Selections of the “Ashtavakra Gita” Hindu scriptures

Here are a few selections of the “Ashtavakra Gita,” Hindu scriptures:

You are neither earth, water, fire, air or even ether. For liberation know yourself as consisting of consciousness, the witness of these five.
1.3

You do not belong to the brahmin or warrior or any other caste, you are not at any stage, nor are you anything that the eye can see. You are unattached and formless, the witness of everything – now be happy.
1.5

Righteousness and unrighteousness, pleasure and pain are purely of the mind and are no concern of yours. You are neither the doer nor the reaper of the consequences; you are always free.
1.6

You are the one witness of everything, and are always totally free. The cause of bondage is that one sees the witness as something other than this.
1.7

Since you have been bitten by that black snake of self-opinion-thinking foolishly that `I am the doer,´, now drink the nectar in the fact that “I am not the doer”, and now be happy.
1.8

Your real nature is one perfect, free, and actionless consciousness, the all-pervading witness – unattached to anything, desireless, at peace. It is illusion that you seem to be involved in any other matter.
1.12

As I alone give light to this body, so do I enlighten the world. As a result the whole world is mine, and, alternatively, nothing is.
2.2

From ignorance of oneself, the world appears, and by knowledge of oneself it appears no longer. From ignorance of the rope a snake appears, and by knowledge of the rope the snake appears no longer. Shining is my essential nature, and I am nothing over and beyond that. When the world shines forth, it is simply me that is shining forth.
2.8

All this, which has originated out of me, is resolved back into me too, like a gourd back into soil, a wave into water, and a bracelet into gold.
2.10

Knowledge, what is to be known, and the knower – these three do not exist in reality. I am the spotless reality in which they appear, spotted by ignorance.
2.15

Truly dualism is the root of suffering. There is no other remedy for it than the realisation that all this that one sees is unreal, and that I am the one stainless reality, consisting of consciousness.
2.16

I am pure awareness although through ignorance I have imagined myself to have additional attributes. By continually reflecting like this, my dwelling place is the Unimagined.
2.17

For me, here is neither bondage nor liberation. The illusion has lost its basis and ceased. Truly all this exists in me, though ultimately it does not even exist in me.
2.18

I have recognised that all this and my body are nothing, while my true self is nothing but pure consciousness- so what can the imagination work on now?
2.19

The body, heaven and hell, bondage and liberation, and fear too, all this is active imagination. What is there left to do for one whose very nature is consciousness?
2.20

I am not the body, nor is the body mine. I am not a living being. I am consciousness. It was my thirst for living that was my bondage.
2.22

Bondage is when the mind longs for something, grieves about something, rejects something, holds on to something, is pleased about something or displeased about something.
8.1

Liberation is when the mind does not long for anything, grieve about anything, reject anything, or hold on to anything, and is not pleased about anything or displeased about anything.
8.2

Bondage is when the mind is tangled in one of the senses, and liberation is when the mind is not tangled in any of the senses.
8.3

When there is no `me´, that is liberation, and when there is me there is bondage. Considering this earnestly, I do not hold on and do not reject.
8.4

Considerations like `I am this´ or `I am not this´ are finished for the mystic who has gone silent realising `Everything is myself´.
18.9

For the mystic who has found peace, there is no distraction or one-pointedness, no higher knowledge or ignorance, no pleasure and no pain.
18.10

Hazur Baba Kirpal Singhji Maharaja 1896-1774