The verse

Ashtavakra Gita 13.4Chapter 13, Verse 4

King Janaka

Ashtavakra Gita 13.4 is a verse from chapter 13 (As it pleases me). King Janaka speaks it to his teacher, the sage Ashtavakra. In plain English it says: "Yogis who take themselves to be the body insist on action or on doing nothing. I am free of joining and parting, and live as it pleases me."

The verse

कर्मनैष्कर्म्यनिर्बन्धभावा देहस्थयोगिनः ।संयोगायोगविरहादहमासे यथासुखम् ॥

karmanaiṣkarmyanirbandhabhāvā dehasthayoginaḥ |saṃyogāyogavirahādahamāse yathāsukham ||

Yogis who take themselves to be the body insist on action or on doing nothing. I am free of joining and parting, and live as it pleases me.

King Janaka, to Ashtavakra

Ashtavakra Gita · 13.4

Word meanings and a note for this verse are still being written. Read it in context on the chapter 13 page, or start with the verses in where to begin.

Chapter 13 of 20
As it pleases me

Chapter 13, As it pleases me: Janaka lives without taking or giving up, doing what comes and living at ease.

Read all 7 verses in this chapter →

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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.