has been your bondage that you have identified yourself as the doer rather than as the seer, the pure witness.

[ashokjain]

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