chapter I

    How can knowledge be acquired? How can liberaton be attained? How is renunciation possible? - Tell me this, oh Lord.

Ashtavakra: If you aspire after liberation, my child, shun the objects of the senses as poison and seek forgiveness, sincerity, kindness, contentment and truth as nectar.
You are neither earth, nor water, nor fire, nor air, nor ether. In order to attain liberation realize yourself as the knower of all these and consciousness itself.

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If you detach the body and rest in Intelligence, you will at once be happy, peaceful and free from bondage.

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Do you have been bitten by the great black serpent of egoism "I am the doer", drink the nectar of the faith "I am not the doer", and be happy.

Burn down the wilderness of ignorance with the fire of the knowledge, "I am the One and Pure Intelligence", and be free from grief and be happy.

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9. That (Consciousness) in which this universe appears, being conceived like a snake in a rope, is Bliss - Supreme Bliss. You are that Consciousness. Be happy.

10. One who considers oneself free is free indeed and one who considers oneself bound remains bound. "As one thinks, so one becomes," is a popular saying in this world, which is true.

11.The Self is the witness and all-pervading perfect, one, free, Intelligence, actionless, unattached, desireless and quiet. Through illusion it appears of this world.

12. Meditate on the Atman as immovable, Intelligence and non-dual, having given up external and internal self-modifications and the illusion that you are the reflected self (individual soul).

13. My child, you have long been trapped by body consciousness. Sever the trap with the sword of the knowledge " I am Intelligence" and be happy.

14. You are unattached, actionless, self-effulgent and without any blemish. This indeed is you bondage that you practice Samadhi.

15. You pervade this universe and this universe exists in you. You are really Pure and Conscious. Do not be small-minded.

16. You are unconditioned, immutable, formless, unimpassioned, of unfathomable intelligence and unperturbed. Desire for Chit alone.

17. Know that which has form to be unreal and the formless to be permanent. Through this spiritual instruction you will escape the possibility of rebirth.

18. Just as a mirror exists within and without the image reflected in it, even so the Supreme Lord exists inside and outside this body.

19. As the same all-pervading ether is inside and outside a jar, even so the eternal all-pervasive Brahman exists in all things.

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chapter II, verses 6-9

6. Just as sugar generated in sugarcane juice is wholly pervaded by it (juice), even so the universe produced in me is permeated by me through and through.

7. The world appears from the ignorance of the Self and disappears with the knowledge of the Self, even as the snake appears from the non-cognition of the rope and disappears with its recognition.

8. Light is my very nature and I am no other than that. When the universe manifests itself, verily then it is I that shine.

9. O, the universe appears in me being conceived through ignorance, even as silver appears in mother of pearl, snake in the rope and water in the sunbeam.