अष्टावक्र गीता is a 20-chapter dialogue of uncompromising अद्वैत, moving through questions, recognition, and the quiet stabilization of freedom. The teacher's method is simple but sharp: repeatedly separate the knower from the known, until identification with the body-mind loosens and the Self is recognized as ever-present awareness.
In the previous chapters, the dialogue has already shifted the ground under ordinary life. Chapter 1 points जनक to the witness (साक्षी) and warns against compulsive attachment to विषयs and even to special experiences. Chapter 2 expresses recognition through metaphors like wave-water and rope-snake, loosening fear and ownership.
Seen as a whole, Chapter 6 is a chapter of "effortless correctness." It does not deny practice; it clarifies what practice is for. When the truth is clearly known - "I am like space; the world is like a pot," "I am the ocean; the world is a wave," "I am the shell; the world is imagined silver" - then the mind does not need to keep performing extremes.
जनक उवाच ॥
आकाशवदनंतोऽहं घटवत् प्राकृतं जगत् ।
इति ज्ञानं तथैतस्य न त्यागो न ग्रहो लयः ॥ 6-1॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
Janaka said: I am infinite like space, and the world is a natural appearance like a pot. With this understanding, for me there is no renunciation, no grasping, and no deliberate dissolution.
महोदधिरिवाहं स प्रपंचो वीचिसन्निभः ।
इति ज्ञानं तथैतस्य न त्यागो न ग्रहो लयः ॥ 6-2॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
I am like the great ocean, and the world is like a wave. With this understanding, for me there is no renunciation, no grasping, and no deliberate dissolution.
अहं स शुक्तिसंकाशो रूप्यवद् विश्वकल्पना ।
इति ज्ञानं तथैतस्य न त्यागो न ग्रहो लयः ॥ 6-3॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
I am like mother-of-pearl, and the world is like silver imagined on it. With this understanding, for me there is no renunciation, no grasping, and no deliberate dissolution.
अहं वा सर्वभूतेषु सर्वभूतान्यथो मयि ।
इति ज्ञानं तथैतस्य न त्यागो न ग्रहो लयः ॥ 6-4॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
Either I am in all beings, or all beings are in me. With this understanding, for me there is no renunciation, no grasping, and no deliberate dissolution.
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