Ashtavakra Gita

‘Ashtavakra Gita’ is one of the advaitic masterpieces. Without mincing matters, it comes out with the advaitic truth, the whole truth, and nothing but advaita, which is the truth. This book embodies Ashtavakra’s teaching to King Janaka, which vouched for his self-knowledge between the time he placed one foot upon the stirrup of his horse and lifted himself to place the other foot on the other stirrup.

However, as can be seen from the following quote, Bhagavan Ramana said that there is no time involved at all in self-knowledge.

“When I entered the hall, the story of how the Ashtavakra Gita came to be taught was being recounted in English for the benefit of the above Raja and other visitors. After the story was read out, Bhagavan said, ‘Because Brahma Jnana is not something external, which is somewhere faraway where you can go and get it, you cannot say that it will take so long or so short a time to attain it. It is always with you. . . . All that is necessary is to surrender yourself completely to the Guru, to surrender your notions of ‘I’ and'mine''.”