Enlightenment, Uninterrupted!: A New, Exciting Commentary on Ashtavakra Gita Your Quantum Leap to Self-Realisation

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A commentary on probably the world's greatest book written so far that can, upon reading, bring the reader close to Self-Realisation, if not, Enlightenment.

The book, "Ashtavakra Gita", was written originally in Sanskrit language and has been translated by various interpreters, each attempting to touch the original meaning of the aphorisms contained in the book. In this volume, the author provides a commentary to the aphorisms apart from translation of each from Sanskrit to English language.

Ashtavakra, a teenager, comes to the court of King Janaka to challenge and avenge his father's defeat at a debate. In the end, he comes out with flying colours, surprising the King and all those present listening to the debate. Do not read this book with any effort. All that is required of you is just to sit back and read the entire commentary.

SUSHIL SONI, b. 1956, did his MA English, from Hindu College, Delhi University, New Delhi, in 1979. Starting his career as a Sub-Editor/Reporter with United News of India (UNI), he represented both the UNI and Indian Express newspaper as Foreign Correspondent at London. He graduated from active journalism to magazine publications, joining Media Transasia Group at Bangkok, as Editor of inflight magazines like Namaskaar and Royal Wings. He returned to India to edit and launch magazines like DASH, Soul Curry, Eternal Solutions and Hi-Flyers.

His first book of verses, Serving the Columns, was published in 1996. Since then, he has written several books, including Perceptions, Sushilsutram and Other Writings and Resolving the Myths. His horror story, Khoon Ka Rishta (Blood Relations), for which he wrote the screenplay, was telecast on Doordarshan National hookup in 1999.

He lives with his wife and children in New Delhi.

Ashtavakra wants us to accept that we are not only enlightened and liberated, but that we are also free - only that we do not know it yet. The operative word here is "accept". Once we have transcended this phenomenon, then we will have reached our original state. We do not accept because we are conditioned to walk on a given path, to follow a tested method, to experiment within the confines of these methods and experience what has already been experienced before. Here, society is satisfied with repetition of experiences since that verifies the correctness of its conditioning. Society needs to reconfirm that what it is doing is the right thing because that brings orderliness in chaos and orderliness means peace. Thus, society needs to manacle our thought-processes, society needs to put shackles around our bodies, society needs to impose rules and regulations upon us with a reminder that if we do not follow them then we will be responsible for breaking the order and bringing chaos and, therefore, sorrow - qualifications for punishment.

Little do we realize that this society is the result of a choice made by people like you and I. Little do we realize that this order that the society speaks of is actually a mirage that we have imposed on nature. The order that we speak of here is actually a book of manual that tells us how to live in a particular, categorized manner. This manual and this society - which are inherently changing and amending themselves - are not imposed by some external interventions from somewhere out there. You and I have created this order, thinking, albeit delusional, that there is a chaos which has to be set right to an arrangement of our liking. This arrangement teaches us to think and live the way this book of manual instructs.

In this way, this society regulates our thoughts. We cannot think beyond a limitation set by the society; in fact, our thinking is continuously regulated by the norms set by the society which categorizes the thinking processes into religion, spirituality, science, technology, law and politics. All these keep us confined to the limitations of our body where the outer skin becomes supreme, where the beauty of an individual lies in outward appearance and the bank balance rather than in what he is. In order to itself survive, the society ensures that every individual continues to indulge in the limitations of the body by remaining attached to earthly desires, worries and cares. This is a merry-go-round of attachment leading to greed and greed leading to attachment. You always say "My shirt, my wife, my house, my car, my phone, my religion, my country", but no one hears you saying "My world, my solar system, my milky way, my galaxy". After all, there is limitation to your thinking. Anyway, since your mind is crammed with thoughts, your organs clogged with toxins and your bodies stiffened with neglect, do you think there is space for anything else?