‘Akaivalya’ is the twentieth and final chapter. Kaivalya means ‘complete aloneness’ (in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra 4.34). Akaivalya is its non-dual transformation. Kaivalya is still a kind of ‘aloneness’; akaivalya passes beyond even that. There is no ‘being apart,’ because there is no second thing at all. This is the line between two schools of Indian philosophy. The philosophy of Samkhya-Yoga stops at kaivalya; Advaita Vedanta goes all the way to akaivalya. Ashtavakra became the model guru for this journey.Textual context
Akaivalya
Beyond even aloneness · 14 verses
The final chapter of the whole text. Fourteen verses from Janaka. Each one sweeps into the next on a single ‘kva?’, ‘where is this? where is that?’ Here even ‘kaivalya’ falls away. That is, past even the idea of ‘liberation.’
The twentieth and final chapter carries the word ‘akaivalya.’ Its meaning sounds a little paradoxical: ‘a-kaivalya,’ that is, ‘not aloneness.’ In the traditional philosophies of liberation, in Samkhya too, kaivalya is the final state. Ashtavakra says the real state is not even kaivalya; it lies past everything.
So far
After rest in the self, ‘akaivalya.’ The strange paradox of ‘not even kaivalya.’
In this final chapter Janaka is no longer asking anyone anything, nor is he explaining anything to anyone. He simply rests in his own stainless nature and, one by one, takes leave of every single thing he once held to be true. First the gross world, then the body, the senses, and the mind. After that, even what seekers call their goal, down to emptiness and despair. In the nature that we are, where is there room for any of these? And so too with the shastras, self-knowledge, the mind emptied of objects, contentment, and the freedom from craving. We are forever past all opposites; these pairs find no foothold here.
Verses 1 · 2
क्व भूतानि क्व देहो वा क्वेन्द्रियाणि क्व वा मनः।
क्व शून्यं क्व च नैराश्यं मत्स्वरूपे निरञ्जने॥
क्व शास्त्रं क्वात्मविज्ञानं क्व वा निर्विषयं मनः।
क्व तृप्तिः क्व वितृष्णत्वं गतद्वन्द्वस्य मे सदा॥
Knowledge or ignorance, ‘I,’ ‘this,’ or ‘mine,’ bondage or liberation (moksha): all of these are outlines, and no outline can be traced upon the true nature. Here Janaka says something bolder still. Where is prarabdha karma, the deeds already bearing fruit, where even liberation-in-life (jivanmukti), and where that bodiless kaivalya (videha-kaivalya) held to be the highest goal? For what is featureless, forever featureless, even the idea of liberation remains only an idea.
Verses 3 · 4
क्व विद्या क्व च वाविद्या क्वाहं क्वेदं मम क्व वा।
क्व बन्धः क्व च वा मोक्षः स्वरूपस्य क्व रूपिता॥
क्व प्रारब्धानि कर्माणि जीवन्मुक्तिरपि क्व वा।
क्व तद्विदेहकैवल्यं निर्विशेषस्य सर्वदा॥
Now he takes leave of the doer and the enjoyer. For one who has no nature of his own, who is the doer, who the enjoyer, what inactive stirring, and what that directly known fruit? Then the whole apparatus of identity collapses. World, seeker, yogi, knower, bound, free: these are all borrowed names. In one who rests in his own non-dual nature, not a single one of them arises. And so too creation and dissolution, the end and the means, the practitioner and the attainment: in the non-dual nature these pairs have no place at all.
Verses 5 · 6 · 7
क्व कर्ता क्व च वा भोक्ता निष्क्रियं स्फुरणं क्व वा।
क्वापरोक्षं फलं वा क्व निःस्वभावस्य मे सदा॥
क्व लोकं क्व मुमुक्षुर्वा क्व योगी ज्ञानवान्क्व वा।
क्व बद्धः क्व च वा मुक्तः स्वस्वरूपेऽहमद्वये॥
क्व सृष्टिः क्व च संहारः क्व साध्यं क्व च साधनम्।
क्व साधकः क्व सिद्धिर्वा स्वस्वरूपेऽहमद्वये॥
Now the whole edifice of knowing collapses as well. The pramata, the pramana, the prameya, and the prama: the knower, the means of knowing, that which is to be known, and knowledge itself, these four also take their leave. For what is forever spotless, there is neither ‘something’ nor ‘nothing.’ Then even the stirrings of the mind grow still. Distraction and one-pointedness, unknowing and delusion, joy and sorrow: in what is forever inactive, not one of these turns over. And even the two levels of Vedanta, this everyday reality and that ultimate truth, pleasure and pain, in the nature beyond reflection none of them leaves a trace.
Verses 8 · 9 · 10
क्व प्रमाता प्रमाणं वा क्व प्रमेयं क्व च प्रमा।
क्व किञ्चित्क्व न किञ्चिद्वा सर्वदा विमलस्य मे॥
क्व विक्षेपः क्व चैकाग्र्यं क्व निर्बोधः क्व मूढता।
क्व हर्षः क्व विषादो वा सर्वदा निष्क्रियस्य मे॥
क्व चैष व्यवहारो वा क्व च सा परमार्थता।
क्व सुखं क्व च वा दुःखं निर्विमर्शस्य मे सदा॥
Now even the pairs on which all philosophy rests fall away. Maya and the world, attachment and dispassion, the individual soul and that Brahman: these too are categories of identity, and for what is forever spotless, even the distinction between soul and Brahman ceases to matter. Engagement and withdrawal, liberation and bondage: for what is unchanging, undivided, and forever at rest in itself, these too do not arise.
Verses 11 · 12
क्व माया क्व च संसारः क्व प्रीतिर्विरतिः क्व वा।
क्व जीवः क्व च तद्ब्रह्म सर्वदा विमलस्य मे॥
क्व प्रवृत्तिर्निवृत्तिर्वा क्व मुक्तिः क्व च बन्धनम्।
कूटस्थनिर्विभागस्य स्वस्थस्य मम सर्वदा॥
And now even the bond on which this whole text once stood takes its leave. Teaching and shastra, disciple and guru, and any human aim: for what is the unconditioned nature of Shiva, not one of these remains. The entire chapter has been a dialogue between guru and disciple, and at the end that dialogue takes leave of itself as well. Then comes the final verse of the whole text, the final rest. Where is ‘is,’ where ‘is not,’ where ‘one,’ where ‘two.’ What more is there to say. Janaka says nothing rises within us any longer. No thought, no question, no experience. Only being, and that too wordless.
Verses 13 · 14
क्वोपदेशः क्व वा शास्त्रं क्व शिष्यः क्व च वा गुरुः।
क्व चास्ति पुरुषार्थो वा निरुपाधेः शिवस्य मे॥
क्व चास्ति क्व च वा नास्ति क्वास्ति चैकं क्व च द्वयम्।
बहुनात्र किमुक्तेन किञ्चिन्नोत्तिष्ठते मम॥