Ashtavakra Gita


The Ashtavakra Gita or the Song of Ashtavakra is a classical scripture. It is written as a dialogue between the sage Ashtavakra and Janak, king of Mithila.

Dating

, an Indian social scientist, dated the book to the period immediately after the Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita. J. L. Brockington, emeritus professor of Sanskrit at the University of Edinburgh, places the Ashtavakra Gita much later, supposing it to have been written either in the eighth century CE by a follower of Shankara, or in the fourteenth century during a resurgence of Shankara's teaching. Sri Swami Shantananda Puri suggests that since the book contains the seed of the theory of non-creation Ajata Vada developed later by Gaudapada in Mandookya Karika, this book comes from a period prior to that of Gaudapada and hence prior to Adi Shankara.

Identification of Ashtavakra

is probably identical to the holy sage with the same name who appears in Mahabharata, though the connection is not clearly stated in any of the texts. Mukherjee identifies Janaka as the father of Sita and disciple of the sage Yajnavalkya in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. Janaka is also depicted as a king who has attained perfection in the Bhagavad Gita.

Contents

Overview

Ashtavakra Gita is a dialogue between Ashtavakra and Janaka on the nature of soul, reality and bondage. It offers a radical version of non-dualistic philosophy. The Gita insists on the complete unreality of external world and absolute oneness of existence. It does not mention any morality or duties, and therefore is seen by commentators as 'godless'. It also dismisses names and forms as unreal and a sign of ignorance.
In a conversation between Janaka and Ashtavakra, pertaining to the deformity of his crooked body, Ashtavakra explains that the size of a Temple is not affected by how it is shaped, and the shape of his own body does not affect himself. The ignorant man's vision is shrouded by names and forms, but a wise man sees only himself:

Structure

The book comprises 20 chapters:
The work was known, appreciated and quoted by Ramakrishna and his disciple Vivekananda, as well as Ramana Maharshi. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan refers to it with great respect.
Ashtavakra Gita continues to inspire people. The first musical form of Ashtavakra Gita Saksi I was set in the raga Svadhya by Composer Rajan.

Translations and commentaries

Nath opened the discourse of this Gita into the English language. Radhakamal Mukerjee continued the discourse into English with his work posthumously published in 1971. Stroud wrote on the Astavakra Gita as a work of multivalent narrative.
Swami Chinmayananda wrote a commentary on the Ashtavakra Gita, which has references to the Upanishads to help convey the meaning of the text.
Osho has given commentary on Ashtavakra Gita in a long series of 91 discourses named as Ashtavakra Mahageeta, given in his Pune Ashram.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has given commentary on Ashtavakra Gita in Hindi and English Language.

Original text

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