Witnessing Reality: Meditations on the Soul of the Ashtavakra Gita

The Beginning

Janaka asked three questions to the main protagonist of this book, Ashtavakra:
Tell me dear Master,
How is real knowledge acquired?
How does liberation happen?
And how to attain the state of detachment?
The conversation that followed got preserved as the song of the wise master Asta-vakra, someone whose body was crooked in eight places.

Introduction

One of the best pieces of advice I have heard that has helped me deal with adversity in life is: "When you feel really frustrated because you're not enjoying your work, even though you're making money, going there every day, going through the motions, and being successful, with people admiring you, yet you're not happy—you're frustrated, you're upset—you need to lean into that pain. Lean into what frustrates you and say, "I can't go on another five years like this." The mind and the body are one; we're all a unity. So when you start having these frustrations and desires you're not acting upon, it creates physical problems. You may not be aware of why suddenly your blood pressure is rising, but it's all interconnected. When you're not doing something that engages you, your whole being goes out of whack; everything doesn't work. You've got to listen to it, understand it, and say, "I want some joy and excitement in my life. I want a challenge."

I was in this condition when one day I woke up watching a gorgeous sunrise over a lake adjoining my bedroom while I was a tenure line professor in the USA: I had finally achieved my American Dream that every middle class Indian aspires for, and yet something was mercilessly gnawing away at the core of who I was, and I wasn't in peace despite all my success. I had a family, a job, a home, a car, and a solid group of friends and well wishers, and yet, there was a certain void I fell inside that words cannot describe. It was like a missing piece once that stares at you through its absence and you know what the picture would look like if it were perfect, and yet you couldn't find it no matter how hard you looked.
I went through a deep dark tunnel, and for a while there was no light on the other end. Thankfully, when I did see some visible light (to be continued...)

© 2024 Dr. Krishna Abhishek Ghosh