Dattatreya’s Avadhuta Gita — Translation and Commentary by Rory Mackay
See Also: Introduction and Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3
1. Nothing can be added to or taken away from pure Awareness or Consciousness. So why practise offerings and prostrations? Why perform worship with flowers and leaves? Why engage in meditation and the repetition of mantra? The worshipper and the object of worship are, in fact, one.
One of the greatest controversies in the realm of modern spirituality, and particularly in the sphere of Non-duality, is the issue of spiritual practice. To practice or not to practice? That is the question! Many modern teachers dismiss spiritual practice as an unnecessary indulgence, declaring that “you are already free”. However, while this might be true from the perspective of the Self (the Self, after all, is limitless and thus impervious to bondage), it’s unlikely to be the case for the poor suffering jiva.
Herein lies the seeming contradiction at the heart of Vedantic teaching: there is nothing you can do to become free because you are already free. You cannot become the Self because you are already the Self. What else could you be? The problem is ignorance alone. This ignorance exists in the mind as faulty patterns of thought and self-misconception.
Vedanta remedies this self-ignorance like nothing else; stripping away the notion that you are a limited body/mind/ego, and revealing your true nature to the field of Awareness or Consciousness in which they appear. The problem is Vedanta comes with a set of stipulations. It requires a mature and qualified mind in order to work: specifically, a stable, peaceful, discriminating and dispassionate mind capable of withdrawing from worldly attachments and focusing on the teaching for sustained periods of time. Binding vasanas (conditioned impressions and tendencies) must be rendered non-binding and the mind’s entrenched likes and dislikes sufficiently neutralised. This isn’t something that will happen on its own. Such a mind must be consciously cultivated through the steadfast application of karma yoga, meditation and devotion. This requires much in the way of discipline, perseverance and diligence.
As stated in the introduction, the Avadhuta Gita is not a beginner’s text. Dattatreya’s words here apply to those whose minds are already highly pure and sattvic, for only such a mind will grasp and actualise the teachings of the scriptures. For those whose minds are liberated by the light of Self-Knowledge and who are resolute in the realisation that they are pure Awareness, there is no further need to engage in spiritual practice. This doesn’t, however, mean that they won’t perform spiritual practice, because what better way to spend one’s life than worshipping the divine beneficence of God? But they do so with the clear understanding that no separation exists between the devotee and the object of devotion.
2. The Universal Consciousness I am remains free of bondage and liberation; free of purity and impurity; and free of union and separation. I, myself, am the essence of Freedom; I pervade everything like space.
The qualities of duality pertain only to mithya; to the world of objects, form and experience. As the Self, the one, Non-dual Consciousness, we exist free of all duality. This knowledge, which Vedanta calls raja vidya, the “king of knowledge”, is the jiva’s ticket to freedom.
3. Philosophers and spiritual aspirants endlessly debate the reality or unreality of the phenomenal world, but such concepts have no meaning to me. Freedom is My nature; maya does not pertain to Me.
4. I have no fault, nor am I faultless. I have no beginning, nor am I beginningless. I have neither division nor lack of division. Freedom is My nature; maya does not pertain to Me.
This and subsequent verses are declarations from the perspective of the Self. Again, they highlight that the opposites of duality pertain only to maya, the apparent world, and not to the pure Awareness pervading, underlying and transcending it. These are exultations of freedom; the song of the Avadhuta, or liberated soul.
5. As the undivided Self, neither ignorance or knowledge exist in Me. How can I thus speak of knowing or not knowing? Freedom is My nature; maya does not pertain to Me.
6. Neither righteousness or sin exist in Me, nor bondage or liberation. I cannot be described as either united or separated. Freedom is My nature; maya does not pertain to Me.
7. “Better” or “worse” are meaningless concepts to Me. I have neither friend or enemy. How then can I speak of “good” and “evil”? Freedom is My nature; maya does not pertain to Me.
Some people, out of misunderstanding, criticise Vedanta for adopting what they assume is a position of moral relativism. “If everything is the Self and there is no good or bad,” they say, “then what’s to stop people from raping and pillaging their way through life?” It’s important to understand that at the Absolute order of reality there is no division, no duality, no opposites and, therefore, no “good” or “bad”. The Self, being the totality of all that is, exists beyond such concepts.
Within the realm of maya, however, good and bad clearly exist, as determined by the law of dharma. “Good” might be defined as that which adheres to and supports dharma, while “bad” can be defined as anything that contravenes dharma, causing unnecessary suffering. There’s no escaping dharma, for it is a natural law built into the very fabric of the creation. All beings must conform to dharma and the failure to do so invariably results in pain and suffering.
Again, Dattatreya is speaking here not from the level of the jiva in the relative world, but from the perspective of the Self. You can be sure, however, that Self-Realised beings automatically follow dharma with impeccable resolve. After all, having surmounted the ego and its entrenched desires and attachments, they have no reason to violate it. They are automatically “good” because they live in alignment with God, and God is good!
Like Zen koans, this and the following verses seem designed to take the mind beyond its dualistic orientation and into full realisation of the non-dual nature of the Self.
8. I am neither the worshipper nor the object of worship. Neither instruction nor ritual exist for Me, for I perform no action. My nature is pure Awareness—so how can I speak of Myself? Freedom is My nature; maya does not pertain to Me.
9. No particular thing pervades, and no particular thing is pervaded. Neither the manifest world nor the unmanifest pertain to Me. How, then, can I speak of the visible and the invisible? Freedom is My nature; maya does not pertain to Me.
10. I am neither a perceiver nor an object of perception. I am beyond both cause and effect. How, then, can I speak of the conceivable or the inconceivable? Freedom is My nature; maya does not pertain to Me.
11. I am neither divided nor undivided. I am neither that which knows nor that which is known. How, then, could I speak of that which comes and that which goes? Freedom is My nature; maya does not pertain to Me.
12. I have no body, yet neither am I bodiless. I have neither intellect, nor mind, nor senses. How, then, can I speak of desire and desirelessness? Freedom is My nature; maya does not pertain to Me.
13. Nothing exists independently of the Self. One cannot speak of that which is nonexistent. How, then, oh friend, can I speak of the Self in terms of similarity or dissimilarity? Freedom is My nature; maya does not pertain to Me.
14. Neither have I conquered nor am I bound by the senses. “Should” and “shouldn’t” are meaningless concepts to Me. How, then, oh friend, can I speak of “success” or “failure”? Freedom is My nature; maya does not pertain to Me.
15. I have neither form nor the absence of form; and I have no beginning, middle, nor end. How, then, oh friend, can I speak of “youth” and “agedness”? Freedom is My nature; maya does not pertain to Me.
16. Never have I been subject to death or deathlessness; nor evil or good. None of these opposites exist in Me, dear child. How, then, can I speak of “purity” and “impurity”? Freedom is My nature; maya does not pertain to Me.
17. Never have I experienced the states of sleep and waking or the heightened states of yoga. For Me, there is neither day nor night. How, then, can I speak of the transient states of mind? Freedom is My nature; maya does not pertain to Me.
States of consciousness are not experienced by the Self, but by the body-mind-sense complex. This apparatus is illumined and granted temporary life by reflected Consciousness, much as the moon is illumined by the reflected light of the sun. Like an eternal sun, the Self is the original Consciousness; the light by which all experience is revealed, while itself remaining free of experience.
18. Know Me as unaffected by the appearance or non-appearance of the world. I am unperturbed by either the presence or absence of maya. How, then, can I speak of the performance of prescribed action and ritual? Freedom is My nature; maya does not pertain to Me.
19. As one experiences in samadhi, all things are One. I, however, am unaffected by the attainment or non-attainment of samadhi. How, then, can I speak of union or separation? Freedom is My nature; maya does not pertain to Me.
Samadhi pertains to the mind, not the Self. The Self, as pure, unconditioned Consciousness is ever whole and free, illumining the mind just the same in all states of mind, however mundane or exalted.
20. I am neither ignorant nor learned. I neither observe silence nor do I speak. How, then, can I speak of that which is true or false? Freedom is My nature; maya does not pertain to Me.
21. I have neither father or mother, nor family or caste. I have never been born, thus I can never die. How, then, can I speak of affection or attachment? Freedom is My nature; maya does not pertain to Me.
22. I am, by nature, eternal and ever present. I am never affected by darkness or light. How, then, can I speak of rituals such as morning and evening prayers? Freedom is My nature; maya does not pertain to Me.
23. Know without doubt that I am limitless. Know without doubt that I am changeless. Know without doubt that I am untouchable by anything in this world. Freedom is My nature; maya does not pertain to Me.
24. Those with strong discrimination have no need for meditation. They renounce all their good actions along with the bad. They enjoy the sweet nectar of renunciation. Freedom is My nature; maya does not pertain to Me.
Indeed, discrimination—the ability to distinguish oneself, Awareness, from the shifting forms appearing in it—is intrinsic to liberation. All actions and their results are then viewed as the objects they are; and all objects relate not to the Self, but to Ishvara and the empirical world of maya.
25. For the Self, at the Absolute order of Reality, there exists no versified knowledge of any kind. But here, in this relative realm of samsara, I, the Avadhuta, have attempted to speak of this Supreme Absolute.
Here we have an acknowledgement of the paradox at the heart of the teaching. While Dattatreya has so poetically asserted the Self to be utterly free, beyond knowledge and ignorance, good and bad, and the presence or absence of the phenomenal world, these words are shared out of compassion for the suffering souls in samsara; those who have not yet ascertained their identity as the eternal, ever free Self.
