16: Special Instruction
Ashtavakra said:
16.1
You can recite and discuss scripture all you want,
but until you drop everything
you will never know Truth.
16.2
You can enjoy and work and meditate, but you will still yearn for That
which is beyond all experience,
and in which all desires are extinguished.
16.3
Everyone is miserable
because they exert constant effort. But no one understands this.
A ripe mind can become unshackled upon hearing this one instruction.
16.4
The master idler,
to whom even blinking is a bother, is happy.
But he is the only one.
16.5
When the mind is free of opposites
like “This is done,” and “This is yet undone,” one becomes indifferent to
merit, wealth, pleasure and liberation.
16.6
One who abhors sense objects avoids them. One who desires them becomes ensnared. One who neither abhors nor desires
is neither detached nor attached.