Ashtavakra Gita – the Liberated or Mukt Person

Saint Ashtavakra, the revered Vedic sage of Hinduism, explained the attributes of ignorant person and liberated or mukt person during the dialogue with King Janaka of Mithila Kingdom.
People are of four kinds viz. wise, seeker, ignorant and idiot. Idiot is one who enjoys bodily actions. Ignorant has spiritual knowledge but no inclination for liberation. Seeker is interested in liberation. Wise person is already attained wisdom of liberation.  

Dull or ignorant assumes renunciation of wealth, house, kingdom, home etc. is asceticism. Offerings made in temples, pittance given to beggars or poor etc. are not renunciation. Whereas enlightened person resides in jivatma and drops all worldly desires. He is neither passionate nor renunciant.
Saint Ashtavakra explained the following characteristics of ignorant person and realized person:

Ignorant Person:

1. For ignorant, universe is real and Brahman & jivatma are unreal. Without true wisdom, claiming it is fraudulent. Ignorant knows gross elements or visible nature but is unaware about subtle and consciousness. Ignorant focuses on matters & not jivatma. Atheist believes there is no God, theist believes in God. Ashtavakra says, both of them are ignorant as their beliefs are imagination.
2. Ignorant Person desires for respect, wealth, post, position, wife, children, fame, honour etc. He has aspirations of honour, fame, heaven etc. even while doing social service. But all these pleasures are received from others. Others also want similar things which results into clashes.
3. He cares his family, wife etc., desires of sense objects and lives in hopes. He lives in self-interest.
4. His actions are done for worldly pleasures such as honor-respect, peace, luxuries, post-position, wealth-comforts etc. or for heaven, moksha etc. all such actions are done for getting fruits.
5. Internally, he has ego, desires, cravings, greed, delusion, sex, anger, violence etc.
6. He works for mind, buddhi, ego and desires. Basically, he works for body maintenance but inside he is at sleep.
7. When he is fed up after enjoying worldly pleasures and sees no interest in them, then renunciation comes.
8. He thinks body, heaven, hell; bondage & liberation are different and lead life in ego & body. As a result, he experiences pleasure-pain and heaven-hell which are present in mind. Due to the bondage, he is born again and again.
9. He lives in fight of opposite viz. good-bad, profit-loss, pleasure-pain, love-hate, victory-defeat, struggle-peace, etc. He is fearful of death. After death, one carries good & bad deeds and accordingly he dealt with. Those, who make efforts to get heaven, in fact they desire for comforts.
10. Some people fear that universe will be soon destroyed and satya yug will come; others feel that crime of various sorts is on its zenith and human being now is worse than animals. Astavakra says, people of both opinions are in pain and disturbed.

Enlightened or Realised or liberated Person:

1. Realisation cultivates politeness, surrender etc. Spiritual wisdom and desires cannot co-exist, like light and darkness. Earning wealth, keeping family, using modern amenities etc. are not bad but desires to acquire them in excess and for acquiring them greed, anger, attachment, aversion, jealousy, etc. are bad. Healthy mind and intellect can be in solicitude.
2. He is indifferent to both, only observer, away from pleasure-pain, attachment-detachment, and much expectation. He lives satisfied.
3. Those, who desire for moksha, they cross the opposites and become dispassionate about comforts, such persons understand the heaven and comforts, are temporary and they aspire for moksha. First spiritual wisdom comes then moksha.       
4. Realised person has self-esteem from inside; hence he has no desire of respect from outer world. He is contented from inside without desires or cravings; hence he does not require pleasure from outside.
5. He is not expecting the sense objects because expectations convert into desires.
6. He cares his family, wife etc. but naturally, not out of self-interest. He does not perform social service for any reward including for heaven.
7. Buddhi is limited to world but experience of consciousness is massive. Then experience of world appears minor. Such enlightened person has no craving or apathy for the world. His vision becomes void or complete. He is effortless. His senses have no attractions. Once bliss of jivatma is attained, external pleasures appear minor. The distinctions are due to bhddhi. On dissolution or dropping of buddhi, entire universe appears one form which is the truth.
8. His all actions are done by body not by jivatma.
9. He does actions not for getting fruits. He does actions naturally but not abandons them.
10. He is neutral and attains peace. Arguments cannot prove existence of God.
11. He experiences Brahman, Jivatma etc. He focuses on Jivatma not on matter. Jivatma is observer.  Jivatma is neither doer nor enjoyer.
12. He also works externally as ignorant but inside he is awake. Sri kabir, sri Raidas, Sri Sun etc. continued to do worldly duties.
13. He differentiates between soul and body. Hence, he does not get perturbed by praise or blame. He is not fearful of death. He does not desire even moksha; he remains blissful in jivatma. Ego & mind of enlightened person is not present, so no sin or virtuousness (पाप या पुण्य). 
14. He endures his past karma like Meera bai drank poison, Sri Ramakrishna bear pain of cancer, etc. but his inner self is contented and blissful.
15. In presence of others, one has to wear artificial mask. Ashtavakra says, enlightened person does not regret even in public because he sees entire universe expansion of parmatma.
16. Astavakra says, one should become non-aspiring for both enjoyment and moksha. Such person is liberated. 
17. He has no emotion for dharma, artha, kama, moksha, also does not admire or abandon the life or death. Neither he feels to acquire them nor for renunciation, nor prohibited, nor admirable, nor disgusting, nor useful. Hence, he is free, liberated, mukt. This state is moksha.
18. He experiences liberation & massiveness and thereby desires, cravings, pleasures-pains, satiety of ego etc. are dropped and becomes observer. Consciousness has four stages viz. waking, dream, deep sleep and turiya which mean doer-ship exists, doer-ship is feeble, absence of doer-ship and absence of doer respectively. He experiences jivatma in the states of waking, dream and deep sleep.

Hence, a liberated person is knower of self and not interested in amassing wealth; no attachment from objects of senses; desirelessness; effortlessness; not indulge in lust or passion towards other sex; free from fear of liberation or death; neither become happy or sad; indifferent of praise and criticism and only witness attitude towards all happenings and events.

​Reference:

1. Ashtavakra Gita, By Pandit Vivek Shri Kaushik, Puja Prakashan, Sadar Bazar, Delhi.

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