Ashtavakra said:
1. He who is always contented, who is unattached to any object, who ever enjoys solitude, he has obtained the fruit of spiritual Knowledge and of the practice of Yoga.
2. The knower of Truth does not suffer inwardly or outwardly, for he knows he alone fills the Universe.
3. No sense object ever pleases him who delights in the Self, even as the elephant who delights in Sallaki leaves is not pleased with the leaves of the Nima tree.
4. Rare indeed is the Sage who does not crave for that which he has enjoyed, and has no desire for that which he has not possessed.
5. In the world, those who crave for mundane joys and those who crave for liberation are found, but rare is that great-souled one who cares neither for enjoyment or liberation.
6. It is only an enlightened man who has no attachment to righteousness, prosperity, sense delights, or even liberation, and is indifferent to life and death.
7. Neither does the existence nor the dissolution of the Universe cause him either delight or aversion. The blissful Sage lives happily on whatever comes.
8. He who has this spiritual Knowledge, whose mind is absorbed in contemplation and who is contented, lives in bliss whether seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, or eating.
9. Attachment and detachment are the same for him for whom the ocean of the world has disappeared. His gaze is withdrawn (from external objects), his actions are without motive, his senses are inoperative.
10. He who is freed from the mind neither sleeps nor wakes, neither opens nor closes his eyes, but enjoys the supreme bliss under all conditions.
11. The liberated man is ever rooted in his own nature, and is pure in heart, free from all desires under all conditions.
12. Seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, acquiring, speaking and walking, the great-souled one, above action and inaction, is verily liberated.
13. The great-souled one neither commends nor censures anyone. He is neither angry, nor does he rejoice. He neither gives nor receives. He is free from attachment to objects.
14. Whether he perceives a woman full of love or death approaching him, the great-souled one remains unperturbed, rooted in his own nature. Verily, he has found liberation.
15. The serene Sage recognizes homogeneity everywhere, and perceives no difference in pleasure or pain, man or woman, prosperity or adversity.
16. For the man who is no longer bound by ignorance, the cause of birth and death, there is neither a desire to inflict injury, nor to demonstrate compassion. He experiences neither arrogance nor humility, wonder nor agitation.
17. The liberated man has no aversion for sense-objects, nor does he crave for them. With his mind ever detached, he is unconcerned with what is attained and with what remains unattained.
18. The wise man who has acquired mental vacuity (the mind being filled with Atman alone), is not concerned with contemplation or its absence. He is established in the Absolute State, and has transcended good and evil.
19. Devoid of the feeling of “This is mine” and “This I am” and knowing for certain that nothing objective exists in reality, the knower of Truth is at peace within himself, his desires have subsided. Though appearing to act, in fact he does not engage in action.
20. His mind having ceased to function and being free from delusion and inertia, the man of Self-Knowledge experiences the indescribable state.