Ashtavakra Gita

   we have a number  of spiritual texts and it may fairly well be said that there is nothing to beat the Ashtavakra Gita in analyzing the ultimate Truth. Ashtavakra Gita is far excellent and a few other that may well be considered here are the Avadhuta Gita, Vashishta Gita, Uddhava Gita, and, of course, the Bhagavad-Gita. Ashtavakra Gita may be considered a continuation of the Bhagavad-Gita and the ultimate realization of What Bhagavan Sri Krishna says. 

   Just similar to the Bhagavad-Gita, the Ashtavakra Gita dwells on the ultimate reality{ "thou art that", tat tvam asi | The term 'tat' or 'tyat' is 'brahmn'.  Brahmn is the 'One' that has no name, form or f unction and, as such, inexplicable.Even to name it is not possible since there are no syllables, alphabets to use and spell it. Hence it is inexplicable and can not be defined as such and such. Whoever wants to know this 'Truth', this 'brahmn', this inexplicable 'One', will seek the Guru. The Guru, like an electrician, linesman who connects the wires to flow power from the Pole in the street to the Meter Board in the house, will get light.It is this Guru, Sri Krishna who is enlightening Arjuna in the Bhagavad-Gita and it is Ashtavakra enlightening King Janaka, The central idea is thus 'enlightenment',  the realization of the 'Self'. The term 'tvam is the jivatman here represented by Arjuna in the Gita and the King Janaka in the Ashtavakra Gita. The ultimate truth is 'brahmn'. This truth is realized by means of  'yoga'. Here 'yuj' is the welding power and it brings the union of atman with paramatman (asi). The 'asi' apsect of 'tatvamasi' is the teaching of Sri Krishna as Yogacharya and He gives alternate means of realization of the Self, such as, the karma marga, bhakti marga, the jnyan marga, the dhyana marga, and the ultimate surrender- sharanagati marga.  

  But, there is a significant departure from the conventional approach to this spiritual development here in the Ashtavakra Gita.  Ashtavakra Gita does not say anything about 'dos' and 'don'ts'. It advocates total silence, totality of existence, established in the 'Self'.

  There is a very beautiful introduction by Prof. Satkari Mookerji to the "Ashtavakra Samhita' presented by Swami Nityasvarupananda, published by Advaita Ashrama. Kolkata. Prof. Mookerji says, "(Ashtavakra Samhita) is not a philosophical treatise in the technical sense of the term. It does not care to call in aid the intellectual resources which are the only stock-in-trade of all philosophical dissertations. We find in it, on the contrary, an unfoldment of the ultimate Truth, which is the final objective of philosophy, but which for ever eludes its grasp. Philosophy..... falls short of the direct realization of the 'Truth'. For direct realization the spiritual aspirant must undergo a course of sadhana under the guidance of a guru who has himself gone through the grind and envisaged the Truth face to face.   

    "The Self (Atman) alone is real and all 'not-Self' is appearance. The false identification of the Self with the 'not-Self' is the cause of bondage. Bondage is thus due to ignorance of the real nature of the Self, and freedom is attained as soon as the ignorance disappears on the dawn of self-realization.....The existence of an 'other' (then the Self) is the cause of all our worry and unhappiness".

  "In reality, the Self (Atman) is always free; freedom is not attained, but simply realized and discovered." (SM)