Ashtavakra Gita 15.7
Ashtavakra Gita 15.7 is a verse from chapter 15 (What you are). The sage Ashtavakra speaks it to King Janaka. In plain English it says: "That in which this world shimmers like waves on the sea: you are that, without doubt. You who are awareness, let the fever go."
Ashtavakra, to King Janaka
विश्वं स्फुरति यत्रेदं तरङ्गा इव सागरे ।तत्त्वमेव न सन्देहश्चिन्मूर्ते विज्वरो भव ॥
viśvaṃ sphurati yatredaṃ taraṅgā iva sāgare |tattvameva na sandehaścinmūrte vijvaro bhava ||
That in which this world shimmers like waves on the sea: you are that, without doubt. You who are awareness, let the fever go.
What to notice
The line about waves on the sea, first used in 3.3 as a question, returns here as a plain statement.
Word by word
- viśvam
- the world
- sphurati
- shimmers, flashes into view
- yatra
- in which
- idam
- this
- taraṅgāḥ iva
- like waves
- sāgare
- on the sea
- tat
- that
- tvam eva
- you are
- na sandehaḥ
- there is no doubt
- cinmūrte
- O form of awareness
- vijvaraḥ
- free of fever
- bhava
- be
Reading the verse
In chapter 3 Ashtavakra used the first half of this verse to scold Janaka: you know you are that in which the world rises like waves, so why do you run about like a pauper? Here, in chapter 15, the same half-line comes back without the scolding. That in which the world shimmers like waves on the sea: you are that, without doubt. Sphurati is a lovely verb. It means to flash, to quiver into view, the way light catches on moving water. The world is pictured as that kind of flicker on the surface of awareness. Then Ashtavakra calls Janaka cinmūrti, form of awareness, and tells him to be vijvara, free of fever. Jvara is the ordinary word for fever, and it is used for the restless heat of craving and worry. The Advaita reading treats the verse as close to the great Upanishadic sayings, such as tat tvam asi, you are that. It is spoken with confidence. Na sandehaḥ, there is no doubt.
Chapter 15, What you are: Ashtavakra's second long teaching: you are awareness, the world is waves on your ocean, so move about at ease.
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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.