This is a curated selection of Ashtavakra quotes from the Ashtavakra Gita / Astavakra Samhita by Swami Nityaswarupananda (personally curated by me on my own lifelong learning journey).
This page is intended as a learning resource for educational purposes and only meant to offer an overview/introduction. Short quotes aren’t a substitute for source material, so if this page sparks your interest, explore more deeply by checking out the book (Amazon).
Quick Housekeeping:
- All content in “quotation marks” is from the author (otherwise it’s minimally paraphrased).
- All content is organized into my own themes (not the author’s chapters).
Page Contents:
- About the Book & Vedanta
- Misery & Happiness Quotes
- Ignorance & Knowledge Quotes
- Bondage & Liberation Quotes
- Doer & Witness Quotes
- The Self & Self-Realization Quotes
25 Top Quotes from Ashtavakra Gita by Swami Nityaswarupananda
About the Book & Vedanta
“The Ashtavakra Samhita, or Ashtavakra Gita as it is sometimes called, is a short treatise on Advaita Vedanta, ascribed to the great sage Ashtavakra.”
“The present work is not a philosophical treatise in the technical sense of the term. It does not care to call in aid the intellectual resources, which are the only stock-in-trade of all philosophical dissertations. We find in it on the contrary an unfoldment of the ultimate Truth, which is the final objective of philosophy, but which for ever eludes its grasp.”
“The superiority of Vedanta lies, in the fact that while it fully utilizes the resources of reason, it at the same time corrects and supplements the results attained by that means by a supra-intellectual organ, which does not contradict the findings of reason but supplements them by its positive discoveries.”
“Vedanta is the only philosophy that will satisfy the aspirations of mankind for all time.”
Misery & Happiness Quotes
“The knower of Truth is never miserable in this world, for the whole universe is filled by himself alone.”
“Duality is the root of misery. There is no other remedy for it except the realization that all objects of experience are false and that I am one and pure, intelligence and bliss.”
“Having known yourself to be That in which the universe appears like waves on the sea, why do you run about like a miserable being?”
“Let the waves of the universe rise or fall of their own accord in you who are the infinite Ocean. That means no gain or loss to you.”
“Happiness belongs to that master idler to whom even the closing and opening of eyelids is an affliction, to none else.”
Ignorance & Knowledge Quotes
“The ignorant person does not attain peace either by inaction or by action. The wise one becomes happy merely by ascertaining the Truth.”
“An ignorant person does not attain liberation through activity by way of repeated practice. The blessed one, through mere Knowledge, stands free, devoid of all activities.”
“The fool desires peace and so does not attain it. The wise one knows the Truth and is ever of tranquil mind.”
“What man is there, who having observed the diversity of opinions among the great seers, saints and Yogis, and become completely indifferent (to learning) does not attain quietude?”
“Knowledge, knower and knowable—these three do not in reality exist. I am that stainless (Self) in which this triad appears through ignorance.”
Bondage & Liberation Quotes
“When there is no ‘I’, there is liberation; when there is ‘I’, there is bondage.”
“One who considers oneself free is free indeed and one who considers oneself bound remains bound.”
“Bondage consists only in desire and its destruction is said to be liberation.”
“In short, the great-souled man who has realized the Truth, is free from the desire of enjoyment and liberation and is devoid of all attachment at all times and in all places.”
Doer & Witness Quotes
“He who has egoism in him, acts even though he does not act. The wise one who is free from egoism, does not do any wrong deed.”
“Do you who have been bitten by the great black serpent of the egoism ‘I am the doer’, drink the nectar of the faith ‘I am not the doer’, and be happy.”
“Devoid of the feeling of ‘mine-ness’ and ‘I-ness’, knowing for certain that nothing is, and with all his desires set at rest within, the man of Knowledge does not act though he may be acting.”
“The sage who moves like a child without motive in all his observances and is pure, has no attachment even to work that is being done by him.”
“You are not the body, nor is the body yours, nor are you the doer or the enjoyer. You are Intelligence itself, the eternal Witness and free.”
“The high-souled person witnesses his own body acting as if it were another’s. As such, how can he be disturbed by praise or blame?”
The Self & Self-Realization Quotes
“Have faith, my son, have faith. Never delude yourself in this. You are Knowledge itself, you are the lord, you are the Self, and you are superior to Nature.”
“Completely give up even contemplation and hold nothing in your mind. You are verily the Self and therefore free. What will you do by thinking?”
“Such thoughts as ‘this indeed am I’ and ‘this I am not’ are annihilated for the Yogi who has become silent by knowing for certain all as Self.”
“He who has given up worldly attachment from his mind, who is beyond the pairs of opposites, and who is free from desire,—to him any experience coming as a matter of course does not cause either pleasure or pain.”
“I am really Consciousness itself. The world is like a juggler’s show. So how and where can there be any thought of rejection and acceptance in me?”
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