Ashtavakra, the sage, addressed Janaka with profound wisdom, urging him to renounce the enemy of desire and the misfortune-laden pursuit of wealth. Even righteousness, which arises from these two, he advised to regard with detachment, wherever it may be found. He encouraged Janaka to see the fleeting days—whether three or five—as nothing more than a dream or illusion, along with friends, lands, wealth, houses, wives, heirs, and all possessions. Ashtavakra pointed out that wherever craving exists, worldly existence is present. By relying on mature dispassion, one becomes happy and free from craving. He emphasized that bondage is nothing but craving, and its destruction is liberation. Through mere non-attachment to existence, satisfaction is attained again and again. He reminded Janaka, “You alone are conscious and pure; the world is inert and unreal. Even ignorance is nothing. So why this curiosity?” Kingdoms, sons, wives, bodies, and pleasures—even for those attached—are lost in every birth. Enough of wealth, desire, and even virtuous deeds; in the desert of worldly existence, the mind has never found rest. Ashtavakra asked Janaka to reflect: how many births have passed, with body, mind, and speech engaged in actions that bring suffering and toil? Let that cease today. He then taught that knowing the arising, non-arising, and change are all natural, one who is changeless and free from distress attains peace effortlessly. Realizing that the Lord is the creator of all and there is no other, the one whose hopes have dissolved within becomes peaceful and unattached everywhere. Understanding that misfortune and fortune come in their own time, by fate, one who is content and whose senses are steady neither desires nor grieves. Knowing that happiness and sorrow, birth and death, are by fate, one who sees what is to be done, without effort, is not tainted even while acting. Recognizing that suffering arises from thought and not otherwise, one who is free from it is happy, peaceful, and everywhere devoid of longing. By knowing, “I am not the body, nor is the body mine; I am consciousness,” one attains isolation as if liberated, not remembering what was done or not done. Realizing, “I alone am,” from Brahma down to a blade of grass, the undivided, pure, peaceful one is free from concern for attainment or non-attainment. Knowing, “This world is not wondrous, nor is anything,” one who is free from desires and consists only of awareness becomes peaceful, as if nothing exists. Janaka then spoke of his own experience: at first, he was unable to perform bodily actions; then unable to elaborate in speech; then unable to think—thus, he settled in this way. By absence of delight in words and the like, and by the invisibility of the self, with a heart undisturbed and concentrated, he had settled. He observed that even the practice of samadhi is itself a distraction from samadhi, so he settled in this way. Recognizing that joy and sorrow do not arise due to the absence of anything to accept or reject, he settled in this way. Seeing that ashramas, non-ashramas, meditation, and even the acceptance of thoughts by the mind are all mere concepts, he settled in this way. Just as the performance of action ceases through ignorance, so too, having rightly understood this truth, Janaka settled. Even when one tries to think of the unthinkable, it takes the form of thought; therefore, abandoning such contemplation, he settled in this way. Janaka declared that whoever acts in this way becomes fulfilled; whoever has this very nature becomes fulfilled. He described the state of having nothing and being established in oneself as rare, even for one with only a loincloth. Having abandoned both acceptance and renunciation, he sat at ease. Fatigue comes to the body somewhere, the tongue is tired somewhere, the mind elsewhere; having abandoned these, Janaka remained happily established in the Self. Reflecting truly that nothing whatsoever is ever done, whenever something comes to be done, he did it and sat at ease. For the yogi abiding in the body, the insistence on action or inaction is absent; due to the absence of union or separation, Janaka sat at ease. Gain and loss are not his, whether standing, going, or lying down; so in all states, he sat at ease. There is no loss for him when asleep, nor accomplishment when striving; having abandoned both decline and elation, he sat at ease. Observing repeatedly that states such as happiness and others are only in the mind, and having abandoned both auspicious and inauspicious, Janaka sat at ease. He observed that one whose mind is empty by nature, but who contemplates objects out of inadvertence, is like one asleep though awake, for his memory is exhausted. He questioned: where are possessions, friends, sense objects, scripture, or knowledge for him, when all desire has fallen away? Having realized the witness-self, the supreme self, the Lord, and in the absence of hope, bondage, or liberation, Janaka had no concern for liberation. For one who is empty of inner concepts and moves freely outwardly, the states that arise are like those of a deluded person; only such a one knows them. Ashtavakra then said: by whatever means he is instructed, the wise person who has attained fulfillment is satisfied; but the seeker, even for a lifetime, remains confused about that. Liberation is indifference to sense objects; bondage is the taste for sense objects. This alone is to be understood—act as you wish. The realization of truth makes even the eloquent, wise, and energetic person mute, dull, and inactive; therefore, those who desire worldly enjoyment abandon it. Ashtavakra reminded Janaka: you are not the body, nor is the body yours; you are neither the enjoyer nor the doer. You are consciousness itself, always the witness, unattached—move about happily. Attachment and aversion are qualities of the mind; the mind is never yours. You are consciousness itself, without distinctions, unchanging—move about happily.