"You are not earth, water, fire, air or space. To attain that Liberation, know the Self as the witness of these, the pure form of Consciousness of Existence."
In this newly published book, Shri Babaji gives His commentary on the “Ashtavakra Samhita”, one of the great spiritual texts of India, a dialogue between the Self-Realized sage Ashtavakra and His disciple King Janaka on the nature of the mind, bondage, unreality of the world and the reality, the absolute Truth, the Self.
Here is an excerpt from the book:
Ashtavakra:
3. You are not earth, water, fire, air or space. To attain that Liberation, know the Self as the witness of these, the pure form of Consciousness of Existence.
4. If you can separate yourself from the body and remain settled in that Pure Consciousness you will be instantly happy, at peace, free of all bondage.
Babaji’s Commentary:
Ashtavakra says you are not earth, water, fire, air or space. As the body and universe is made up of these five elements, when you are not these five elements, how can you be the body which is made up of these five elements? A strange misplacement of the consciousness’ attention has caused this habitual misunderstanding of the Self as the physical body. In my experience a consistent practice of the mind watching the mind will enable you to get rid of all imagination habits of the mind, so the mind regains its original formation of a combination of pure consciousness and energy by going into its natural habitat of remaining quiet and still in the awareness of itself as that pure consciousness. This is what is known as the settling of consciousness into the awareness of itself.
Watching the mind by the mind means amongst millions of thoughts that you have in your mind one such is not a thought but is consciousness of existence. It is possible to attain awareness of this consciousness of existence by a simple practice of watching, using both eyeballs focused in between the eyebrows where the mind is watched through the mind, by the mind. While watching do not bother about any thought or vision that might keep arising, no matter how strong or important such thoughts and visions might appear, because the mind has to become quiet, only then mentally you can become aware of consciousness of existence. Eventually you will realize consciousness of existence is what you really are which is recognized as the soul, atman. This is what is known as Self-Realization, Liberation. When you achieve this state of consciousness you would have achieved supreme Peace once and for all. That is what is real happiness which is permanent – when the mind regains its original status of pure consciousness and when there is no more imagination of thoughts or visions.
Watching in between the eyebrows silently is what is known as the spiritual exercise of dhyana, meditation. Also observing the consciousness of ‘I’ arising. Once you get rid of all imaginations of the mind you would have Liberated yourself. This is how you can detach yourself from the body consciousness as yourself and settle effortlessly in the pure consciousness which you really are. Thus, you will become aware of the fact that you are not this body, you are beyond the birth and death of this body – you are THAT ultimate Truth.
