Ashtavakra Gita 7.1
Ashtavakra Gita 7.1 is a verse from chapter 7 (The ship on the ocean). King Janaka speaks it to his teacher, the sage Ashtavakra. In plain English it says: "In me, the endless ocean, the ship of the world drifts here and there, driven by its own wind. I am not troubled by it."
King Janaka, to Ashtavakra
मय्यनन्तमहाम्भोधौ विश्वपोत इतस्ततः ।भ्रमति स्वान्तवातेन न ममास्त्यसहिष्णुता ॥
mayyanantamahāmbhodhau viśvapota itastataḥ |bhramati svāntavātena na mamāstyasahiṣṇutā ||
In me, the endless ocean, the ship of the world drifts here and there, driven by its own wind. I am not troubled by it.
What to notice
The ship of the world is moved by its own wind, and the ocean does not mind.
Word by word
- mayi
- in me
- ananta-mahā-ambhodhau
- in the endless great ocean
- viśva-potaḥ
- the ship of the world
- itastataḥ
- here and there
- bhramati
- drifts, wanders
- sva-anta-vātena
- by the wind of its own mind
- na
- not
- mama
- for me
- asti
- there is
- asahiṣṇutā
- impatience, being troubled
Reading the verse
In chapter 2 the ship of the world sank when the wind of the mind fell still. Here, in chapter 7, Janaka watches the ship drift here and there, pushed by its own wind, and says he feels no impatience about it. Asahiṣṇutā is the inability to bear something. Its absence is a calm tolerance, the kind a deep sea has toward the boats on its surface. The phrase svāntavātena can be read as by its own inner wind, the mind of each being. The world moves according to the minds within it. The ocean does not steer the ship. The Advaita reading draws a practical lesson. Much of our distress comes from wanting the world to move differently, and from feeling that it is our job to steer all of it. The knower still acts where action is his to take, and is not tormented by the drifting of everything else. Chapter 7 has five verses in this voice, each one Janaka settling more fully into the view his teacher gave him.
Chapter 7, The ship on the ocean: Janaka watches the world drift like a ship on the ocean of awareness, and feels no need to steer it.
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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.