On Ashtavakra Gita and Bhagawad Gita: The man beyond the world

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

There is no aggression nor compassion, no pride nor humility, no wonder nor confusion for the man whose days of samsara are over.

Ashtavakra Gita (Chapter 17, Shlok 6)

Acharya Prashant (AP): Whose days in Samsara are over.

Must be closer to death, some terminal disease. Must be dying.

It is a good point to begin with. It’s a good word to use. Live in the world, don’t be worldly. When Ashtavakra says that his days in the world are over, all he means is that his worldliness is over.

There is no aggression nor compassion, no pride nor humility, no wonder nor confusion for the man whose days in Samsara are over.

What is the world?

The world is Truth expressed as you can see it.

The world is just an expression of the Truth, nothing else.

What kind of expression it would be?

Depends on to whom it is being expressed; simple.

There is nothing but the truth, the world is an expression of the Truth, expressed to you exactly as you are capable of seeing it. It’s the same thing that reveals itself differently to different people according to their own beliefs and fantasies and assumptions and abilities.

Bhagavad Gita 4.11:

‘I appear exactly in the same form to you, as you conceive of me. I am what you will conceive of me.’

Are you getting it?

You will see the world exactly as you are.

It’s the One thing, it’s the One reality which is showing up differently to different people, to different things, to different universes, depending upon their own limitations, their own assumptions, their own ego. That’s why the world starts changing, starts opening up, starts showing up in an altogether different way as your mind changes.