The Witness Cannot Be Witnessed

Janaka: "You speak of being the witness, of awareness itself. But how can I witness the witness? If I try to see this awareness you speak of, I find nothing."

Ashtavakra: "You have found it."

Janaka: "Found what? I see nothing!"

Ashtavakra: "Exactly. You see nothing because awareness cannot be made into an object. It cannot be witnessed because it is the witness. You are looking for something, when you are the looking itself."

Janaka: "Then how can I be certain? How can I know myself?"

Ashtavakra: "Right and wrong, pleasure and pain—these belong to the mind, not to you. You are neither the doer nor the enjoyer. You have always been free."

Janaka: "But I feel pleasure when good fortune comes, and pain when misfortune strikes—"

Ashtavakra: "The feeling arises. You are that in which the feeling appears. The sun does not say "I am dark" when clouds pass. You do not become suffering when suffering appears in you. You are the one awareness, the witness of all. Therefore be happy."

Janaka: "One awareness? Not many individual souls?"

Ashtavakra: "In truth, you are the single witness of all. You are always free. Your only bondage is this: you see the witness as something other than yourself."

Janaka: "But the sages speak of bondage and liberation, of ignorance and enlightenment—"

Ashtavakra: "Abandon all dualistic thinking. Rest in awareness alone. You, the Self, are neither bound nor free. You cannot be bound—there is nothing to bind you. You cannot be freed—there is no one who was ever in prison. When this is seen, the question falls away."

Janaka: "What of all the practices, the austerities, the meditations I have undertaken?"

Ashtavakra: "They belong to the world of becoming. You are the witness of becoming. Let them continue or let them cease—you remain untouched. Do not think "I am the body." Do not think "I am not the body." Do not think at all. You are pure awareness, always free. What is there to think about?"

Janaka: "This is too simple. Surely there must be something to do, some effort—"

Ashtavakra: "The very desire to make effort is the obstacle. You seek freedom as if it were far away. But where are you seeking it from, if not from freedom itself? The wave cannot search for water. See this, and be at peace."