Textual context
‘Rest in the Self’ is the nineteenth chapter. Repose within the atman (self). Here the word ‘rest’ arrives in a fresh sense. It names the state inside your own depths where nothing is left to do, a state that runs far deeper than any pause or holiday.
In modern times, Rabindranath Tagore carried this same mood of self-repose into Bengali across many poems of his ‘Gitanjali’ (1910). In his 1913 Nobel Prize lecture he pointed back to this very experience.
Rest in the Self
Rest in one’s own glory · 8 shlokas
Eight shlokas from Janaka. Each one closes on the same line, “स्वमहिम्नि स्थितस्य मे”, of me, resting in my own glory. In the manner of a question, Janaka dismisses one category after another.
The whole force of this chapter rests on self-repose, rest within the atman. A settled condition in which no effort is left. This state resembles, in a striking way, the ‘vishrama-kaushalya’ of the Buddhist tradition, though the two currents rose from separate roots.
So far
After liberation in life, now self-repose. The stilling of what lies within.
Janaka begins with an image. Inside the heart many thoughts lie lodged, like thorns in flesh. And just as a thorn fallen into the eye cannot be seen by that same eye, and needs a pair of tongs, so the knowledge of the real is what draws out these thorns of thought. Janaka says, that very pair of tongs I took up, and from the depths of my own heart I pulled out, one by one, the thorns of every kind of thought.
Shloka 1
तत्त्वविज्ञानसंदंशमादाय हृदयोदरात्।
नानाविधपरामर्शशल्योद्धारः कृतो मया॥
Once the thorns are gone, what remains is the ‘I’ that rests in its own glory. And now, from that very stillness, Janaka begins to dismiss one category after another. When you are established in your own nature, where is dharma, where is desire, where is wealth, where even is the discernment of good from bad. The distinction between duality and non-duality comes to rest there as well, because the one who draws the distinction is absorbed in himself. And then the very framework of time collapses. Where is the past, where is what is to come, where even is this present; where is place, where is direction, where even is the measure of the eternal and the fleeting, for the one who sits in his own glory.
Shloka 2 · 3
क्व धर्मः क्व च वा कामः क्व चार्थः क्व विवेकिता।
क्व द्वैतं क्व च वाद्वैतं स्वमहिम्नि स्थितस्य मे॥
क्व भूतं क्व भविष्यद्वा वर्तमानमपि क्व वा।
क्व देशः क्व च वा नित्यं स्वमहिम्नि स्थितस्य मे॥
Now Janaka lets go of even deeper distinctions. Vedanta builds its entire inquiry on the difference between the atman and the non-self; Janaka dismisses even that difference. Where is the atman, where is the non-self, where is the pure, where is the impure, where even is worry and the absence of worry. Then he lets go of the three states of consciousness through which this whole world turns. Where is waking, where is dream, where is deep sleep; and the fourth state that people call turiya, where is that too, and where at all is fear, for the one who stands in his own glory.
Shloka 4 · 5
क्व चात्मा क्व चनात्मा वा क्व शुभं क्वाशुभं तथा।
क्व चिन्ता क्व च वाचिन्ता स्वमहिम्नि स्थितस्य मे॥
क्व स्वप्नः क्व सुषुप्तिर्वा क्व च जागरणं तथा।
क्व तुरीयं भयं वापि स्वमहिम्नि स्थितस्य मे॥
Now the final net of space and time slips from Janaka’s hand as well. Where is far, where is near, where is outside, where is inside, where is the gross, where is the subtle; consciousness binds to no measure, and it has no near shore or far shore. And then he crosses even that border of life and death from which all fear is born. Where is death, where is life, where are the worlds, where is the business of these worlds; even dissolution and samadhi, where are they. For the one already seated in the state that people call samadhi, samadhi too is merely one more category, for that ‘I’ resting in its own glory.
Shloka 6 · 7
क्व दूरं क्व समीपं वा बाह्यं क्वाभ्यन्तरं क्व वा।
क्व स्थूलं क्व च वा सूक्ष्मं स्वमहिम्नि स्थितस्य मे॥
क्व मृत्युर्जीवितं वा क्व लोकाः क्वास्य क्व लौकिकम्।
क्व लयः क्व समाधिर्वा स्वमहिम्नि स्थितस्य मे॥
And at the end Janaka repeats a single word three times, “अलम्”, enough, no more now. Enough of the story of dharma, wealth, and desire, this threefold aim. Enough of the story of yoga. And enough of the story of the knowledge of the real. For the one who has found rest in the atman, no other story remains. Right here the nineteenth chapter comes to rest, in its own glory.
Shloka 8
अलं त्रिवर्गकथया योगस्य कथयाप्यलम्।
अलं विज्ञानकथया विश्रान्तस्य ममात्मनि॥