Tripura Rahasya

Sage Dattatreya

Parasurama said:

Lord, this legend is marvellous. Please tell me what Ashtavakra asked the king next, and the instructions he received. I had not hitherto heard this story, full of sublime truths. Please continue this story.

Dattatreya said:

O Bhargava, Listen to the discourse with King Janaka. On the departure of the holy ascetic from their vision, ashtavakra, the son of a Sage, asked Janaka who was surrounded by a whole group of pandits, the full explanation of the ascetic's brief but recondite speech. 

Ashtavakra asked:

O King of Videha, I have not clearly understood the teaching of the ascetic because of its brevity. Please explain to me how I shall know the unknowable.

King Janaka said:

It is neither unknowable nor remains unknown at any moment. Tell me how even the ablest of Masters can guide one to something which always remains unknown. If a Guru can teach, it means that he knows what he says. This transcendental state is quite easy or may be well-nigh impossible according as one's mind is inward bent in peace or out moving in restlessness. It cannot be taught if it always remains unknown. The fact that the Vedas point to it only indirectly as 'not this, not this' shows that the knowledge can be imparted to others. Whatever you see becomes known by the very Abstract Intelligence.

Now carefully analyze the underlying consciousness which, though abstract and apart from material objects, yet illumines them all the same. Know it to be the truth. O Sage! What is not self-luminous can only fall within the orbit of intelligence and cannot be Intelligence itself. Intelligence is that by which objects are known; it cannot be what it is if it becomes the object of knowledge. What is intelligible must always be different from Intelligence itself, or else it could not be made known by it. Intelligence in the abstract cannot admit of parts, which is the characteristic of objects. Therefore objects take on shapes. Carefully watch absolute intelligence after eliminating all else from it.