Janaka & Ashtavakra: Freedom While Dwelling in the Body
Freedom is not practiced inside the body — it is the recognition that you were never confined to it.
Source: Ashtavakra Gita (inspired)
Conversation: Janak and Ashtavakra
Janak: “How does one live free while dwelling in the body?”
Ashtavakra: “First understand this, Janak: you are not living in the body; the body is living in you.” “You ask how to live free while dwelling in the body because you assume the body is a location—a container, a boundary within which you are trapped.” “You imagine consciousness squeezed inside skin, bone, breath, and blood—like a bird beating its wings against the bars of a cage.” “This assumption is the cage.” “Freedom is not something that must be practiced inside the body.” “Freedom is the recognition that you were never confined to it.”
Ashtavakra: “Look closely—without philosophy, without belief.” “The body is born, the body grows, the body changes, the body weakens, the body ages, the body dies.” “But you—when the body was not yet formed—were you absent?” “When the body sleeps deeply, do you disappear?” “When the body changes every moment, what is it that notices change?” “When the body was a child, you were present.” “When the body became young, you were present.” “When the body was praised, you were present.” “When the body was humiliated, you were present.” “When the body was strong, you were present.” “When the body became ill, you were present.” “What is this presence that has never altered while everything else has?” “That which observes change cannot itself be changing in the same way.” “That which witnesses limitation cannot itself be limited.”
Ashtavakra: “Janak, bondage is not created by the body.” “The body has no intention to bind you; it simply functions.” “Bondage is created by misidentification.” “You say: ‘I am hungry’; hunger is a sensation moving through the body.” “You say: ‘I am sad’; sadness is a wave passing through the mind.” “You say: ‘I am afraid’; fear is a story told by thought.” “But the one who says ‘I’—where is that one located?” “Search carefully.” “The body is a process: breath in, breath out.” “Cells born, cells dying—digestion, circulation, decay.” “The mind is also a process: thought arising, thought dissolving.” “Memory appearing, memory fading—images, words, emotions, patterns.” “Even what you call personality is a process constructed by habit.” “But you are not a process.” “You are that which remains when all processes are seen.” “You are the unmoving space in which movement happens.”
Ashtavakra: “To live free while dwelling in the body does not mean rejecting sensation.” “It does not mean suppressing desire, avoiding pleasure, or hardening yourself against pain.” “Only a frightened mind seeks numbness.” “Freedom is not numbness.” “Freedom is intimacy without attachment.” “The free one feels everything—but nothing claims him.” “Pleasure arises: he does not grasp.” “Pain arises: he does not resist.” “Loss comes: he does not collapse inward.” “Gain comes: he does not swell with pride.” “Life touches him fully—yet leaves no scar.”
Ashtavakra: “Understand this deeply.” “Attachment is not love.” “Resistance is not strength.” “Control is not mastery.” “All three are fear wearing respectable masks.” “The body desires; that is its nature.” “The mind imagines; that is its conditioning.” “The ego claims ownership; that is its illusion.” “But awareness simply watches.” “Do not fight the body.” “To fight the body is to fight nature—and nature always wins.” “Do not discipline the body in the hope of freedom.” “Discipline may shape behavior, but it cannot touch identity.” “Do not try to purify the body.” “The idea of purity already assumes impurity, and division is the root of bondage.” “Do not worship the body either.” “Worship is just attachment kneeling down.” “Simply see.” “Seeing is enough.”
Ashtavakra: “When desire arises, do not condemn it.” “Condemnation strengthens it.” “Do not indulge it blindly either.” “Indulgence binds just as tightly.” “Just watch.” “Watch desire as you would watch a flame—without reaching for it, without trying to extinguish it.” “When desire is seen without identity, it exhausts itself.” “Not because you defeated it, but because you stopped feeding it with ‘me’.” “The moment you say: ‘this is my desire’, bondage is born.” “The moment you say: ‘this should not be happening’, bondage deepens.” “The free one says neither.” “He allows phenomena to pass like weather—clouds gathering, clouds dispersing—without asking the sky to choose.”
Ashtavakra: “Look at the sky.” “Storms arise. Clouds collide. Thunder shakes the air. Lightning cuts the darkness.” “Yet the sky is never torn, never soaked, never disturbed.” “The sky does not fight the storm.” “The sky does not cling to clarity.” “Be like that.” “Do not manage existence.” “Do not correct life.” “Do not interfere with what already knows how to move.” “The body knows how to breathe.” “The heart knows how to beat.” “The blood knows where to flow.” “Life knows how to live.” “It is only the ego that interferes—and then claims success or failure.”
Ashtavakra: “You ask how to live free while dwelling in the body because you believe freedom is something that will happen later—after effort, after purification, after realization.” “This belief is the final chain.” “Freedom is not an event in time.” “Time is an appearance in freedom.” “The bound one lives in memory and anticipation—regret behind, hope ahead.” “The free one lives nowhere but here.” “The body exists in time. Thought exists in time.” “But you do not.” “Let the body move according to its nature.” “Let the mind function according to its conditioning.” “Do not try to fix either.” “Just remain as the silent witness.” “This witnessing is not concentration. It is not effort. It is not a technique.” “It is remembrance.” “You are not the actor behind action.” “You are not the thinker behind thought.” “You are not the chooser behind decision.” “Actions happen. Thoughts arise. Decisions unfold.” “But when you search for the doer, no one is found.”
Ashtavakra: “Renunciation of the world is childish. Attachment to the world is equally childish.” “Both arise from misunderstanding.” “The free one neither rejects nor indulges.” “He does not cling.” “He may sit on a throne or sleep on bare earth.” “He may rule a kingdom or wander unnoticed.” “Circumstances move around him—but they do not move him.” “He does not ask: ‘What should I do?’ He asks: ‘Who is acting?‘” “And when he looks, there is only movement—no center.” “Life flows. Ownership disappears.” “The body becomes a garment worn lightly.” “You do not forget it is there, but you no longer mistake it for yourself.” “Hunger comes: the body eats.” “Fatigue comes: the body rests.” “Danger comes: the body reacts.” “Death comes: the body falls.” “And you remain exactly as you always were.”
Ashtavakra: “To live free while dwelling in the body is not a method to learn.” “It is a misunderstanding to drop.” “Drop the idea that you are inside the body.” “Drop the idea that freedom is elsewhere.” “Drop the idea that something must be achieved.” “Stand naked as awareness.” “When there is no one left to be bound, bondage vanishes on its own.” “This is not doctrine. This is not belief. This is not philosophy.” “This is direct seeing.” “Look—and be free.”