Also called the Ashtavakra Samhita — a dialogue between the sage Ashtavakra and King Janaka of Videha on the nature of the Self

Ashtavakra Gita - The Song of Self-Realization

अष्टावक्र गीता

14 versesChapter 20

Verses · श्लोक

Verse 1THE FAMOUS opening of chapter twenty -- Janaka's final, most concentrated kva-refrain, fourteen verses building to the text's true close

chapter twenty opensfourteen verse kva sequencepañca mahābhūta dissolvedśūnya nairāśya also dissolvednirañjana mat svarūpa

क्व भूतानि क्व देहो वा क्वेन्द्रियाणि क्व वा मनः। क्व शून्यं क्व च नैराश्यं मत्स्वरूपे निरंजने॥२०-१॥

kva bhūtāni kva deho vā kvendriyāṇi kva vā manaḥ| kva śūnyaṁ kva ca nairāśyaṁ matsvarūpe niraṁjane||20-1||

Where are the elements, where the body? Where the senses, where even the mind? Where emptiness, where hopelessness -- in my own spotless, true nature?

Modern Reflection

Chapter twenty opens the Ashtavakra Gita's final, most concentrated sequence -- fourteen consecutive verses, every single one built entirely on the kva, where, refrain that chapters eighteen and nineteen have been developing with increasing intensity. This opening verse dissolves the five elements (bhūta), the body (deha), the senses (indriya), the mind (manas) -- the entire apparatus of embodied experience -- and then, strikingly, even śūnya, emptiness, and nairāśya, hopelessness or despair, categories a lesser teaching might treat as the spiritual goal itself. Mat-svarūpe nirañjane, in my own spotless true nature, is the refrain's anchor across all fourteen verses. An Indian reader encountering this chapter for the first time, perhaps at a funeral reading or a moment of profound loss, often reports being struck less by any single line than by the chapter's cumulative rhythm, question after question dissolving one more category, building toward a silence the words themselves are visibly straining toward.

Verse 2

śāstra dissolvedātma vijñāna dissolvednirviṣaya manaḥgata dvandvascripture as tool not destination

क्व शास्त्रं क्वात्मविज्ञानं क्व वा निर्विषयं मनः। क्व तृप्तिः क्व वितृष्णात्वं गतद्वन्द्वस्य मे सदा॥२०-२॥

kva śāstraṁ kvātmavijñānaṁ kva vā nirviṣayaṁ manaḥ| kva tṛptiḥ kva vitṛṣṇātvaṁ gatadvandvasya me sadā||20-2||

Where is scripture, where knowledge of the Self, or where the mind free of objects? Where satisfaction, where desirelessness, for me, always beyond the pairs of opposites?

Modern Reflection

Even śāstra, scripture, and ātma-vijñāna, knowledge of the Self, the two pillars the entire Ashtavakra Gita has rested on as teaching-tool and teaching-content, are dissolved here, alongside nirviṣaya manaḥ, the object-free mind cultivated through advanced meditation, and even tṛpti-vitṛṣṇātva, satisfaction and the very state of desirelessness itself. Gata-dvandva, one who has gone beyond the pairs of opposites, is the verse's summary self-description, an achievement chapter eighteen spent a hundred verses building toward, now simply stated as Janaka's constant condition. An Indian sannyasi who has burned his own collection of scriptures in old age, not out of disrespect but because they had finally, fully done their work, offers a dramatic literal echo of kva śāstram, where is scripture, the question that opens this verse.

Verse 3

svarūpasya kva rūpitābeyond neti netividyā avidyā dissolvedaham idam mamaessential nature resists all characterization

क्व विद्या क्व च वाविद्या क्वाहं क्वेदं मम क्व वा। क्व बन्धः क्व च वा मोक्षः स्वरूपस्य क्व रूपिता॥२०-३॥

kva vidyā kva ca vāvidyā kvāhaṁ kvedaṁ mama kva vā| kva bandhaḥ kva ca vā mokṣaḥ svarūpasya kva rūpitā||20-3||

Where is knowledge, where ignorance? Where I, where this, where mine? Where bondage, where liberation? For my own true nature, where is there any characterization at all?

Modern Reflection

This verse dissolves the very ground on which the entire teaching has stood: vidyā-avidyā, knowledge and ignorance, the pair whose overcoming was the whole point of the dialogue, alongside aham-idam-mama, I-this-mine, the basic pronominal apparatus by which any self locates itself relative to its world. Svarūpasya kva rūpitā, where is there any characterization of one's own true nature at all, is the verse's final, most radical turn: not just dissolving pairs of opposites but denying that svarūpa, one's own essential nature, admits of rūpa, form or characterization, in the first place. An Indian philosopher asked to finally define, in one clean sentence, what the Self actually is, after a lifetime of study, might, in the spirit of this verse, simply fall silent, recognizing that any definition offered would itself already be a rūpitā, a characterization, that svarūpa by definition exceeds.

Verse 4

prārabdha karmajīvan mukti videha kaivalyaJīvanmuktivivekanirviśeṣaliberation map not the territory

क्व प्रारब्धानि कर्माणि जीवन्मुक्तिरपि क्व वा। क्व तद् विदेहकैवल्यं निर्विशेषस्य सर्वदा॥२०-४॥

kva prārabdhāni karmāṇi jīvanmuktirapi kva vā| kva tad videhakaivalyaṁ nirviśeṣasya sarvadā||20-4||

Where are the karmas already set in motion? Where even liberation-while-living? Where that final bodiless isolation? For the one always beyond all distinction.

Modern Reflection

This verse dissolves the classical technical stages of liberation itself: prārabdha karma, the portion of past action already set in motion and destined to play out even after realization, jīvan-mukti, liberation while still embodied, and videha-kaivalya, final disembodied isolation at death -- the entire elaborate soteriological map classical Advaita constructs to describe liberation's stages and aftermath. Nirviśeṣa, beyond all distinction or particularity, is what remains once even this map is set aside. An Indian scholar of Advaita who has carefully studied the technical distinctions between jīvan-mukti and videha-mukti across multiple commentarial traditions, able to debate exactly when one gives way to the other, ultimately needs, in the spirit of this verse, to recognize that Janaka's actual condition does not consult this map at all, resting instead in nirviśeṣa prior to any staged account of liberation's unfolding.

Verse 5

kartṛ bhoktṛ dissolvedaparokṣa phalaparokṣa versus aparokṣa jñānaniḥsvabhāva recalledchecking for fruit also released

क्व कर्ता क्व च वा भोक्ता निष्क्रियं स्फुरणं क्व वा। क्वापरोक्षं फलं वा क्व निःस्वभावस्य मे सदा॥२०-५॥

kva kartā kva ca vā bhoktā niṣkriyaṁ sphuraṇaṁ kva vā| kvāparokṣaṁ phalaṁ vā kva niḥsvabhāvasya me sadā||20-5||

Where is the doer, where the enjoyer? Where even inactive, pure radiance? Where direct, immediate fruit, for me, always devoid of any fixed nature?

Modern Reflection

This verse dissolves kartṛ-bhoktṛ, doer and enjoyer, the fundamental categories chapter eighteen's verse fifty-one identified as generating citta-vṛtti, mental restlessness, along with niṣkriya sphuraṇa, inactive radiance itself, the very state of pure witnessing consciousness so many verses have carefully built toward describing. Even aparokṣa phala, the direct fruit of realization, the immediate, non-mediated result that all this spiritual effort was supposedly pursuing, joins the dissolved list. Niḥsvabhāva, devoid of fixed nature, closes the verse, echoing chapter eighteen's verse seventy-nine, confirming that Janaka's condition resists definition down to its final, most refined philosophical description. An Indian seeker who has spent years anxious about whether their practice has yielded genuine aparokṣa-jñāna, direct experiential knowledge, as opposed to mere intellectual understanding, might find in this verse permission to release even that anxiety, since the very category of fruit to be checked for has itself dissolved.

Verse 6

loka mumukṣu yogī jñānavān baddha muktasva svarūpe aham advayedramatis personae of spiritual pursuitrare direct declarativeadvaya

क्व लोकं क्व मुमुक्षुर्वा क्व योगी ज्ञानवान् क्व वा। क्व बद्धः क्व च वा मुक्तः स्वस्वरूपेऽहमद्वये॥२०-६॥

kva lokaṁ kva mumukṣurvā kva yogī jñānavān kva vā| kva baddhaḥ kva ca vā muktaḥ svasvarūpe'hamadvaye||20-6||

Where is the world, where the one desiring liberation? Where the yogi, where the one possessed of knowledge? Where the bound, where the liberated? I am in my own true, non-dual nature.

Modern Reflection

This verse dissolves the entire cast of characters the spiritual path assumes: loka, the world as arena of striving, mumukṣu, the seeker, yogī and jñānavān, the practitioner and the knower, and finally baddha-mukta, bound and liberated themselves. Sva-svarūpe aham advaye, I am in my own non-dual true nature, is the verse's declarative anchor, shifting from questions to a rare direct first-person statement of identity. An Indian pilgrim standing before a famous shrine after decades of seeking, realizing there is no longer a mumukṣu, seeker, distinct from what was sought, no yogī practicing toward a jñānī's attainment, only advaya, the single non-dual reality that was never actually divided into these roles, has arrived at what this verse is describing -- not a new state achieved but the recognition that the entire cast of characters in the spiritual drama was always, secretly, one.

Verse 7

sādhya sādhana sādhaka siddhifour term set completedsṛṣṭi saṁhāracosmic and personal scale equalmacrocosm microcosm

क्व सृष्टिः क्व च संहारः क्व साध्यं क्व च साधनं। क्व साधकः क्व सिद्धिर्वा स्वस्वरूपेऽहमद्वये॥२०-७॥

kva sṛṣṭiḥ kva ca saṁhāraḥ kva sādhyaṁ kva ca sādhanaṁ| kva sādhakaḥ kva siddhirvā svasvarūpe'hamadvaye||20-7||

Where is creation, where dissolution? Where the goal, where the means? Where the practitioner, where accomplishment itself? I am in my own true, non-dual nature.

Modern Reflection

This verse takes the sādhya-sādhana pairing chapter eighteen's verse sixty-six first introduced and now completes the set with sādhaka, the practitioner performing the sādhana, and siddhi, the accomplishment or attainment resulting from it -- dissolving the entire causal chain of spiritual effort: someone practicing something toward some goal in order to achieve some result. Sṛṣṭi-saṁhāra, creation and dissolution, the cosmic cycle itself, opens the verse, suggesting even the largest possible framework, the birth and death of universes, belongs to the same dissolved category as personal spiritual striving. An Indian practitioner who has spent decades performing elaborate sādhana toward siddhi, spiritual attainment, tracking progress meticulously, might recognize in this verse the entire apparatus of practitioner-practice-goal-attainment as itself one more construction, however useful along the way, now simply set down.

Verse 8

pramātṛ pramāṇa prameya pramāNyaya epistemology dissolvedkiñcit na kiñcitvimalacondition not an object of knowledge

क्व प्रमाता प्रमाणं वा क्व प्रमेयं क्व च प्रमा। क्व किंचित् क्व न किंचिद् वा सर्वदा विमलस्य मे॥२०-८॥

kva pramātā pramāṇaṁ vā kva prameyaṁ kva ca pramā| kva kiṁcit kva na kiṁcid vā sarvadā vimalasya me||20-8||

Where is the knower, where the means of knowing? Where the object known, where valid knowledge itself? Where something, where nothing at all, for me, always stainless?

Modern Reflection

This verse dissolves the fourfold epistemological apparatus of classical Indian logic, pramātṛ (the knowing subject), pramāṇa (the valid means of knowledge, perception, inference, testimony), prameya (the object to be known), and pramā (valid knowledge itself, the resulting cognition) -- the entire framework Nyaya and other schools use to analyze how anything can be known at all. Even kiñcit-na-kiñcit, something and nothing, existence and non-existence themselves, dissolve into vimala, stainlessness, the verse's anchor here. An Indian logician who has spent years mastering pramāṇa-śāstra, the science of valid knowledge, debating exactly how perception differs from inference in establishing truth, eventually needs to recognize that this entire epistemological machinery, however rigorous, is itself a construction within the field it claims to examine, and that vimala, Janaka's stainless nature, was never actually an object requiring any pramāṇa to establish it.

Verse 9

vikṣepa aikāgrya dissolvedniṣkriyacitta vṛtti nirodha transcendedmeditation scale does not measure thisnirbodha mūḍhatā

क्व विक्षेपः क्व चैकाग्र्यं क्व निर्बोधः क्व मूढता। क्व हर्षः क्व विषादो वा सर्वदा निष्क्रियस्य मे॥२०-९॥

kva vikṣepaḥ kva caikāgryaṁ kva nirbodhaḥ kva mūḍhatā| kva harṣaḥ kva viṣādo vā sarvadā niṣkriyasya me||20-9||

Where is distraction, where one-pointedness? Where clear understanding, where dullness? Where joy, where despondency, for me, always free of activity?

Modern Reflection

This verse pairs vikṣepa-aikāgrya, distraction and one-pointed concentration, the very axis every meditation technique is built to move along, one end toward the other, and dissolves the entire axis rather than simply endorsing the preferred end. Nirbodha-mūḍhatā, clear understanding and dullness, and harṣa-viṣāda, joy and despondency, extend this refusal to privilege either pole of any pair the mind ordinarily ranks as better or worse. Niṣkriya, free of activity, is the striking closing claim, suggesting even mental effort itself, the striving to concentrate rather than remain distracted, belongs to a level of engagement Janaka's actual condition no longer participates in. An Indian meditation teacher who has spent decades training students to move from vikṣepa toward aikāgrya, distraction toward concentration, might recognize in old age that his own deepest peace no longer requires that movement at all, resting in something the entire concentration-distraction spectrum simply does not reach.

Verse 10

vyavahāra paramārtha dissolvedtwo truths doctrine itself provisionalnirvimarśarope snake ladder discardedAdvaita's own method transcended

क्व चैष व्यवहारो वा क्व च सा परमार्थता। क्व सुखं क्व च वा दुःखं निर्विमर्शस्य मे सदा॥२०-१०॥

kva caiṣa vyavahāro vā kva ca sā paramārthatā| kva sukhaṁ kva ca vā duḥkhaṁ nirvimarśasya me sadā||20-10||

Where indeed is this ordinary transaction, and where that ultimate reality as a separate category? Where happiness, where sorrow, for me, always beyond deliberation?

Modern Reflection

This verse dissolves vyavahāra-paramārtha, the ordinary transactional level of reality and the ultimate level, precisely the two-tiered framework Advaita Vedanta itself relies on to explain how the empirical world can be provisionally real while Brahman alone is ultimately real. That Janaka dissolves even this foundational Advaitic distinction is a striking, almost self-undermining final move, suggesting the two-truths framework, however useful for teaching, was itself only ever a vyavahārika device, valid at the level it operates on but not itself an ultimate feature of reality. Nirvimarśa, beyond deliberation or reflective analysis, closes the verse, describing a condition prior to the very act of philosophically distinguishing levels of truth. An Indian Vedanta teacher who has spent a lifetime carefully explaining the vyavahārika-pāramārthika distinction to students might, at this final stage, need to acknowledge that the distinction itself, useful scaffolding throughout the teaching, ultimately falls away along with everything else.

Verse 11

jīva brahma dissolvedmahāvākya transcendedtat tvam asi beyondmāyā saṁsāra prīti viratiidentity statement itself outgrown

क्व माया क्व च संसारः क्व प्रीतिर्विरतिः क्व वा। क्व जीवः क्व च तद्ब्रह्म सर्वदा विमलस्य मे॥२०-११॥

kva māyā kva ca saṁsāraḥ kva prītirviratiḥ kva vā| kva jīvaḥ kva ca tadbrahma sarvadā vimalasya me||20-11||

Where is māyā, where saṁsāra? Where attraction, where its cessation? Where the individual soul, where that Brahman? For me, always stainless.

Modern Reflection

This verse dissolves even jīva-brahma, the individual soul and the absolute, the very terms whose eventual recognized identity, jīvo brahmaiva nāparaḥ, the individual soul is nothing but Brahman, constitutes Advaita's central and most celebrated declaration. That this verse dissolves even this culminating equation, rather than simply asserting it, marks the sequence's deepest possible point: not the affirmation jīva equals Brahman but the dissolution of jīva and Brahman as separate terms requiring any relationship, equation or otherwise, to be stated between them. Māyā-saṁsāra, the cosmic illusion and the resulting cycle of bondage, and prīti-virati, attraction and its renunciation, are dissolved alongside, completing a comprehensive sweep of Advaita's entire technical vocabulary. An Indian student who has spent years memorizing mahāvākyas, the great Upanishadic identity-statements like tat tvam asi, that thou art, eventually needs to recognize that even these celebrated equations were teaching devices pointing toward a recognition beyond needing any equation stated at all.

Verse 12

kūṭasthanirvibhāgaanvil metaphorpravṛtti nivṛtti bandhana mukti final dissolutionnever actually divided

क्व प्रवृत्तिर्निर्वृत्तिर्वा क्व मुक्तिः क्व च बन्धनं। कूटस्थनिर्विभागस्य स्वस्थस्य मम सर्वदा॥२०-१२॥

kva pravṛttirnirvṛttirvā kva muktiḥ kva ca bandhanaṁ| kūṭasthanirvibhāgasya svasthasya mama sarvadā||20-12||

Where is engaged action, where its cessation? Where liberation, where bondage? For me -- unmoving, undivided, always established in myself.

Modern Reflection

This verse returns, for what may be the final time in the sequence, to pravṛtti-nivṛtti, engaged action and withdrawal, and mukti-bandhana, liberation and bondage, the very categories chapter eighteen's verse sixty-one first examined and now dissolved completely rather than merely reversed. Kūṭastha, unmoving as an anvil or a fixed peak, and nirvibhāga, undivided, without parts, together describe Janaka's condition in purely structural, almost geometric terms, a stability that has nothing to do with successfully choosing engagement over withdrawal or liberation over bondage, and everything to do with never having been divided in the way those categories assume. An Indian craftsman working at an anvil, the very image kūṭastha invokes, remains perfectly still and unmoved regardless of how many hammer-blows land upon it, offering a concrete, physical picture of the stability this abstract philosophical term is reaching for.

Verse 13

upadeśa śāstra śiṣya guru dissolvedself referential culminationpuruṣārtha itself dissolvednirupādhiteaching relationship as scaffolding

क्वोपदेशः क्व वा शास्त्रं क्व शिष्यः क्व च वा गुरुः। क्व चास्ति पुरुषार्थो वा निरुपाधेः शिवस्य मे॥२०-१३॥

kvopadeśaḥ kva vā śāstraṁ kva śiṣyaḥ kva ca vā guruḥ| kva cāsti puruṣārtho vā nirupādheḥ śivasya me||20-13||

Where is instruction, where scripture? Where the disciple, where even the teacher? Where is there even a purpose of human life, for me, free of all limiting conditions, auspicious?

Modern Reflection

This penultimate verse of the entire text performs its most audacious and moving dissolution yet: upadeśa-śāstra, teaching and scripture, and śiṣya-guru, disciple and teacher, the very relationship that constitutes the entire dramatic frame of the Ashtavakra Gita, Ashtavakra instructing Janaka across twenty chapters, is here dissolved by Janaka himself, the student, in his own concluding words. Puruṣārtha, the very concept of a human life-goal, whether dharma, artha, kāma, or mokṣa, joins the dissolution. Nirupādhi, free of upādhi, limiting adjunct or conditioning circumstance, and śiva, auspicious, describe what remains. An Indian disciple who has just completed years of study under a beloved guru, and who now recognizes in a moment of genuine arrival that guru and śiṣya, teacher and student, were themselves temporary roles serving a purpose now fulfilled, experiences something of this verse's quiet, grateful dissolution of the very relationship that made the realization possible.

Verse 14THE FAMOUS true final verse of the Ashtavakra Gita -- the last word of the entire text, immediately followed by the closing colophon Om tat sat

true final verse 298asti nāsti ekam dvayam dissolvedadvaita's own name transcendedkiñcit na uttiṣṭhate mamabahu na atra kim uktena final timecolophon om tat sat confirms close

क्व चास्ति क्व च वा नास्ति क्वास्ति चैकं क्व च द्वयं। बहुनात्र किमुक्तेन किंचिन्नोत्तिष्ठते मम॥२०-१४॥

kva cāsti kva ca vā nāsti kvāsti caikaṁ kva ca dvayaṁ| bahunātra kimuktena kiṁcinnottiṣṭhate mama||20-14||

Where is there existence, where non-existence? Where oneness, where duality? Why say much more on this? Nothing at all arises for me.

Modern Reflection

This is the true final verse of the Ashtavakra Gita, verse 298 in continuous count, chapter 20 verse 14 in the traditional per-chapter numbering, confirmed as the text's genuine close by the colophon iti aṣṭāvakragītā samāptā, om tat sat, thus the Ashtavakra Gita is concluded, om, that is truth, immediately following it in every manuscript and printed edition consulted. The verse's final dissolution, asti-nāsti, existence and non-existence, and ekam-dvayam, oneness and duality itself, the very foundational binary Advaita's own name rests on, a-dvaita, not-two, is followed by the text's own weary, almost affectionate closing gesture, bahu na atra kim uktena, why say much more on this, before its true final four words: kiñcit na uttiṣṭhate mama, nothing at all arises for me. An Indian reader who has followed the entire text from Janaka's opening question, how is knowledge attained, through twenty chapters of increasingly refined teaching, arrives here at a silence the text itself names rather than merely performs -- not eloquent silence but the simple, plain fact that for Janaka, nothing further needs to rise up, be sought, or be said.

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