Ashtavakra Samhita

What i do is look at each verse and copy the text down on paper ommiting the bracketed words (which were added. Then i look at the text on its own, for instance Astavakra's first reply says; "O child liberation wish the objects of the senses like poison shun forgiveness sincerity kindness contentment and truth like nectar seek."Now obviously it doesn't make complete sense on your first read, but let it sink in and wonder what he's saying. Read it again and add your own commas, rearrange the words if you need to and keep playing with it, coming back to it on and off, all day maybe, with some of them i keep going back to them after a few days.Then when i'm ready and i think i understand this pigeon english, which is actually very beautiful to me i write down what i think he is saying, and in this case i wrote 4 lines;If you wish liberationthen you must shunthe objects of the sensesas if they were poisonWhen i'm finished i carefully cut around the text with scissors and roll the verses up into little scrolls which i cherrish and call them My Scrolls.I love wisdom texts of all people's but this is my favourite of all.I hope you love this book as much as i do.namaste.

This is one of the Advaita Vedanta books you must read. Not the first book you should read :)

A real gem. Says it as it is. No frills no compromise.

Of the dozen or so translations of Ashtavakra available in English, this one has a lot going for it. This review relates to the 1953 edition.Bart Marshall, the author of another excellent rendition, stated that his was not a new translation as such: he read all the available versions he could find, and chose the particular translation of each verse that 'spoke' to him most profoundly - an excellent strategy!This version is different. The author is not only a Sanskrit scholar with an excellent command of English, but he exhibits a profound understanding of the Ashtavakra itself. His 13 page introduction is a real gem!The format of the book is as follows: each verse is presented in the original Sanskrit. This is followed by a word-for-word literal translation - each Sanskrit word being followed by an English equivalent..Then comes the author's actual translation into colloquial English. The author highlights one or two words in each verse, expanding the meaning of the chosen English word in order to render the Sanskrit intention more precisely. Finally, he adds a short commentary on each verse.Obviously, the only drawback is that it doesn't 'read' quite so fluently as, for example, Bart Marshall's, simply because the latter is unencumbered with explanatory notes.There can never be a definitive translation of Astavakra, but I feel that this version which was one of the first available in English, provides an essential benchmark..Returning to this review after several weeks, during which I have compared this translation verse by verse with several others, I must re-iterate my conviction that this translation is a must-have. If I could only choose one, this would be it - and once again, the introduction is a masterly summary of Advaita.