Ashtavakra Gita teachings for daily life:
The constant activities that the mind does are an attempt to find a refuge in the action to safeguard its image from which it identifies itself. Whereas Muni Ashtavakra is completely renouncing the mind's habit to follow this escape route. "Ahankar" the ego, has the habit of always holding onto something in order to legitimize its existence as a self (what we think ourselves to be). But in order to be free, he is asking us to be the formless (Nirakar) so we can be one with the absolute.
Who Am I?
Now comes the one and only question that the entire spirituality revolves around: who am I? If we simply ask each other this question, we may receive a variety of answers. As we all are holding on to one or the other thought that creates its framework as an identity. In the Bhagvat Gita (the holy Hindu scripture), it is stated to start your spiritual journey with negation of all that is not needed, whereas at the level of thought, it creates some false identity with which you identify yourself. Well, this is a constant practice, not a one-time task.
It is almost like starting an education in any kind of discipline. You'll have to first admit yourself, and then you continue with the process of that course that you've opted for along with the improvements in that field in a phased manner.
But in this process, we don't have to learn something new. Whereas it's a process of renouncing all that we have acquired as our false identity and getting rid of the dirt that has covered the surface of our mind in the form of thoughts. We'll have to practice a habit of seeing that false identity as a third person, and that is the only way to understand that you're not that and you'll be free from that identity.
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