Chapter 1: The Pure Truth No one is concerned with Ashtavakra, because to accept Ashtavakra you are going to have to drop yourself - unconditionally. You cannot bring yourself along. Only if you stay behind can you come near him. With Krishna you can bring yourself along. With Krishna there is no need to transform yourself. Porcupine tree up the downstairs rar. With Krishna you can fit just as you are. Hence the founders of each tradition have written commentaries on Krishna’s Gita - Shankara, Ramanuja, Nimbaraka, Vallabha - everyone. Each has extracted his own meaning. Krishna has said things in such a way as to allow multiple meanings; hence I call his Gita poetic. You can draw out any meaning you like from a poem. Krishna’s statements are like clouds surrounding you in the rainy season: you see in them whatever you want. Someone may see an elephant’s trunk, someone sees the whole body of Ganesha, the elephant god. Someone may not see anything. He will say, “What nonsense! They are clouds, vapor - how is it you see forms in them?” In the West, psychoanalysts use the ink blot test: just pour some ink onto blotting paper and ask the person to say what he sees in it. The person looks carefully and sees something or other. There is nothing there, only an ink stain on blotting paper - randomly thrown, not thrown with any design, just poured from the bottle. But the person looking at it finds something or other. What he finds is in his mind, he has projected it. You must have seen lines made by rain falling on a wall. Some-times a man’s face is seen, sometimes a horse’s face is seen. You project onto it what you want to see. Enlightenment: The Only Revolution. Discourses on the great mystic Ashtavakra (This is the first volume of the Mahagita.) Powerful and penetrating discourses on the famous dialogue between the mystic Ashtavakra - one of Osho's favorite ancient Indian masters - and King Janak. Read this book as PDF or create a free account at osho.com to read the book online. Previously published as part of Osho Books on CD-ROM. The original working title after the translation was The Mahageeta, Vol 1, but it was only published under that name on the CD-ROM. In the dark of night, clothes hanging on a line seem like ghosts. Krishna’s Gita is just like this - you will be able to see whatever is in your mind. So Shankara sees knowledge, Ramanuja sees devotion, Tilak sees action - and each returns home in a cheerful mood thinking that what Krishna says is the same as his belief. Emerson has written that once a neighbor came and borrowed the works of Plato from him. Plato lived two thousand years ago and is one of the world’s rare, unique thinkers. Weeks later Emerson reminded him, “If you’ve read the books please return them.” When the neighbor returned them Emerson asked, “How did you like them?” The man said, “This man Plato’s thoughts are in complete agreement with mine. I felt many times: how has this man come to know my thoughts?” Plato lived two thousand years earlier and this fellow suspects that Plato has stolen his thoughts! This kind of suspicion often arises with Krishna too. Centuries have passed and commentaries on Krishna keep on coming. Each century finds its own meaning, each person finds his own meaning. Krishna’s Gita is like an ink blot.it is the statement of the perfect politician. Chapter 8: The Gift of Existence Doing all these practices, finally one day you will say, “O Lord, I am tired of this doing!” He will say, “You should have said so in the very beginning, then both of us would have been saved from all this bother. Now go and sit quietly!” Man wants to do, because without doing - it just doesn’t fit your logic that anything can happen without doing. Ashtavakra is beyond your logic. Ashtavakra says you are liberated! But you still misunderstand. Your question is, “You said, ‘You are liberated here and now, this very moment.’ But how can I get free of this ‘I’?” Ashtavakra says that “how” exists only when one thinks he is not free. First, you have accepted that you are bound. Now, you say, “How can I get free?” Ashtavakra says there is no bondage - only the illusion of bondage. But you will still say, “How can I get free of this illusion?” You still don’t get it. Illusion means that which is not: so get free of what? Just watching, just being wakeful you are free. If you get involved in methods, you will be in great difficulty. Every method proved false, Finally life itself proved too short. If you get stuck in methods you will find that not just this life but many lives will not be enough. Methods are many - and for life after life you have gone on practicing them. You put faith in doing because doing inflates your ego. Ashtavakra is saying don’t do anything. The whole is the only doer. What is happening is happening - just become one with it.
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