Real Yogis Don't Dream Hugh Mann

Janaka speaks of inner freedom.  Freedom from success, failure, and doing anything in generalMusic: Mystical Autumn by MusicLFiles Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/9755-mystical-autumn License (CC BY 4.0)

Knowing when the dualism of things done and undone has been put to rest, or the person for whom they occur has, then you can here and now go beyond renunciation and obligations by indifference to such things. 9.1Rare indeed, my son, is the lucky man whose observation of the world’s behaviour has led to the extinction of his thirst for living, thirst for pleasure, and thirst for knowledge. 9.2All this is transient and spoiled by the three sorts of pain. Knowing it to be insubstantial, ignoble, and fit only for rejection, one attains peace. 9.3When was that age or time of life when the dualism of extremes did not exist for men? Abandoning them, a person who is happy to take whatever comes attains perfection. 9.4Who does not end up with indifference to such things and attain peace when he has seen the differences of opinions among the great sages, saints, and yogis? 9.5Is he not a guru who, endowed with dispassion and equanimity, achieves full knowledge of the nature of consciousness, and leads others out of samsara? 9.6If you would just see the transformations of the elements as nothing more than the elements, then you would immediately be freed from all bonds and established in your own nature. 9.7One’s desires are samsara. Knowing this, abandon them. The renunciation of them is the renunciation of it. Now you can remain as you are. 9.8Abandon desire, the enemy, along with gain, itself so full of loss, and the good deeds which are the cause of the other two — practice indifference to everything. 10.1Look on such things as land, friends, money, property, wife, and bequests as nothing but a dream or a magician’s show lasting three or five days. 10.2Wherever a desire occurs, see samsara in it. Establishing yourself in firm dispassion, be free of passion and happy. 10.3The essential nature of bondage is nothing other than desire, and its elimination is known as liberation. It is simply by not being attached to changing things that the everlasting joy of attainment is reached. 10.4You are one, conscious and pure, while all this is inert non-being. Ignorance itself is nothing, so what is the point of wanting to understand? 10.5Kingdoms, children, wives, bodies, pleasures — these have all been lost to you life after life, attached to them though you were. 10.6Enough of wealth, sensuality, and good deeds. In the forest of samsara the mind has never found satisfaction in these. 10.7How many births have you not done hard and painful labour with body, mind, and speech. Now at last, stop! 10.8Unmoved and undistressed, realising that being, non-being and change are of the very nature of things, one easily finds peace. 11.1At peace, having shed all desires within, and realising that nothing exists here but the Lord, the Creator of all things, one is no longer attached to anything. 11.2Realising that misfortune and fortune come in their own time from fortune, one is contented, one’s senses under control, and does not like or dislike. 11.3Realising that pleasure and pain, birth and death are from destiny, and that one’s desires cannot be achieved, one remains inactive, and even when acting does not get attached. 11.4Realising that suffering arises from nothing other than thought, dropping all desires one rids oneself of it, and is happy and at peace everywhere. 11.5Realising, “I am not the body, nor is the body mine. I am awareness,” one attains the supreme state and no longer remembers things done or undone. 11.6Realising, “I alone exist, from Brahma down to the last clump of grass,” one becomes free from uncertainty, pure, at peace, and unconcerned about what has been attained or not. 11.7Realising that all this varied and wonderful world is nothing, one becomes pure receptivity, free from inclinations, and as if nothing existed, one finds peace. 11.8Music: Mystical Autumn by MusicLFiles Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/9755-mystical-autumn License (CC BY 4.0)

Chapters 4-8 Astravakra Explains Bondage and LiberationThe following music was used for this media project:Music: Mystical Autumn by MusicLFilesFree download: https://filmmusic.io/song/9755-mystical-autumnLicense (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-licenseArtist website: https://cemmusicproject.wixsite.com/musiclibraryfiles

In this chapter Ashtavakra inquires as to what is the point of liberation if one just seeks for bondage again?  Knowing yourself as truly one and indestructible, how could a wise man possessing self-knowledge like you feel any pleasure in acquiring wealth? 3.1Truly, when one does not know oneself, one takes pleasure in the objects of mistaken perception, just as greed arises for the mistaken silver in one who does not know mother of pearl for what it is. 3.2All this wells up like waves in the sea. Recognising, “I am That,” why run around like someone in need? 3.3After hearing of oneself as pure consciousness and the supremely beautiful, is one to go on lusting after sordid sexual objects? 3.4When the sage has realised that he himself is in all beings, and all beings are in him, it is astonishing that the sense of individuality should be able to continue. 3.5It is astonishing that a man who has reached the supreme nondual state and is intent on the benefits of liberation should still be subject to lust and in bondage to sexual activity. 3.6It is astonishing that one already very debilitated, and knowing very well that its arousal is the enemy of knowledge, should still hanker after sensuality, even when approaching his last days. 3.7It is astonishing that one who is unattached to the things of this world or the next, who discriminates between the permanent and the impermanent, and who longs for liberation, should still be afraid of liberation. 3.8Whether feted or tormented, the wise man is always aware of his supreme self-nature and is neither pleased nor disappointed. 3.9The great-souled person sees even his own body in action as if it were someone else’s, so how should he be disturbed by praise or blame? 3.10Seeing this world as pure illusion, and devoid of any interest in it, how should the strong-minded person feel fear, even at the approach of death? 3.11Who can be compared to the great-souled person whose mind is free from desire even in disappointment, and who has found satisfaction in self-knowledge? 3.12How should a strong-minded person who knows that what he sees is by its very nature nothing, consider one thing to be grasped and another to be rejected? 3.13An object of enjoyment that comes of itself is neither painful nor pleasurable for someone who has eliminated attachment, and who is free from dualism and from desire. 3.14

Chapter 2 of the John Richards Translation  The Ashtavakra Gita, or the Ashtavakra Samhita as it is sometimes called, is a very ancient Sanskrit text. Nothing seems to be known about the author, though tradition ascribes it to the sage Ashtavakra; hence the name.There is little doubt though that it is very old, probably dating back to the days of the classic Vedanta period. The Sanskrit style and the doctrine expressed would seem to warrant this assessment.The work was known, appreciated, and quoted by Ramakrishna and his disciple Vivekananda, as well as by Ramana Maharshi, while Radhakrishnan always refers to it with great respect. Apart from that the work speaks for itself.It presents the traditional teachings of Advaita Vedanta with a clarity and power very rarely matched

 The Ashtavakra Gita, or the Ashtavakra Samhita as it is sometimes called, is a very ancient Sanskrit text. Nothing seems to be known about the author, though tradition ascribes it to the sage Ashtavakra; hence the name.There is little doubt though that it is very old, probably dating back to the days of the classic Vedanta period. The Sanskrit style and the doctrine expressed would seem to warrant this assessment.The work was known, appreciated, and quoted by Ramakrishna and his disciple Vivekananda, as well as by Ramana Maharshi, while Radhakrishnan always refers to it with great respect. Apart from that the work speaks for itself.It presents the traditional teachings of Advaita Vedanta with a clarity and power very rarely matched.The translation here is by John Richards, and is presented to the public domain with his affection. The work has been a constant inspiration in his life for many years. May it be so for many others.