Ashtavakra Gita chapter 12: How I came to rest
Chapter 12 of the Ashtavakra Gita, "How I came to rest", has 8 verses. King Janaka speaks. Janaka describes how body, speech and thought fell quiet one after another, and how he now rests as he is. Every verse is below in Sanskrit and in Wisdom's plain English.
All 8 verses
कायकृत्यासहः पूर्वं ततो वाग्विस्तरासहः ।अथ चिन्तासहस्तस्माद् एवमेवाहमास्थितः ॥
kāyakṛtyāsahaḥ pūrvaṃ tato vāgvistarāsahaḥ |atha cintāsahastasmād evamevāhamāsthitaḥ ||
First I lost patience with the body's work, then with long talk, then with thinking itself. So I rest as I am.
प्रीत्यभावेन शब्दादेरदृश्यत्वेन चात्मनः ।विक्षेपैकाग्रहृदय एवमेवाहमास्थितः ॥
prītyabhāvena śabdāderadṛśyatvena cātmanaḥ |vikṣepaikāgrahṛdaya evamevāhamāsthitaḥ ||
Sound and the other objects no longer pull at me, and the Self is no object to be seen. My heart is free of scatter and gathered. So I rest as I am.
समाध्यासादिविक्षिप्तौ व्यवहारः समाधये ।एवं विलोक्य नियममेवमेवाहमास्थितः ॥
samādhyāsādivikṣiptau vyavahāraḥ samādhaye |evaṃ vilokya niyamamevamevāhamāsthitaḥ ||
Distraction comes from taking things as real, and effort is then made to reach samadhi. Seeing that this is how it goes, I rest as I am.
हेयोपादेयविरहाद् एवं हर्षविषादयोः ।अभावादद्य हे ब्रह्मन्एवमेवाहमास्थितः ॥
heyopādeyavirahād evaṃ harṣaviṣādayoḥ |abhāvādadya he brahmanevamevāhamāsthitaḥ ||
There is nothing to reject and nothing to take, so there is no joy and no sorrow. O Brahman, so I rest as I am.
आश्रमानाश्रमं ध्यानं चित्तस्वीकृतवर्जनम् ।विकल्पं मम वीक्ष्यैतैरेवमेवाहमास्थितः ॥
āśramānāśramaṃ dhyānaṃ cittasvīkṛtavarjanam |vikalpaṃ mama vīkṣyaitairevamevāhamāsthitaḥ ||
A stage of life or none, meditation, the mind taking things up and dropping them: seeing these as my own imaginings, I rest as I am.
कर्मानुष्ठानमज्ञानाद् यथैवोपरमस्तथा ।बुध्वा सम्यगिदं तत्त्वमेवमेवाहमास्थितः ॥
karmānuṣṭhānamajñānād yathaivoparamastathā |budhvā samyagidaṃ tattvamevamevāhamāsthitaḥ ||
Doing rituals comes from not knowing, and so does stopping them. Knowing this truth fully, I rest as I am.
अचिन्त्यं चिन्त्यमानोऽपि चिन्तारूपं भजत्यसौ ।त्यक्त्वा तद्भावनं तस्माद् एवमेवाहमास्थितः ॥
acintyaṃ cintyamāno'pi cintārūpaṃ bhajatyasau |tyaktvā tadbhāvanaṃ tasmād evamevāhamāsthitaḥ ||
Thinking about the unthinkable is still a form of thought. So I have let that thinking go, and rest as I am.
एवमेव कृतं येन स कृतार्थो भवेदसौ ।एवमेव स्वभावो यः स कृतार्थो भवेदसौ ॥
evameva kṛtaṃ yena sa kṛtārtho bhavedasau |evameva svabhāvo yaḥ sa kṛtārtho bhavedasau ||
Whoever has done this has done all there is to do. Whoever is like this by nature has done all there is to do.
Sources and method
Sanskrit from the common text of the Ashtavakra Gita, also called the Ashtavakra Samhita. Where our source had obvious typing errors we restored the standard reading and listed each change in our review notes. IAST is generated from the Devanagari. The English, the word meanings and the notes are Wisdom's own, written in the Advaita tradition of Shankara's school, the line followed by commentators such as Swami Nityaswarupananda and Swami Chinmayananda, with Lala Baij Nath's public-domain translation of 1907 as a reference.
Wisdom translation, edited by Ankur Shukla. Commentary AI-drafted, human review pending.