Dattatreya: Avadhoota Gita
Forward.
1.
The three unsurpassed effulgent Lights, Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma, were debating who is the greatest devotee in heaven and on Earth.
By chance the sage of Heaven and Earth, Narada, while walking by, overheard and injected, “Anasuya is the one you seek. But, please do not interfere in her life whatsoever. She is devoted totally to her husband, the Rishi, Atri. Neither in Heaven nor on Earth can anyone surpass the length, width, height or depth of her devotion. It is without measure. Those who try, do so at their own peril.”
Of course, the 3 Supreme Manifestations could not but ignore his advice because of Who they were. Some say he injected into his perfumed speech an irresistible magnetic push towards her.
Others say Narada had set his mischief afoot among their three consorts who then demanded Anasuya be tested by their Mates.
They descended to Earth and studied the activities of Atri. When he departed for his daily rituals, they transformed into wandering seekers and knocked on the door.
Anasuya open the door and seeing three seekers asked, “May I be of service, honorable sirs?” “Yes, we would like a meal.” “My husband is not here and I have a chore to finish. Please, sit under the banyan tree and I will join you shortly.”
In a few minutes she approached them. “We would like you to prepare us a meal. Since we have a special diet, we carry what we need cooked in this bag. Would you be so kind as to cook this?”
She dutifully took the bag, opened it in the cooking area and was surprised and confused to find a bag full of iron balls. She stilled her mind, prayed for guidance and the solution arrived.
Anasuya poured into the cooking vessel the water she kept after washing Atri’s feet in her daily morning devotion, dropped in the iron balls, covered the vessel all the while repeating the mantra she hummed to herself while washing her his feet.
At the appropriate moment, she took the vessel off the fire, divided the meal equally into 3 bowls, covered each bowl and carried the meal to her visitors.
Upon lifting the lids they were stunned, to say the least. Everyone, even their wives had failed this test.
They immediately stood, fully revealed themselves to her and were further surprised that their glorious, effulgent splendor did not move her backwards even a fraction of an inch.
Anasuya bowed down immediately and touched their feet with her hands and then forehead saying, “Oh Lords! My prayers have been answered. In all humility, I thank you for this most supreme of all blessings.”
“Because you cooked this meal neither goddess nor human has ever accomplished, We offer you a boon.”
“Oh Lords, I am in need of nothing. Your appearance and allowing me to bow down and touch your feet with my hands and forehead has completely filled me erasing all my remaining desires.”
“Anasuya, devoted wife of Atri, We have offered you a boon and so you must use it.”
“Oh Lords, I am not being disrespectful. Your darshan completely filled me and erased all my desires and thoughts of any desire.”
“Oh honorable Anasuya, your devotion is beyond doubt without a peer; We offer you this boon and so We insist you use it.”
“Oh Lords, please believe me, I am in need of nothing. Your darshan has completely filled me and erased not only all my desires and thoughts for any desire but all desires for any desire.”
“A boon offered must be taken Anasuya. We command you to take this boon.”
She remained silent for a moment and then said, “Oh Lords, please remember Your command. I gave You three chances to rescind Your offer. I ask that all three of You become my son.”
They looked at each other remembering Narada’s warning words as they merged and transformed into a baby at her feet.
When Atri returned home, Anasuya told him how their son, Dattatreya arrived in their ashram.
2.
Like evening insects attracted to light, large crowds followed the young Dattatreya wherever he walked in his local surroundings.
One day, tired of all the noise and clamor and desiring to begin his long journey, he jumped into the river and remained submerged for three days. But, the crowd knew he was a great yogi. When he surfaced, the river bank remained crowded with onlookers, and so he dove down and resurfaced with a jug of wine in one hand and the other arm around a maiden. The crowd left in disgust saying, “He has fallen.”
As soon as he was alone, he ended the illusion and was free to roam unmolested at will. He began his many yeared wandering over India seeking his student.
One day, a few years along his way, Dattatreya came to a town. The king saw him and was immediately in awe with the stranger’s calmness, despite the poverty stricken appearance. The king approached, bowed and touched his feet and asked, “Who is your guru? What is the secret of your unsurpassed equanimity? I have everything, yet I am unhappy. You have nothing, but the perfume of self knowledge radiates from you like a jasmine filled garden and your tremendous calmness is like an unfathomable well in its center.”
Dattatreya said, “Oh king, I have twenty four great gurus.
The earth endures all injury by humans while providing for everyone. The earth taught me patience and doing good to others.
Pure water is cleansing. Water taught me those in the company of a sage are purified.
Air moves around or through objects never attaching to anything. Air taught me unattachment.
Fire burns bright. Fire taught me the sage glows with the splendor of knowledge and bliss.
Space touches nothing, only contains. Space taught me the Absolute pervades everywhere and everything while attached to nothing.
The moon appears to wax or wane. The moon taught me the soul is always perfect and changeless while the body and personality are imperfect and changing.
The sun reflected in many puddles seems like a multitude. The sun taught me the Divine seems as many because of the mind’s reflection.
I once saw a pair of pigeons with their young. A fowler spread a net catching the young. Attached to them, each parent flew into the net and was caught. The pigeons taught me attachment causes bondage.
The python is satisfied waiting in one place with the food coming to it. The python taught me be content with whatever I get to eat.
The ocean remains unmoved though hundreds of rivers flow into it. The ocean taught me the wise remain calm amidst life’s forces.
The infatuated moth flying into a fire burns up. The moth taught me to control the sense of sight and focus the mind on the Self.par
The bee sucks sweetness from many flowers. The bee taught me to accept the essence of many scriptures and find good in all religions.
The honey-gatherer takes honey with ease. The honey-gatherer taught me the foolishness of hoarding.
Blinded by lust at the sight of a possible mate, an elephant fell into a grass covered pit and was chained and tortured. The elephant taught me to destroy passion.
A deer was charmed and trapped by a hunter through its love of music. The deer taught me caution of music.
A fish fell victim to bait. The fish taught me when the sense of taste overpowers, freedom leaves and ruin arrives.
Tired of looking for rich customers all night, a dancing girl became hopeless. Realizing expectation creates disappointment, she became satisfied and slept soundly. The dancing girl taught me abandoning expectation brings contentment.
A raven picked up a piece of flesh only to be chased and beaten by others. Dropping the piece of flesh, peace and rest arrived. The raven taught me running after pleasure gathers all sorts of troubles and miseries, and happiness arrives by dropping pleasure.
A child sucking milk is free from all cares, worries and anxieties and is always cheerful. The child taught me the virtue of being carefree and cheerful.
A Maiden’s parents went in search of a bridegroom. Then, an uninvited group arrived with a marriage offer. She received them and went inside to husk grain. While husking, bangles on both wrists jingled loudly. The wise girl thought they would discover her husking and learn her family was too poor to hire help. She removed all the bangles except two on each wrist. Even these created too much noise. She removed one more off each wrist. The Maiden taught me that living among many creates discord. Even among two there may be unnecessary words or strife. The seeker should remain alone.
The snake does not dig its hole but lives in the holes made by others. The snake taught me an ascetic should not build a home for himself, but live in the caves and temples built by others.
An arrow maker was absorbed in honing an arrow. The king passed his shop with his whole retinue. Later, a man came and asked the artisan if the king had passed by. The artisan said he did not notice having been too absorbed in his work. The arrow maker taught me the quality of intense focus.
From within the spider comes the thread to weave its webs. The spider taught me the mind is a web entangling us in its ideas and those of others. The wise man does not cling to the mind and dwells only in the Self.
Carried by a wasp to its nest as food for the young, the beetle, taming death, changes into the shape of the wasp. The beetle taught me as one thinks so one becomes. I learned to turn myself into the Self. By meditating always on the Self, I dropped all attachment and reached Liberation.
3.
One evening years later Dattatreya entered a clearing where a young man was sitting next to a fire. He knew this was the student he had been seeking. “May I join you?” he asked. “Who are you?” the young man’s replied.
Thus began Dattatreya’s song of the Absolute.
THE Avadhoota GITA .
1.
For true freedom, only God’s grace gives a wise person the desire to know Unity.
When all that exists is the Self, how can I worship Myself?
Made of the five elements, the universe is like the water in a desert mirage. I am the One without stain — to whom or what should I bow?
With no likeness or unlikeness, neither existing nor not existing, everything is only Myself. Wonder and awe fill me.
My nature is the essence of all scripture and lives in everything as the formless Self.
Shining within everything and formless like vast space, I am the pure luminous Self.
I am the unchanging, infinite, pure Consciousness. Neither form nor formlessness holds me. I know neither joy nor sorrow, nor how they exist.
I never think, speak or work for good or bad. Beyond the senses, I am Knowledge’s pure nectar.
Facing all directions and filled with everything, the mind seems like space. Being dependent, the mind is not the true Self.
Only I am in everything, yet unbound and beyond space. How can I see my true Self?
Living in everything as the Ever Shining Presence, don’t you know you also are the Self? How can you, the master, think of light and dark?
Remember, you alone dwell in everything. Everywhere you are continuous and the same. When you meditate on other than the Self, you make more than one from one.
Never a body, you are birthless and deathless. Scriptures in many ways declare All is One.
You, That existing inside and out, are Absolute Bliss always everywhere. Why, then, do you scurry about like a frightened deer?
There is neither union nor separation for you and me. There is no you, me or universe. All is the Self existing alone.
The five senses can’t find you. You are That Which Is. Why, then, are you so upset?
Birth, death, memory, bondage, liberation, good nor evil never phase you. My dear one, why do you weep? You nor I have name or form.
O mind, why do you wander about like a ghost thinking it’s alive? Know your true indivisible Self. Drop attachments and be happy.
You are the unchanging essence, the motionless Unity and freedom itself. Without bounds, you experience neither desire nor aversion. Then, why do you suffer running after things?
All scripture say Truth, the Self, is pure, formless, immutable and without attributes, exists everywhere. Without a doubt know that Self is me.
Know that of form is limited, thus not real. That which is formless is eternal. Those living this Truth will not be reborn.
Sages say reality is unchanging and One. Ceasing to desire, the mind no longer sees or thinks of the One or the many.
How can you reach freedom thinking yourself other than One? How is freedom possible for one thinking oneself the Self?
If true freedom is seen as real and unreal, where is unity?
How can there be freedom if everything is One?
Having no body, birth or death and being immutable, why do you think you know or don’t know the Self?
When scripture says, “You are That”, it speaks of the Self. When scripture says, “Not that”, it means the five elements are unreal.
The Self fills the little self. Thinker and thought do not exist. How, then, can you meditate?
I do not know the Self. How can I speak of It or worship It? My nature remains constant like vast space.
Ego is not the true Essence. I have no form beyond subject and object. How can I be my own object?
Matter is limited and mutable, thus no object is real. The Self has no form, nor creates, sustains nor destroys.
You are that Truth — simple, pure, unchanging Essence. Why are you confused? There is no confusion for you.
When a jar breaks, the inside space joins the outside. When the mind is pure, it merges with the Self. Diversity is nonexistent.
There is no pot or pot’s inner space, no body or soul within. Know the Self, that Supreme Bliss, is neither knowable nor can be made known.
Know that the Self is always interwoven everywhere and nowhere and nothing. Have no doubt I am that Self.
There are no gods, worlds, scriptures rituals, castes, races, family, birth, duality or unity — only that Truth, the Self.
If you have knowledge of the Self beyond pervader and pervaded, how can you think yourself to be discovered directly or indirectly?
All fail who seek the many or the one, for the Self is beyond the many and the one.
When the Self is beyond color and quality and the range of speech and mind, how can you discuss the Self?
When all this, including the body, appears false and filled with the void of space, then the Self is known and this ocean of duality evaporates into the essence of Bliss.
When I know my own self and the true Self are identical like vast space, how can there be a meditator and meditation?
Whatever I do — eat, give or sacrifice — none of it is mine, for I am without blemish, birth or death.
Know the universe is formless, unchanging and pure existence. The universe is the nature of the Self.
Know without a doubt you are the Truth. But as you think of the Self, what is beyond the knowable and unknowable can’t be understood by the mind.
Light and darkness don’t coexist. How can illusion and non-illusion occur in the Self? All is the Self, spotless and formless like space.
Never bound, I have no beginning middle or end. My nature is without stain. This I know for certain.
From the most subtle potential to the created universe itself, nothing appears to me — there is only the Self. How then can there be one who is single, married or a renunciate?
I know I am that Self holding and not holding, within or without, the manifested and unmanifested.
This Self has neither gender nor no gender, intellect nor power of thought. How, then, can you believe the Self is Blissful or not Blissful?
The Self does not become pure by various Yogas nor control of the mind or through a teacher’s words. This purity is your Self, Truth Itself.
All is Self. It has neither a body nor bodilessness. How can there be any state of being?
I am neither free nor bound, nor separated from the Self. I am neither the doer nor the enjoyer, nor do I occupy nor am occupied.
Water poured into water is inseparable. For me matter and spirit are the same.
Since you are never free nor liberated, how can you think yourself to be with or without form?
I know your true Self extends everywhere like space, and your little self is like a mirage’s water.
I am not a teacher nor the lesson for I have no work or duty. By nature I am like pure space.
The Self is pure having no mind or body. You are the Self, the ultimate Truth. Say this without shame.
O mind, why do you weep so? By yourself become the Self and drink the nectar of the boundless ocean.
When you realize you have neither knowledge nor ignorance nor their mix, then you are Knowledge Itself.
I can’t be reached by knowledge, reason, meditation, yoga or teachings. By passing through time and space, I am Consciousness Itself, vast like boundless steady space.
I am without birth, death, action, quality or impurity. I am that Self without nouns, verbs or adjectives pinned to me. How could bondage or liberation be found in or about me?
The Self is uniform, all pervading, perfect and everywhere. There is no distance between me and It. How can It be inside or outside?
Radiant and whole, the universe shines. The idea of illusion is deluding. The mind invented duality and non duality.
That of form or without form is negated by “Not this, not this”. Only the Self transcends sameness and difference.
You have no mother, father, friend, wife or child, nor likes or dislikes. Why, then, all the suffering in your mind?
O mind, there is no day or night, rising or setting. How can a wise person think of form for the formless Self?
I can’t be divided or undivided. I have no sadness or joy. I am not more or less than everything. I am only the Self.
Because I am not the doer or enjoyer, I have no present or past action. And having no idea of body or bodilessness, how can I claim my or mine?
I have no mental or physical desire or suffering. Know me as the Self vast like space.
My friend, mind, what is the aim of all this talking? My friend, mind, all this is speculation. I have already spoken the essence — you are Truth, the Self like vast space.
It matters not where or how a yogi dies. Just as when a bottle breaks and the air mixes with the atmosphere, the yogi is absorbed into the Self.
The yogi may die in a holy or unholy place. Conscious or not, the yogi merges into the Self.
The yogi looks upon duties, wealth, desire, liberation, religion, animal, human, everything moving and unmoving as that water shimmering in a mirage.
I know I did not, do not or will act; nor their fruits did I, do I or will enjoy. Without a doubt I know this.
The avadhuta either lives alone in an empty dwelling, or randomly without a garment, moves about finding everything within the Self.
One reaches the Self where there is no waking, dreaming, deep sleep, religion, irreligion or enlightenment. How can freedom or bondage be there?
The Self can’t be acquired with a mantra or with rhythmic repetition of scripture. After purifying myself in meditation and merged in eternal Bliss, I, the Avadhuta, have spoken this Truth.
The All neither is nor is not, nor is It true nor false. The truths of scripture I realized and sing them to you.
2.
A teacher may be young, foolish, addicted to desires, a servant or have a family and home. If a jewel is found in the mud, who walks by without picking it up?
If speech lacks poetry, do not judge. A wise student gleams the essence. A boat may be plain or without paint but will take you to the other shore.
The One, Who does not move and without effort holds all moving and unmoving, is Consciousness pervading all like space.
Appearing as the moving and unmoving, the Self forever is one. How, then, can this Self differ from me?
I am that ultimate Truth, never coming or going, beyond good and evil.
I am worshipped by the gods because I am not made of parts. While they see divisions, I see none.
Ignorance nor doubt cause the smallest ripple within me. The mind’s stuff comes and goes like bubbles rising in a calm pond.
I pervade all existence from Cosmic Intelligence to all things hard or soft, bitter or sweet.
As purity, coldness and softness are qualities of water, so matter and spirit are qualities of the Self.
Subtler than the subtlest and beyond speech, all names, mind, intellect and the five senses, the Self is spotless and ever one.
Because the Self is universal, how can there be I or you, or the moving and unmoving world?
The Self has been said to be like vast space — stainless, all pervading consciousness.
Air can’t move the Self, nor water submerge It, nor fire burn It, nor is the Earth large enough for It to play on.
The Self occupies all space. Nothing occupies the Self. The Self always is inside and outside indivisible.
Because the Self is invisible, subtle and without qualities, yogis first give the student a symbol and with guidance rung by rung ascends.
By unceasing practice, the student’s focus becomes without object and the mind, free from all attributes, disappears into the Self.
The only acid to destroy attachment is the nectar of the Self.
Form is seen with the eyes. Formless is seen within. Neither being nor nonbeing, the Self is the innermost Self.
External form is the universe and its root is found within. But, the root of the root is the Self.
Worldly facts and knowledge always change. Inner knowledge is the unchanging Truth.
There is only one full moon. Squinting, the eyes makes two. Look at the Self as the Luminous One. Seeing more than one is an illusion.
There is only One. Those seeing many can’t realize the Self. The being who gains this wisdom is sung of in a million ways.
To the wise and foolish ones, a teacher holds the gift of wisdom. Only those who cross the this and that ocean gain the knowledge of Self.
One free of attachment and hate, devoted to the good of all beings and established in knowledge will reach the Self.
Inner space blends with all space when a jar breaks. When a yogi’s body ceases, the yogi merges with the Self.
When a yogi reaches the Self, the last thought at dying has no power because knowledge of the One means everything is identical.
The destiny of those devoted to action and its rewards can be talked about, but not the destiny of the yogi established in the Self.
No matter where a yogi dies, this one will never reappear in a womb. The yogi and the Self are indivisible.
One who has seen the Self — the innate, unborn, incomprehensible Truth — is free of all blemish and may act on any desire. Concentrating on the Self, the yogi is never bound.
The yogi goes beyond the reach of the senses, duality, the formless, power and infinity.
The yogi attains not scripture, initiation, shaved head, not teacher, students, perfect postures or ritual markings, but attains the Eternal, the Self.
When the yogi attains the Self — which is no divine form or power — the yogi has no limb or face, nor material, mental or spiritual body. The yogi is not a jar containing a soul.
The yogi attains the Self from which the essence of the moving and unmoving appear and disappear like bubbles rising and sinking in water.
After reaching the Self, there are no more yoga postures, breath control, focused vision, sacred diagrams or hand positions.
There is no duality or unity, no variety or diversity, no vastness or emptiness, no with or without control, no active or inactive, no within or without, no everything or nothing.
The Self is neither a that nor a who, nor is It the body, senses, mind, intellect or ego, nor the subtle or gross elements, nor the nature of space.
There the yogi’s mind is void of differences and lacks the idea of purity or impurity.
The Self can’t be spoken of nor imagined. How can a teacher reveal It with poetry? Assimilating the teacher’s Truth, the student reaches the Self.
3.
How can I bow to the Absolute, the All Pervading without attributes, yet not without attributes?
How can I bow to the Absolute void of color, colorlessness, cause and effect, for I am that Absolute, the Self?
I am always burning fuel not fuel, bellowing and not bellowing smoke not smoke. I am that light not light. I am the Self, luminous everywhere like space.
How can I say the Absolute has desire or none, substance or none, attachment or none, or by nature is dual or non-dual, eternal or non eternal?
Neither subtle nor gross, the Absolute never comes nor goes, and being without beginning, middle or end, It is neither high nor low. I am the ultimate Truth.
Know that all sense organs are made of space like their sense objects. Know that I am spotless.
My friend, I am not too mysterious or difficult to understand, nevertheless I am beyond intellect and vision, and unreachable by forms and formlessness.
I am that fire of knowledge burning pleasure, pain, religion and irreligion, merit and error, bondage and freedom, bodies of the bodiless Self and all Its action.
My friend, neither am I with nor without thought, nor am I separated or unified.
For me, there is neither illusion nor delusion, nor suffering, happiness, greed, nor lust for wealth, passion or dispassion.
The tendrils of the worldly vine can’t touch me, nor joy of contentment, bondage or ignorance.
Form to formless, formlessness to form does not modify me not whatsoever. Nor do turmoil, suffering or bliss affect me. I am the Self, luminous everywhere like space.
My action has no result. My mind knows neither pain nor pleasure. Ego has no hold in or over me.
I make no decision or indecision. The movement of the unmoving dies in me as has the thought of thought, truth and falsehood.
Neither a knower, knowable or a cause, beyond speech, mind and intellect, how can I tell you about the Absolute?
The Absolute is neither the whole nor the divided. It is beyond cause, substance, and attachments. It is not within or without.
I am free of attachment’s turmoils and those of fate. I am the Self, luminous everywhere like space.
In the Absolute, there is no waking, sleeping, dreaming or liberation. Nor is there length, width, depth point, arc, angular or time. I am the root of the final goal, the first peace.
I have no parents or offspring. I have never been born nor an arriving death, nor a mind to think with. I am the Self, luminous everywhere like space.
It is ignorance to claim Truth clean or dirty, broken or unbroken, bound to something or unbound. The Absolute has no end.
If the Absolute is One, how can there be many gods and their heavenly abodes?
How can I say the Absolute is not this or that, endless or has an end, bodiless or has a body?
Though without action, I am engaged without attachment or unattachment — I renounce my renouncement.
The beautiful mirage of creation is not my doing. Crooked ways, untruth and truth are not my doing.
Beyond time’s divisions, I am still ever present, though neither awake nor asleep within.
I have no master or a master’s absence. I have no mind or absence of it. I have no perplexion or ripples from any influence.
I am an empty home or temple. Since It is folded into me without effort, how can the motionless, all pervading be proven or disproven?
Empty of life and lifelessness, empty of seed and seedlessness, empty of freedom and bondage, I am the Self, luminous everywhere like space.
I am forever self luminous, indestructible, existing in nonexistence.
You have no name nor am nameless, nor have any form or formlessness.
My friend, why do you weep? For you there is no natural form, no birth, death, disease, pain or joy.
My friend, why do you weep? You have no age or deformity, no eyes, ears, mouth, tongue, skin or mind and no life.
My friend, why do you weep?
have no desires or illusions, no mate, no property to support or protect — nothing belongs to you or me.
You nor I have any birth, gender or offspring, nor mind by its nature dividing Nature. Division equals non division for you and me.
You are void of attachment and unattachment, vacant of desire and aversion.
With you, there is no object of meditation or state of liberation. Outside you, there is no object to meditate on. Within and without, there is no time nor space.
The real essence of the Truth I told you is there is no you, me, teacher, or student. The Absolute exists in Its own way.
How can I, the Absolute, be blissful or non blissful, or reachable through knowledge or liberation?
I am empty of fire and air. I am not water or earth. I neither come nor go. I am neither empty nor full, nor pure nor impure, with nor without form. I am the Self, luminous everywhere like space.
Renounce the mundane existence. Renounce renunciation and non renunciation. Drop the ego’s pride of renouncing or embracing the Truth. Enjoy your Self, the nectar of your natural state.
4.
Why worship and perform offerings? How can there be flowers. leaves, incense, meditation beads or scriptures? The worshipper and the Absolute are one.
I am beyond freedom and bondage, purity and impurity, union and separation. I am freedom itself,.
Some claim the world real, others an illusion — for me this argument is meaningless.
I am without faults and errorlessness. I have no beginning or non beginning. I am not divisible or indivisible.
Since knowledge nor ignorance rise in me, how can I say I am with or without liberation, that I know or do not know?
Not bound or unbound to righteousness or error, I am beyond religion.
I have no superior or inferior, friend or enemy or an indifferent one.
Because I am not the worshiper nor its object and because I do not teach nor act on teachings, how can I speak of myself when I am Knowledge Itself?
Because there is nothing pervading or to be pervaded and because there is no abode or indweller, how can I speak of empty or full?
Because there is no one or thing to comprehend and because there is no cause or effect, how can I say I am the knower or the known?
There is nothing dividing or to be divided. Not being the knower or knowable, how can I speak of coming and going?
Because I have no body or bodilessness, no intellect, mind or senses, how can I speak of attachment or unattachment?
Since there is nothing separate nor nonexistent from me, how can I speak of same or different?
Because I am neither free nor bound by the senses and the rules of yes and no are meaningless, how can I speak of success or failure?
Because I am neither form or formlessness with no beginning, continuing or finishing, how can I speak of strength or weakness?
Because I never know death, deathlessness, good nor evil, how can I speak of purity or impurity?
Because for me there is no day or night, states of waking, sleeping dreaming or deep sleep, how can I speak of liberation?
Because I am beyond the one and the many and have neither illusion or disillusion, how can I speak of daily rituals?
Because I am not affected by achievement or non achievement in meditation and being established in That beyond the One, how can I speak of union and separation?
Because I am neither a fool or scholar, neither observe or break my silence, how I speak of true or false arguments?
Because I have no mother, father, family, race, birth or death, how I speak of affection or attachment?
Because I never disappear and am never present and am never touched by darkness or light, how I speak of morning and evening prayers?
Know me without doubt to be limitless, changeless and spotless.
My friend, the wise give up all meditation and good and bad acts. They drink renouncement’s nectar.
Knowledge through poetry does not exist for one who knows nothing. While in the state of liberation, I, the Avadhuta, have spoken of the Self.
5.
OM is equally everywhere as space. It is the essence of high and low knowledge. How else can the Unmanifested manifest and shine forth?
Scripture saying, “You are That” means you are Truth Itself — you live everywhere equally. Why, then, mind do you weep? All is the same.
The Absolute, spread everywhere, is vacant, below and above, in and out. No real or imaginary number can embrace me.
There is nothing to think with or about. There is no effect or cause. The words and their poem are and are not the same.
There is no knowledge or ignorance to meditate on, nor time or eternity, nor near or far.
A jar contains no space — there is no jar, soul container or soul, Nor is there distance between cause and effect.
In the ultimate free state, everyone is eternally free — the eight directions of the compass, up, down and inward qualities don’t exist. Meaning has no meaning.
Here, there is no void and non void, purity and impurity, everything and nothing.
Here, divided and unity, within and without, friend and foe dissolve their differences.
Here, there is no devotee or non devotee, no one evolving or not evolving. Everyone is eternally free.
Here, there is no creation or destruction, beauty or ugliness, harmony or chaos. Why, mind, all these tears?
Here, there are no chains binding you to good or evil. How can I work for this or the next world? Spotless purity is the same as liberation.
Here, there is neither separation nor union. The Absolute neither appears nor disappears because It is everywhere and beyond equally.
Here, there is neither association nor non association, knowledge or ignorance.
Here, the static and kinetic are unreal, as are those with and without purpose.
Here, all living beings are the same Consciousness, whether moving or non moving.
Here, ignorance is discrimination or non discrimination — doubting what is beyond doubt.
Here, there is no state of liberation or attachment, virtue or vice, perfection or imperfection.
Here, there is no color or its lack, no class or classlessness, division or non division.
Here, everything is eternal consciousness. The Absolute is void of all moving and unmoving beings.
Here, here is indivisible, all pervasive, spotless, beyond movable and non movable, transcending all where there is no day or night.
Here, all opposites like bondage and freedom, union and separation, knowledge and ignorance, converge and don’t converge are alike.
Here, time ceases, atoms and their parts collapse. Only the Absolute is found.
Here, body and unembodied are meaningless. Waking and dreaming have no difference. The Absolute is beyond name and rule.
Here, only spotless essence spread everywhere equally is found. There is no form or formlessness, thing or no thing.
Here, there is no concern for vice or virtue, indifference to wealth or poverty, desire or dispassion.
Here, there is no pleasure or pain, sorrow or joy, guru or disciple.
Here, there is no seed or husk, nothing firm, firmless, different or identical.
Here is found the Essence of all essences, where no distinction exists and no object can be perceived by It.
Here exists only the Absolute, the Self. All else, says scripture, is a mirage.
Here, one knows nothing at all. Even this poetry does not exist.
6.
The scriptures in many ways say, “The world perceived by the senses and the mind is a mirage.” If there exits only the Absolute, how and to what can It be compared, spoken or sung about?
The Self is neither divisible or indivisible. It is free from action, inaction, modification and non modification.
Beyond infinity’s reach, the Self pervades everything while being neither within nor without.
In the Self, day and night have no difference, nor is there a difference between dawn and dusk. How can there be a sun or moon shining?
There is no difference between desire and desirelessness, active and static.
There is no essence nor its lack, no full or empty.
There is no division and unity — knower or knowable dissolve.
What can or can not be spoken of is the Truth, known and unknown.
The five elements — ether, air, fire, water and earth — are not the Truth.
The gods and their realms and the mind’s imagination and projections are not different.
All the gods and their abodes are found in the region of cause and effect. There is no cause and effect.
There is no fate or free-will, no difference between living and dead, the caused and uncaused.
There is no difference between spirit and matter, a river and its source.
There is no youthful energy or old age suffering.
There is no difference between creator or creation, nor class or status, losing or gain.
There is no difference between possession and non possession, offspring and no offspring.
There is no difference between female and male, human and nonhuman life.
There is no delusion, doubt, stress or depression.
There is no difference between impiety and piety, dharma and no dharma.
There is no priest, monk, chant, nor sacred fuel, fire, or ash, nor devotion or rites.
There is no difference between sorrow or its absence, vanity or humility.
There is neither illusion or its absence, greed nor freedom from greed.
There is neither you nor I, nor have we ever existed or not existed, nor is there, then, family or class.
There is no difference between teacher and student, lesson or what learned.
There is no difference between flesh, blood and bone, earth and space.
There is no passion or freedom from it. Here, here is spotless and immobile.
There is no difference between body and embodied, true or false action. There is only the Absolute.
How then can I bow and to whom? There is no there or not there there, nor here here. I am the Absolute. Even this poemed knowledge does not exist. I, the Avadhuta, have spoken.
7.
My garb is a patched rag found along the roadside. I am free of humility and pride.
Wearing the garb of the sky, I sit in my empty abode immersed in the Self.
I have reached beyond awareness and unawareness, attaining and non attaining, union and separation. How can I speak or not speak of the Absolute?
Free from the binding cords of hope, I have reached beyond conventional action, beyond peace and non peace.
For me there is no question of being embodied or bodiless or attachment and non attachment. I am pure and indivisible like infinite space.
Once established in the Self, I don’t see or know beauty or ugliness, form or formlessness.
I am like the vast infinite space — undifferentiated, pure and spotless. I see no difference between difference and non difference or bondage and liberation.
This one Truth lives equally in everything. How can there be pride of liberation, union or separation in It?
This one Truth shines equally in all, forever spotless and continuous like space. How then can there be friendship or enmity, joy or misery in It?
As a yogi I live beyond union and separation, desires and no desires, duality and non duality. I wander slowly and calmly with my mind in its natural state of bliss.
Moving between night and day and bound by knowing and not knowing, how can one be free of duality and non duality?
The yogi is beyond destruction and non destruction, sustaining and nonsustaining.
For the yogi, being beyond the whole and the part, there is no substance or absence of substance.
The yogi is always united with and free of everything, free of all form. How, then, can there be birth or death, meditation or non meditation for the yogi?
Whatever the eyes see is illusion. Only the Absolute, the Self, exists.
We Avadhutas have no desire from righteousness to joy to liberation. How can scholars professing wisdom claim we have anything to do with attachment and non attachment?
Swimming in the ocean of the Unmanifest where there is no poetry, I, Dattatreya, the Avadhuta, sing, with delight in pure heart, this Truth of the Absolute, the true Self.
