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Ashtavakra Gita · 4 of 20

Chapter 4: Glory of the Realized

Ashtavakra said:

4.1. The wise person of self-knowledge, playing the game of worldly enjoyment, bears no resemblance whatever to samsara’s bewildered beasts of burden.

4.2. Truly the yogi feels no excitement even at being established in that state which all the Devas from Indra down yearn for disconsolately.

4.3. He who has known That is untouched within by good deeds or bad, just as space is not touched by smoke, however much it may appear to be.

4.4. Who can prevent the great-souled person who has known this whole world as himself from living as he pleases?

4.5. Of all four categories of beings, from Brahma down to the last clump of grass, only the man of knowledge is capable of eliminating desire and aversion.

4.6. Rare is the man who knows himself as the nondual Lord of the world, and he who knows this is not afraid of anything.

Asked of Guide

If the yogi is untouched by deeds, how does he act in the world?

The chapter says the wise person plays the game of worldly enjoyment while remaining inwardly untouched: “bears no resemblance whatever to samsara’s bewildered beasts of burden.” That means he participates — eats, speaks, helps, avoids harm — but those actions do not bind him because he knows himself as the nondual Lord of the world.

Ashtavakra presents that knowledge as elimination of desire and aversion, which frees action from compulsion and fear: “rare is the man who knows himself.” This echoes the Bhagavad Gita’s teaching that right action performed without attachment yields freedom.

Guide is the guide inside the Gnosis app, where every book on these shelves is free to read. Guide is the part you pay for — your guide has read all of them, and answers about the passage you’re actually on. Ask your guide your own question.