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Astavakra Samhita

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This splendid, well-printed and inexpensive edition of the ASHTAVAKRA SAMHITA will perhaps appeal to those who have already read this short text, a text better known as the 'Ashtavakra Gita,' in the translations of Hari Prasad Shastri (London: Shanti Sadan, 1992 ISBN 0 85424 028 4) or Ramesh S. Balsekar ('A Duet of One' Los Angeles: Advaita Press, 1989 SBN 0 929488 11 1), and who would like to deepen their acquaintance with it.

Its great advantage is that, whereas the edition of Shastri contains only a lightly annotated English translation, and that of Balsekar an English translation along with his very full commentary, the present edition also gives the Sanskrit text.

After a very fine introductory essay by Dr. Satkari Mookerjee, M.A., Ph.D., an essay to which I've often returned, Swami Nityaswarupananda then gives us the Sanskrit text in Devanagari, a literal word-by-word translation, a final literary translation, and full and detailed notes on all words and concepts of interest. The book is rounded out with two indexes and can also be found at sriramakrishnamath.org.

In his introduction, Dr. Mookerjee explains that the 'Astavakra' is a very early and pure Advaitic text which gives us the essentials of the Advaita position while being wholly free of the scholastic over- -elaboration and hair-splitting logical argument which is found in so many later texts.

It is, in other words, not so much a technical philosophical treatise as "an unfoldment of the ultimate Truth" (p.xiii) which takes the form of a dialogue between King Janaka, earnest seeker of truth, and the enlightened sage Ashtavakra.

Taking up the question of how freedom is to be achieved, its message, Dr. Mookerjee tells us, is simple:

'Know the Self as Pure Consciousness, the unaffected witness of the phenomenal world, and you will be free' (I.3).

I can't really do justice to Dr. Mookerjee's impressive introductory essay here. In particular, what he has to say about the nature of reason and its real place in human thought should be read by everyone.

As for Swami Nityaswarupananda, he too is to be congratulated on having done a thoroughly competent job of making this beautiful and profound text available to us in its original language. Even those who have little Sanskrit will now find it easy to make their way through the original text: the verses are short and simple, and, although the book lacks a guide to pronunciation, we have been given every other help.

If you are innocent of Sanskrit, my advice would be to first learn the Devanagari alphabet and then jump in. Even having a little Sanskrit is better than having none, and what better way to learn the language than by soaking yourself in such a magical work?

But if you lack the time to get involved in Sanskrit, you will still find that the introduction, and the well-done translation with its full notes, of great help in coming to grips with this valuable text. Along with those of Shastri and Balsekar I count it an indispensable edition, and I would agree with Shastri who has written:

"Each verse is a text for meditation; the whole work has a magic of its own, which elevates and exalts the mind and grants it glimpses of the transcendental region" (p.vii).

The Astavakra Samhita gives the answer to all spiritual disciplines in a simple way. Explains that while we maintain our view of object and subject will be duality. Therefore, this is the ilussion of difference. The path is the oneness and no difference. This book can be the key to all the answers to the spiritual seeker specially the one common point in all spiritual systems. In the other hand, to a person without spiritual principles can be the beggining of encountering its dark side to reconcile with itself and find the balance required. This is the Bible of the year 2000.