Janaka & Ashtavakra: The Subtlest Maya

Conversation: Janak and Ashtavakra

Janak: “Is the search for truth the subtlest form of maya?”

Ashtavakra: “You have asked the most dangerous question—not because it is difficult, but because it leaves no place for the one who asks.” “The moment you say search, Janak, you have already assumed absence; and the moment you assume absence, Maya has succeeded.” “Tell me: before this question arose, were you not present?”

Janak: “I am present, but confused. If truth were here, confusion would not be.”

Ashtavakra: “Confusion does not prove absence of truth; it proves presence of mind.” “Clouds do not deny the sky; they only move within it. But the mind loves conclusions.” “It says: ‘I am confused, therefore I must search.’ This is how the journey begins—and this is how truth is postponed.”

Janak: “Then why does the urge to seek arise at all?”

Ashtavakra: “Because the mind cannot live without movement, and search gives movement a sacred name.” “Worldly search gives you objects. Spiritual search gives you hope.” “Hope is more intoxicating than pleasure.” “The search for truth is Maya refined: it does not distract you with noise; it hypnotizes you with meaning.” “It says: not now—later, after effort, after understanding. Truth never says later.”

Janak: “But without seeking, how will ignorance end?”

Ashtavakra: “Ignorance does not end through effort. Effort keeps ignorance alive by keeping the doer alive.” “Have you noticed: every seeker is very serious—and seriousness is fear-bearing discipline.” “Truth is light: not heavy, not solemn, not important.” “The seeker wants importance. That is why he seeks truth instead of living it.”

Janak: “Then is the seeker the problem?”

Ashtavakra: “The seeker is the last illusion.” “First you think the world binds you, then you think desire binds you, then you think ignorance binds you.” “Finally, you think the seeker will free you—but who created the seeker?”

Janak: “If I stop searching, will truth appear?”

Ashtavakra: “Truth does not appear. Appearances belong to the mind; truth remains.” “You do not stop searching—you see the futility of searching.” “Stopping is still an act. Seeing is the end of acts.”

Janak: “But the mind keeps asking.”

Ashtavakra: “Let it ask. Do not answer it.” “The mind feeds on answers. Questions exhaust it.” “But one question must be allowed to finish everything—this one.”

Janak: “Is the search for truth truly Maya?”

Ashtavakra: “Yes—because it assumes distance where none exists; time where there is eternity; becoming where there is being.” “The search is Maya because it keeps you becoming spiritual instead of disappearing.” “Truth is not found. The finder is lost.” “When the seeker vanishes, truth does not arrive—it is simply noticed as it always was.” “Do not replace worldly ambition with spiritual ambition. Do not replace desire with purity. Do not replace ignorance with knowledge.” “All replacements are movements within Maya.” “See movement itself. When movement is seen totally, rest is not chosen—it happens.” “Not as achievement. Not as enlightenment. But as ordinariness so deep that the mind cannot touch it.” “The search for truth is the subtlest form of Maya because it is the last refuge of the ego.” “It says: at least let me be a seeker. But truth has no use for seekers—only for silence. And silence has no owner.”

Janak: “If silence has no owner, why does fear arise when it comes close?”

Ashtavakra: “Because fear belongs to ownership.” “Silence threatens nothing—but it threatens someone.” “The mind survives by boundaries. Silence has none.” “That is why, when silence deepens, the mind interprets it as death—and it is right.” “Not your body’s death, not your breath’s end, but the end of the narrator inside.” “You have lived your whole life as a voice speaking about what is happening.” “Silence is the absence of commentary—and the commentator is afraid.” “Without commentary there is no center.”

Janak: “Then is silence dangerous?”

Ashtavakra: “Only to illusions.” “Fire is dangerous to shadows. Truth is dangerous to identities.” “But nothing real has ever been harmed by silence.”

Janak: “If silence has no owner, can it be practiced?”

Ashtavakra: “Practice belongs to time. Silence is timeless.” “The moment you practice silence, you have already turned it into noise.” “You are very subtle, Janak—you are even willing to practice disappearance.” “But see: the one who practices still wants to remain.” “Silence is not produced. It is revealed when production stops.”

Janak: “Then what stops production?”

Ashtavakra: “Seeing its futility.” “Not renunciation. Not discipline. Not control.” “Just simple seeing.” “The mind is a factory. It produces thoughts, meanings, futures.” “You have been trying to shut it down by force—that only makes it louder.” “But when you see that nothing it produces is needed, production slows.” “Not deliberately, but naturally.” “Silence is not an experience; experiences come with memory.” “If you remember silence, you are not silent.” “True silence leaves no trace. That is why the mind dislikes it: there is nothing to collect.”

Janak: “Then how will I know I am free?”

Ashtavakra: “That question belongs to bondage.” “Freedom has no certificate, no confirmation, no witness.” “Only bondage asks: ‘Am I free now?’ Freedom does not ask anything.”

Janak: “Then freedom is ordinary.”

Ashtavakra: “So ordinary that the extraordinary mind overlooks it.” “You have been trained to look for fireworks. Truth is a clear sky.” “You have been trained to look for peaks. Truth is flat.” “You have been trained to look for transformation. Truth is the absence of the transformer.” “Yes—even disappointment must be seen.” “The mind says: ‘So this is it? Nothing special?’ That complaint is the last demand.” “Truth offers nothing special because specialness feeds ego.”

Janak: “Then why did you speak at all?”

Ashtavakra: “Because words can exhaust words. Thorns remove thorns.” “After that, both are thrown away.” “Do not worship what I say. Do not repeat it. Do not remember it.” “Let it burn itself out.”

Janak: “Is this why scriptures contradict each other?”

Ashtavakra: “Yes.” “Every true teaching is a device to fail. The moment it succeeds, it must be abandoned.”

Janak: “Then nothing remains.”

Ashtavakra: “No—everything remains, but without a center.” “Life continues. Breath continues. Action continues.” “But the claimer is gone.”

Janak: “Will I still act?”

Ashtavakra: “Action will happen more cleanly—without hesitation, without calculation, without residue.” “Right now action is delayed by identity and later regretted by memory.” “When silence has no owner, action leaves no footprints.” “Do not be in a hurry to conclude anything. Hurry belongs to becoming.” “Let this insight remain uncrystallized. Crystallized truth becomes belief; belief is dead truth.”

Janak: “What about compassion, love, responsibility?”

Ashtavakra: “They become purer.” “Right now compassion is mixed with self-image, love is mixed with need, responsibility is mixed with fear.” “When there is no owner, compassion has no agenda, love has no demand, responsibility has no burden.” “They move like breathing.”

Janak: “And death?”

Ashtavakra: “Death loses its enemy. Only ownership fears death.” “Silence has already died without ever being born.” “When silence has no owner, death is just another movement.” “Do not cling even to this understanding. Understanding is the last luxury.” “Live without conclusions.” “Let life remain a question without a questioner.” “Then silence will not be something you enter—it will be what you notice has always been listening.”