You are Formless

----- from Ashtavakra Gita (अष्टावक्रगीता)

साकारमनृतं विद्धि निराकारं तु निश्चलं ।
एतत्तत्त्वोपदेशेन न पुनर्भवसंभव: ॥१-१८ ॥

sākāramanṛtaṁ viddhi nirākāraṁ tu niścalam |
etattattvopadeśena na punarbhavasaṁbhavaḥ ||1-18 ||


Translation :-

आकार को असत्य जानकर निराकार को ही चिर स्थायी मानिये । इस तत्त्व को समझ लेने के बाद पुनः जन्म लेना संभव नहीं है ।

Know that which appears as a form to be false and the formless to be changeless. Through this spiritual instruction you will cease to be born again.

Comments:

Here, it may seem as if Ashtavakra were advocating the doctrine of
reincarnation but it is not so. How can a sage who has rejected everything believe in a specific belief-system or theory like reincarnation? For him everything is a concept and only the SELF is real.

To really understand what Ashtavakra implies here would require us to first find out what it is that is born and what is it that dies.

The gross body with its five elements is born and dies. Every thought and emotion has an origin and an end and in that sense it too is born and dies. Our breaths in this world are all numbered and are born and die. Prana is born and dies too. All the four states of Consciousness live and die. The niverse comes and goes. I-ness appears and disappears. Everything that appears also disappears, is born and dies. And as long as I feel I am any one of these, I will continue to be born again and die again. This is a fundamental aspect of the traditional Indian spiritual belief system. But then
regardless of any such beliefs, the moment I break identification with all of the above and become the witness on whom all of these are superimposed, I will know that I was never born in the first place. This will not be a matter of belief but an actual realization. It will be known that I have always stood independent of everything and none of these had anything to do with me.