Chapter XVI: Special Instruction

#	Sanskrit Original	Translation by Bart Marshall	Translation by John Richards	Translation by Swami Nityaswarupananda
16.1	अष्टावक्र उवाच। आचक्ष्व शृणु वा तात नानाशास्त्राण्यनेकशः। तथापि न तव स्वास्थ्यं सर्वविस्मरणादृते॥	Ashtavakra said: You can recite and discuss scripture all you want, but until you drop everything you will never know Truth.	Ashtavakra: My son, you may recite or listen to countless scriptures, but you will not be established within until you can forget everything.	Ashtavakra said: My child, you may often speak upon various scriptures or hear them. But you cannot be established in the Self unless you forget all.
16.2	भोगं कर्म समाधिं वा कुरु विज्ञ तथापि ते। चित्तं निरस्तसर्वाशमत्यर्थं रोचयिष्यति॥	You can enjoy and work and meditate, but you will still yearn for That which is beyond all experience, and in which all desires are extinguished.	You may, as a learned man, indulge in wealth, activity and meditation, but your mind will still long for that which is the cessation of desire, and beyond all goals.	O Sage, you may enjoy, or work, or practise mental concentration. But your mind will still yearn for That which is beyond all objects and in which all desires are extinguished.
16.3	आयासात्सकलो दुःखी नैनं जानाति कश्चन। अनेनैवोपदेशेन धन्यः प्राप्नोति निर्वृतिम्॥	Everyone is miserable because they exert constant effort. But no one understands this. A ripe mind can become unshackled upon hearing this one instruction.	Everyone is in pain because of their own effort, but no-one realises it. By just this very instruction, the lucky one attains tranquillity.	All are unhappy because they exert themselves. But none knows this. The blessed one attains emancipation through this very instruction.
16.4	व्यापारे खिद्यते यस्तु निमेषोन्मेषयोरपि। तस्यालस्यधुरीणस्य सुखं नान्यस्य कस्यचित्॥	The master idler, to whom even blinking is a bother, is happy. But he is the only one.	Happiness belongs to no-one but that supremely lazy man for whom even opening and closing his eyes is a bother.	Happiness belongs to that master idler to whom even the closing and opening of eyelids is an affliction, to none else.
16.5	इदं कृतमिदं नेति द्वन्द्वैर्मुक्तं यदा मनः। धर्मार्थकाममोक्षेषु निरपेक्षं तदा भवेत्॥	When the mind is free of opposites like "This is done", and "This is yet undone", one becomes indifferent to merit, wealth, pleasure and liberation.	When the mind is freed from such pairs of opposites as, "I have done this", and "I have not done that", it becomes indifferent to merit, wealth, sensuality and liberation.	When the mind is free from such pairs of opposites as 'this is done' and 'this is not done', it becomes indifferent to religious merit, worldly prosperity, sensual enjoyment and liberation.
16.6	विरक्तो विषयद्वेष्टा रागी विषयलोलुपः। ग्रहमोक्षविहीनस्तु न विरक्तो न रागवान्॥	One who abhors sense objects avoids them. One who desires them becomes ensnared. One who neither abhors nor desires is neither detached nor attached.	One man is abstemious and averse to the senses, another is greedy and attached to them, but he who is free from both taking and rejecting is neither abstemious nor greedy.	One who abhors the sense-objects, becomes non-attached, and one who covets them, becomes attached to them. But he who does not accept or reject, is neither unattached nor attached.
16.7	हेयोपादेयता तावत्संसारविटपांकुरः। स्पृहा जीवति यावद्वै निर्विचारदशास्पदम्॥	As long as there is desire - which is the absence of discrimination - there will be attachment and non-attachment. This is the cause of the world.	So long as desire, which is the state of lack of discrimination, remains, the sense of revulsion and attraction will remain, which is the root and branch of samsara.	As long as desire which is the abode of the state of indiscrimination continues, there will verily be the sense of attachment and aversion, which is the branch and sprout of the (tree of) Samsara.
16.8	प्रवृत्तौ जायते रागो निवृत्तौ द्वेष एव हि। निर्द्वन्द्वो बालवद्धीमानेवमेव व्यवस्थितः॥	Indulgence creates attachment. Aversion creates abstinence. Like a child, the sage is free of both and thus lives on as a child.	Desire springs from usage, and aversion from abstension, but the wise man is free from the pairs of opposites like a child, and becomes established.	Activity begets attachment, abstention from it aversion. The man of wisdom is free from the pairs of opposites like a child, and he lives on verily as such.
16.9	हातुमिच्छति संसारं रागी दुःखजिहासया। वीतरागो हि निर्दुःखस्तस्मिन्नपि न खिद्यति॥	One who is attached to the world thinks renouncing it will relieve his misery. One who is attached to nothing is free and does not feel miserable even in the world.	The passionate man wants to be rid of samsara so as to avoid pain, but the dispassionate man is free from pain and feels no distress even in it.	One who is attached to the world wants to renounce it in order to avoid sorrow. But one without attachment is free from sorrow and does not feel miserable even there.
16.10	यस्याभिमानो मोक्षेऽपि देहेऽपि ममता तथा। न च ज्ञानी न वा योगी केवलं दुःखभागसौ॥	He who claims liberation as his own, as an attainment of a person, is neither enlightened nor a seeker. He suffers his own misery.	He who is proud about even liberation or his own body, and feels them his own, is neither a seer nor a yogi. He is still just a sufferer.	He who has an egoistic feeling even towards liberation and considers even the body as his own, is neither a Jnani nor a Yogi. He only suffers misery.
16.11	हरो यद्युपदेष्टा ते हरिः कमलजोऽपि वा। तथापि न तव स्वास्थ्यं सर्वविस्मरणादृते॥	Though Hara, Hari or the lotus-born Brahma himself instruct you, until you know nothing you will never know Self.	If even Shiva, Vishnu or the lotus-born Brahma were your instructor, until you have forgotten everything you cannot be established within.	Let even Hara, Hari or the lotus-born Brahma be your instructor, but unless you forget all, you cannot be established in the Self.