Janaka's Glorification of Self-Realization (Ashtavakra Gita 4.1) - 27th October 2016

Chapter four. Now what has happened is that Ashtavakra has pardoned Janaka with all the questions in response to sharing that 'I am wonderful indeed.' The Guru has to do the ego check. He's doing the ego check in to see if there is still some ego mixed in that 'I am wonderful indeed beyond adoration.' So now he's peppered him with all of these questions: How can you still be attached to your kingdom ownership? How can you still have lust? How can you still fear death? How can you be concerned about praise and blame? So let's see how Janaka is coming in Chapter 4, Verse 1: 'Surely one who knows Self, though he plays the game of life, differs greatly from the world's bewildered, burdened beasts.' These are very, very important words. 'Surely one who knows Self, though he plays the game of life, differs greatly from the world's bewildered, burdened beasts.'

So what are you sharing here? Very important to hear this because many times we can come into this, it can be like, 'Yes, everything is just happening. I'm suffering so much, but it's just happening. My life is terrible, but I know it's all just happening.' This kind of mental advertising and actually this mental burden, this conceptual framework of Advaita Vedanta, if it remains just in the mind, then it can be the biggest burden to carry. So when he's saying that surely one who knows Self, he's not talking about the conceptual knowing of Self. He's talking about the true living experience that I am the one solitary witnessing of all that is. This recognition is not in the words. The words are just pointers that are provoking you to look at who is witnessing all of this; inviting you, recording you, provoking you into this inquiry, opening you up to check who witnesses this world, who is aware even of the existence. This is the one who knows Self in this way.

Then, 'though he plays the game of life.' So what he's saying, we are talking about the appearance of this one in this realm who has come to the recognition of the Self. How does life seem to happen for him? Inevitably, he says that life just seems like a game now. It just seems like it seems to be playing itself. Actually, there is nobody here who is doing anything and it is wonderful. From moment to moment, this game of life is being played, which is very different in approach from that pretense that 'I am an individual tiny bucket of flesh and blood whose end will be the cremation ground, trying to make something meaningful out of this 50, 60, 70, 80 years that this body seems to live, knowing that it is coming and in the end it is completely meaningless.' So there's a big difference between, even in the play, between those who have come to the recognition of who they are and those who are still going with the mind as if it is telling them the truth about who they are.

The ones who are pretending to be people, pretending to be individuals, pretending to be the ego, seem to live their lives as if they are bewildered, burdened beasts. What is the burden that they're carrying? It's these false ideas. To come to this seeing of the truth, the Self, which is untouched by any phenomenon, in this way becomes wonderful. It becomes a game of life. As long as this phenomenal realm continues to appear, the game of life will continue. It has always been this way. It was this way for Janaka. All the entire play of human emotions, human events has been experienced. The game does not start because ultimately the game also is a divine Leela, moving with the will of God. When consciousness is tired of this playing as a burden, at least there's this question: 'There must be something more to life than money, than relationships, than the body. There must be a deeper truth that I can discover.' Because intuitively we all have a sense that there is something beyond this body, something beyond this material existence.

It's an important verse because the mind itself will come and say—and I've also faced this question so many times over the past three years—that 'How is it that you still work? How is it that you're still living with your family?' So I have to say, Janaka now clarifies: 'Surely one who knows Self, though he plays the game of life, differs greatly from the world's...' There comes a calling for these ones to say, 'Look, look, there is no actual burden, just an idea. Drop it.' This world is not confusing; it is your own. Stop pretending as if you're this tiny, measly appearance. The Sage is introducing you to the discovery that was found: that even the supreme Lord of the universe appears in service to you. What must you be?