Commentary by Rory Mackay
Please note, this translation of the Avadhuta Gita plus commentary is now available as a paperback and ebook (Avadhuta Gita – Song of the Liberated Soul by Rory B Mackay), available on Amazon and many other retailers.
Chapter 2
1. Although a person may be young, immature, addicted to sense pleasure, a householder or a servant, everyone has the capacity to teach Knowledge. The value of a diamond is not lost simply because it is encrusted with some mud.
2. A teacher may lack standard education and literary skill. Such qualities are not required. Take the Truth they teach and ignore all else. An unpainted, unadorned boat will carry you across the river just as well as an embellished vessel.
The message of this and the preceding verse is that in maya, all things are imperfect. Perfected beings (which is to say, Self-Realised people with highly refined minds) are astonishingly rare, particularly in our modern age. If you are intent on waiting for an objectively perfect teacher, replete with glowing halo, you’re likely to be in for a long wait.
It is, of course, essential to be discriminating and judicious when it comes to spiritual teachers. There are many false gurus and exploitative individuals out there ready to abuse their position in order to feed their narcissism and lustful appetites. But once you have found a qualified teacher, and one who lives what they teach and is committed to helping rather than exploiting others (whether monetarily or in any other way), take what they teach and seek to actualise it.
A teacher should be honoured and respected, but they should never be put on a pedestal and idolised. In the Vedantic teaching tradition, the relationship between teacher and student is one of friendship and mutual respect. The focus should not be the glorification of the teacher, but the glorification of the Knowledge that he or she shares. As this verse states, the guru is simply a vessel; one capable of taking you from a place of darkness (ignorance) to a place of light (knowledge).
The very word guru means “remover of darkness”. It’s not necessary for that vessel to be adorned with bells and whistles, or to have the grandest of followings. The enlightened are often unobtrusive people. They don’t go out of their way to seek the limelight or court attention because they are already whole and complete in themselves. Accordingly, often the greatest of souls and best of teachers are very humble and ordinary. Be sure not to miss them simply because you’re looking for some media-savvy guru with a million-dollar “spiritual” empire.
3. Without any effort whatsoever, the immutable Self pervades and sustains the worlds of both the animate and inanimate. Its nature is pure, unconditioned Awareness, ever at peace and as expansive as the heavens.
There’s no effort for the Self, for It is the totality of all that is; the substance, support and essence of all things. Awareness pervades all as the very substratum of existence. Nothing is capable of touching it and nothing can affect it in any way. To know yourself as that Awareness—which isn’t some exalted state of consciousness, but the everyday, ordinary, ever present awareness illuming all your senses, thoughts and experiences—is to know freedom.
4. Appearing as the worlds of the animate and inanimate, and governing them without the least effort, the Self is forever one. How can that which is limitless and all-pervading be subject to division or duality? How can this Eternal Self be anything other than “I”?
The very heart of Vedanta can be encapsulated by three short words: Tat tvam asi, or “That I am”. Tat, or That, refers to the Self; pure limitless Consciousness/Awareness. In this context, “I” refers to what we call the jiva; the body/mind/ego; the sense of being a separate and autonomous being. The final word in the equation, “am”, expresses the non-separation between the two. In actuality, there is no jiva. The jiva is just a conglomeration of gross and subtle matter which, courtesy of self–ignorance is taken to be oneself.
The first two stages of Vedanta, listening (shravana) and reasoning (manana), provide knowledge of the Self. The third stage, nididhyasana, involves claiming ownership of that Self through consistent contemplation and Self-inquiry. You no longer speak of the Self as an object; as something that is known by you. To speak of the Self is Indirect Knowledge. By clearly knowing that you are the Self, and claiming it as “I”, you convert this Indirect Knowledge to Direct Knowledge. Accordingly, the next few verses speak of the Self not in the third person as an object (“the Self”) but in the first person (“I”).
5. This “I”, indeed, is the Highest Truth: the Eternal Self, in which all worlds, whether tangible or intangible, appear. Subtler than the subtlest of elements, I neither come, nor do I go. Formless, I am beyond all states and am not subject to modification.
The Self is the Eternal Knower; the substratum of Awareness in which all conceivable objects and experiences are known—from the gross world of tangible form to the subtle world of thought and dreams. Yet, being subtler than any object of experience, this Awareness is never affected by those forms and experiences in any way.
6. Being formless in nature, I am, therefore, free of all constituent parts. The highest of souls may worship Me, yet in My absolute wholeness, I recognise no division or distinctions.
Awareness is a partless whole. It cannot be objectified and it cannot be divided into “this” and “that”. It’s impossible to divorce anything from Awareness, because it is the eternal and ever-present basis of Reality. As satya, the causeless Cause behind the world of phenomenal effect (which we call mithya), Awareness cannot be separate from the world of objects any more than a gold bracelet can be separate from the gold. Mithya depends upon satya for its existence just as the bracelet depends upon the gold and the pot upon the clay. Ultimately, when name and form are negated as but an incidental characteristic, we find no difference between the two. The Self alone is.
7. Neither ignorance nor doubt cause the slightest ripple in Me. The activities of the mind, and all its thoughts and impulses, are merely bubbles rising and dissolving on the surface of a lake.
Freedom is freedom irrespective of whatever happens to the body and mind, both of which function according to their respective natures. No matter what ripples appear upon the lake of the mind, the Self is ever free and untouched by anything in the maya world—whether externally, in terms of one’s circumstances and environment, or internally, as the functioning of one’s body and mind.
8. By My nature, I pervade and lend existence to all the subtle and gross elements. I alone grant softness to the soft, hardness to the hard, sweetness to the sweet, and bitterness to the bitter.
9. As water cannot be perceived independently of its qualities of clearness, fluidity, and softness, the realm of matter (prakriti) cannot be perceived independently of the spirit (purusha) which reveals and enlivens it.
Prakriti and purusha are concepts discussed in greater depth in the Bhagavad Gita. To recapitulate, prakriti refers to the phenomenal world of gross and subtle matter (maya), while purusha refers to the universal and all-pervading Awareness (the Self) which grants it life much as the sun illumines the moon with its reflected light. Whatever life and sentience the world of matter enjoys is granted only by the enlivening principle of Awareness.
10. Uncategorised by name or by speech, subtler than the subtlest, and beyond the reach of the mind, intellect or senses, is the stainless Lord of the universe.
This Lord of the universe refers to the Self; the subtlest of the subtle; that which pervades all things as their innermost Existence/Essence, but which can never be captured or objectified by the material senses. The job of the senses is to connect with their respective sense objects in the world of the form. The Self, although unavailable to the senses, is That which illumines them, much as electricity grants life to a lightbulb.
11. Upon knowing the limitless Self, how can the limited ego self remain? How can there be a “you”, and how can there be a world?
Because the senses perceive a world of duality, the mind takes itself to be part of that multiplicity; one discrete form amid uncountable billions of forms. If the Self is limitless, however, then how can a limited ego remain? Vedanta reveals this notion of a separate self to be a fabrication of the mind; a superimposition rooted in ignorance of the true nature of reality.
The source of our suffering is our tendency to take appearance to be real by confusing the apparent with the actual. Because the Self is, in essence, formless and without division, all appearance of form and division is a product of maya; of appearance alone.
12. The Self is described as being like the sky. Its nature is pure unalloyed Awareness, without defect, ever perfect and whole.
13. This Awareness does not move about the earth, nor does It dwell in fire. It cannot be blown by the wind, nor covered by water. Though It takes all forms, It remains formless.
14. Despite pervading all of space and time, nothing pervades the Self. Both within and without, It is indivisible and limitless.
15. Although the subtlest of the subtle, beyond perception, without attribute and unavailable to the senses, the Self of which the great Sages speak can be realised as That which underlies all temporary states of mind.
The Vedantic scriptures describe the Self as the adhistanam, which means the foundation, basis or support of the entire creation. It underlies everything as the very essence and, indeed, the substance of all things; at once both transcendent and immanent.
Yoga has superb practical application and is employed by Vedanta as a means of preparing the mind for Knowledge, much as a field is cultivated prior to planting. However, yogic philosophy can cause confusion when it comes to enlightenment, for the yoga sutras purport enlightenment to be a state of mind called chitta vritti narodah, or the cessation of all thought.
Moksha, however, is not about the eradication of thought or the cultivation of certain states of mind. After all, if freedom depends upon the mind being a certain way then it’s not freedom at all—because the mind is, by its very nature, ever shifting according to the play of the gunas (qualities of gross and subtle matter).
For freedom to be true freedom, it must be unqualified and independent of extraneous factors. True freedom is realising that, as the Self, you are always and ever free, in spite of all external variables, including the condition of the body and the state of the mind; such states being, as this verse states, temporary by nature.
This freedom doesn’t depend upon the mind being sattvic, tranquil and serene. That certainly helps, and is key to helping assimilate this knowledge. But even if the mind is subject to agitation (rajas) or dullness (tamas), the Self, which is the Awareness in which the mind has its Source, is ever unaffected and, therefore, forever free.
16. Practising constant discrimination and detachment from objects of perception, the ardent seeker of liberation is eventually freed from bondage to the material world by realising their non-separation from the Absolute.
Discrimination and detachment are the two primary qualifications necessary for Self-knowledge to liberate the mind. Discrimination means the ability to separate the real from the apparently real; the eternal from the fleeting, and truth from ignorance. It also means being clear about your true goal: liberation through the rigorous application of Self-knowledge to the mind.
Detachment from sense objects is also necessary, because until you cultivate a high degree of dispassion your mind will continually fixate upon the world of objects. As a result, you’ll find your attention devoured by ceaseless desires, aversions and intractable attachment to sense pleasures.
Only when you’re completely clear that nothing in the world of form can bring you lasting happiness and fulfilment will you devote the necessary time and effort to following the teaching of Vedanta and applying it to the mind.
17. For the deadly poison of worldly lust, which so deludes the mind, there is but one antidote: To reclaim your nature as the desireless and ever whole Self.
The basis of samsara is the erroneous sense of being a limited, lacking being—who, in order to extract some happiness from the world, must struggle to get the world to conform to our likes and dislikes. The problem is, the more we act out of our desires and fears, the greater this strengthens our psychological conditioning, further cementing the sense of being a finite ego/doer/enjoyer.
There is no end to desire. Just as a fire will never concede that it’s burned enough, desire is an inferno that can never be satiated. Desire itself is suffering. After all, when we satisfy our desires we feel good precisely because, for a brief moment, we are free of desire. The only way out of this is Self-Knowledge: specifically, the realisation that, as the Self, we are already whole and complete.
The ego’s sense of self-lack was based on ignorance alone. The solution to ignorance can only be knowledge, and the king of knowledge, raja vidya, is Self-Knowledge. Knowing our very nature to be Wholeness itself destroys desire by eradicating it at its very root; shattering the misapprehension of ourselves as a limited and incomplete entity.
18. The world of objects is seen without, and the world of thoughts is perceived within. That which allows all to be experienced, yet which transcends all experience, is the Eternal Self.
This false duality, the sense of being a separate entity living in a disconnected external world, is negated by realising the Self as the sole Reality.
Both the jiva’s inner and outer world; the subjective world of thought and imagination and the objective world of forms and objects are experienced in Awareness. Awareness unites the two and cannot be separated from experience at any time.
As the causeless Cause of the creation, the Self is that from which all form and experience arises and that by which it is experienced. It’s the one thing that can never be discounted or negated, for it is the ever-present and unchanging substratum of existence.
19. What we experience outwardly as the world of form is born of prakriti. Pervading prakriti, like the milk within a coconut, is the inner Source of life.
20. If the outer world is akin to the husk of a coconut, the pulp is prakriti, and the sweet milk concealed within is the Self.
Again, prakriti is a term to describe the material aspect of creation at this, the empirical order of reality. While ultimately only the formless, limitless Self exists, at this level of reality the mind and senses do experience a discrete world of form and differentiation.
For beginner and intermediate students, Vedanta uses the concepts of prakriti and purusha, thereby admitting a provisional, apparent duality. The material level of prakriti, itself inert and insentient, depends upon purusha, the principle of universal Consciousness or Awareness, to grant it life, much as the lightbulb requires the presence of electricity in order to shine. Contrary to what materialists assume, this purusha (the Self), can exist without prakriti (matter), but prakriti cannot exist without purusha.
Purusha is the independent Cause from which the creation arises and into which it resolves. The material universe, therefore, can no more exist without the Self, Consciousness, than a bracelet can exist without the gold it is made of. Indeed, what we call “bracelet” is merely the gold configured into a specific name and form.
Similarly, the phenomenal reality is nothing but Consciousness “appearing” as certain names and forms. Neither the bracelet nor the phenomenal world possess an independent existence of their own. As mithya (unreal), both borrow their limited, time-bound existence from their underlying Cause, which is satya (real).
21. As on a clear full moon night when the moon is seen as one, so do the wise see only one Self in all. The sense of duality is a product of distorted vision.
Like the weary traveller at dusk mistaking the rope for a snake—which is to say, superimposing an imaginary “snake” onto the rope—the unenlightened mistake the myriad forms of maya as real, thus superimposing duality upon the non-dual Self. Both are cases of distorted vision.
22. Duality can never pertain to the Self, for universal Being is all-pervading. Those who teach this Truth are great souls, worthy of endless gratitude.
As we already established, the word guru means “dispeller of darkness”. Darkness is a metaphor for ignorance; “to be in the dark”. Because this ignorance is the source of all our existential sorrow, it is only natural to have eternal gratitude to the one who removes this ignorance and its concomitant sorrow.
23. By the grace of a guru, both the wise and the ignorant may attain Self-Knowledge, but only those who cross the ocean of worldly attachment will actualise this knowledge.
As stated before, Vedanta works in three stages. The first stage, shravana, means “hearing”. You must first simply expose your mind to the teaching by listening to the words of the teacher with an open mind free of preconceived notions. The key is not to try to evaluate the teaching by comparing it to what you think you already know, because much of what you think you know is actually ignorance masquerading as truth. This stands to reason, because if you already knew the Truth, you’d be free of suffering and would have no need of Vedanta in the first place. So this stage requires a receptive and inquiring mind.
The second stage, manana, is where you apply reason in order to fully grasp what you’ve been taught. It means working through any doubts and confusion as they arise, with the help of the teacher. Although an element of faith is necessary in order to trust the teacher and commit to attaining the knowledge, this is not a blind faith. It’s no good simply accepting what you’ve been taught without properly understanding the teaching. It has to make perfect sense or else it will be little more than an empty doctrine; just another belief system. At this stage, the Knowledge must be converted to understanding.
The final stage of Vedanta is called nididhyasana, and this means continuously contemplating and integrating the Knowledge until it becomes fully assimilated; which is, to say, until it becomes the mind’s new operating system. If the first stage provides knowledge, the second converts it to understanding, and the third and final stage converts understanding to conviction.
As this verse states, both the wise and the ignorant can attain Knowledge of the Self, but this knowledge will only bear fruit when it is fully internalised by the mind. To return to our computer metaphor, you can download new software for your computer but nothing will happen until you install and run it.
Dattatreya states here that one of the keys to assimilating this Knowledge is to “cross the ocean of worldly attachment”, which means developing detachment from the world of sense objects. Only then will the mind gain the necessary objectivity and discrimination to catalyse Self-Knowledge into liberation.
24. Those who are free from binding desire and aversion, who are devoted to the good of all beings, and whose Knowledge is firm and mind steady will attain liberation.
Vedanta makes it clear that when it comes to liberation, success or failure is determined by the presence of absence of the mental qualifications specified by Shankara: specifically, discrimination, dispassion, discipline of the mind and senses, the ability to focus the mind, faith in the teaching and the teacher, and desire for liberation. Just as seeds will only grow in an appropriately fertile field, so will Self-Knowledge only take root in a suitably prepared mind.
25. As the space inside a jar merges into the outside space when the jar is broken, so do the Self-Realised, upon the shedding of the body, merge with Universal Consciousness.
This “merging” is, in fact, simply the realisation that you were never separate from or other than the Consciousness/Awareness that is the Self.
26. It is said that the future trajectory of the soul is determined by one’s last thought at the time of death, but those established in Self-Knowledge are not bound by thought.
27. One may talk about the destiny of those worldly souls who are bound by action, but the destiny of those established in Self-Knowledge cannot be spoken, for it transcends words.
Those who know themselves to be the Self are bound by neither thought, word, or deed. They abide in Awareness as Awareness and, having negated the ego’s sense of doership and ownership and neutralised the mind’s binding desires and aversions, are no longer bound by samsara’s cycle of birth and death.
28. The enlightened one has no particular path. He or she simply renounces duality by ceasing to imagine things. For them, liberation is easily attained.
All experience is the product of consciousness plus thought. Consciousness is constant and eternal, whereas thought changes moment by moment. Duality is actually caused by thought; by the mind’s tendency to create division and differentiation, and to carve up reality into “this” and “that”; “me” and “you”; “good” and “bad”. We then inhabit an entirely subjective world of duality. As Dattatreya elegantly states, the liberated overcome duality “by ceasing to imagine things.” They are no longer identified with thought or its contents, but with the underlying, eternal, Non-dual (yet ordinary and everyday) Consciousness that illumines all thought.
29. When the enlightened die, whether in a sacred or profane place, they never need enter a mother’s womb again, for they, in essence, merge into Brahman [the Self].
By realising one’s essential identity as Brahman, the Self, and fully assimilating this knowledge, the jiva’s individual “karmic account” is deleted, so to speak. No longer pushed and pulled by binding desires and fears, there is nothing to compel them to keep assuming new bodies in order to scratch those karmic itches. No longer falsely identifying themselves as a limited body and mind subject to a false sense of doership and authorship, they abide in Awareness as Awareness.
30. Those who fully realise the innate, birthless and eternal nature of the Self never become tainted even while enjoying the fruits of desire. Ever free of stain, such souls are no longer chained by karma. Those who have mastered the mind and senses, and who fix their mind on the Self, are never bound.
For the liberated, this entire play of maya—the appearance of form and differentiation within the formless and undifferentiated Self—is seen as Ishvara, or God (the technical term is Saguna Brahman, meaning the Self with form and attribute). All karma belongs to Ishvara, including the fruits of past actions. By knowing oneself to be, as pure Consciousness/Awareness, free of all action, the liberated soul is unbound even as the body, mind and senses continue engaging with the world and reaping the results of past actions and desires, both good and bad.
31. The liberated are beyond maya, beyond comparison, beyond form, beyond all supports, beyond the body and its sustenance, beyond duality, delusion, and power. It is the Self, the Supreme Eternal, that such a soul attains.
32. The attainment of the liberated soul is not the Highest Knowledge, nor initiation, nor the clean-shaven head of the renunciate. It is not a guru, nor disciples, nor worldly treasure, nor is it the practice of yogic postures or the wearing of ceremonial adornment. It is the Self, the Supreme Eternal, that they attain.
The liberated require no spiritual badges of office. Those who feel they need to somehow display their attainment—to make a show of “being enlightened”—are most likely still identified with the ego and its in-built sense of limitation and smallness. Those who truly know themselves to be free need no outward validation.
33. The liberated soul envisions neither Shiva nor Shakti, nor any other gods. Kundalini and other forces do not pertain to them, nor the feet of the Lord. They do not perceive the soul as being like the contents of a glass jar. It is the Self, the Supreme Eternal, that they attain.
The liberated know the entire phenomenal world, both gross and subtle, to be mithya. Like a wave on the ocean, mithya enjoys an apparent existence, but because it depends entirely upon its cause for its existence, as the wave depends upon the ocean, it has no inherent reality of its own. Only the Self, the independent Cause and totality of Existence, has any reality (satya). All else, including the highest spiritual states and dimensions, is mithya alone.
34. They attain the Essence from which the universe of sentient and insentient forms is born; That in which it abides and That to which it returns like waves on the ocean. It is the Self, the Supreme Eternal, that they attain.
35. The attainment of the enlightened is not control of the breath, nor fixed gazing or yogic postures. Neither knowledge or ignorance pertain to them, nor purification of the nerve-currents. It is the Self, the Supreme Eternal, that they attain.
This verse makes the point that spiritual practice, in this case yoga, is not an end in itself, but a means to prepare the mind and nothing more. The real attainment, insomuch as it can be called an attainment, is the assimilated Knowledge of one’s true nature as the Self.
36. This attainment is not of something external or separate from oneself. It is, indeed, beyond both objectification and comparison. It is the Self, the Supreme Eternal, that they attain.
The Self cannot be objectified because it is subtler than the mind, senses and intellect. As the very light of Awareness, it is not an object, but the Eternal Subject.
37. It matters not whether they have perfect concentration and control of the senses, or whether they take action or refrain from action. It is the Self, the Supreme Eternal, that they attain.
While preparation of the mind is essential to facilitate the full assimilation of Self-knowledge, liberation, by its very definition, must be unqualified. If liberation is dependent upon the mind, body and senses being in a certain state, as yogis believe, then it is not liberation, because the moment the mind, body and senses shift out of that coveted state, the “liberation” will be lost.
Liberation must necessarily be independent of all factors. The enlightened, being steady in the Knowledge of their nature as Awareness, are free regardless of the condition or quality of the body and mind. Whether thoughts are present or absent in the mind, the liberated are unmoved, for the Self is unbound by thought. Action may or may not take place, yet, knowing themselves to be the Awareness in which action takes place, the liberated are also unbound by action.
38. It is beyond the mind, intellect, body and sense organs; beyond the subtle elements and the five gross elements; beyond the ego-sense and beyond even space. It is the Self, the Supreme Eternal, that they attain.
39. Abiding as the Eternal Self, the liberated soul is free from all dictates, with a mind devoid of duality. Neither purity nor impurity, nor distinguishing attributes, nor fortune or misfortune pertain to such a soul. It is the Self, the Supreme Eternal, that they attain.
Although the mind and senses still register the maya world as before, the liberated soul knows that duality is just a superimposition upon non-duality; which is to say, an appearance in Awareness.
40. If the Self is subtler than the mind and speech, how can the words of a guru capture it? How can the words of any teaching reveal that which is the essence of Existence and which is ever-shining and self-illumining?
Because it is subtler than the subtlest and unobjectifiable by any means, Vedanta reveals the Self not by adding knowledge of the Self as such (besides, we actually already have knowledge of the Self because we all know that we exist and are conscious), but by removing the ignorance we have about the nature of that self. The Self is self-shining and self-revealing. Like the sun, it needs no other source of light to reveal it. The best the guru can do is to remove the erroneous notions we have about who we are and, through a process of sustained self-inquiry, strip away the idea that appearance is real, and that we are simply an assemblage of body, mind and ego. When the false is negated, what remains is the Truth.
Om Tat Sat.
