Hey everyone,
After his “Stirrup Moment” – that electrifying instant when Ashtavakra’s words dissolved his confusion – King Janaka wasn’t the same. He didn’t just understand liberation; he became it. And what he discovered is mind-blowing, cutting through all the noise and distractions we face today.
Imagine waking up one day and realizing all your anxieties, all your “FOMO” (fear of missing out), all your worries about what others think – were just illusions. That’s what Janaka experienced. He declared, “I am now spotless and at peace – Awareness beyond Consciousness. All this time I have been duped by illusion.” In our world of constant comparison and external validation, Janaka found a radical, internal peace. He realized that the messy dramas we get caught up in are like tiny waves, foam, and bubbles on a vast, calm ocean – and he was the ocean, untouched. He saw that everything, literally everything around him, emanated from his true Self, making it all a part of him, not separate.
He discovered that he was the very essence of creation, like sweetness pervading sugarcane juice. He realized that all the perceived problems, all the struggle and misery in the world, came from seeing things as separate – “looking at One and seeing many.” We get caught up in our online personas, our social circles, our achievements, thinking they define us. Janaka realized all that was just a “materialized” world, a mental projection. Like mistaking a rope for a snake in the dark, our fears and limitations often aren’t real; they’re just misunderstandings of reality.
Janaka’s insight was that he was “wonderful indeed – beyond adoration.” Even with a physical body, he was infinite, everywhere at once, beyond coming or going. He was astounded by his own power, realizing that the entire universe appeared within him, yet he remained completely untouched by it. He understood that he was “everything thought or spoken,” yet had nothing, because he was everything. He was beyond the concepts of freedom or bondage, because those were just illusions that had simply fallen away.
He knew that the ideas of a body, heaven, hell, or fear were just imagination. He, as pure Awareness, was completely separate from them. He said, “I am not the body. I do not have a body. I am Awareness, not a person.” And the truly beautiful part? He embraced all of it! In his limitless Self, he saw the “waves of beings” – people, experiences, challenges – arise, collide, play for a time, and then disappear, exactly as their nature intended. He understood that life’s ups and downs are just part of the show, happening within the vastness of who he truly is.
This is the ultimate confidence, the ultimate peace, that comes from realizing your boundless, pure Awareness. It’s like discovering you’re the CEO of the universe, and all the little employee struggles were just part of the game you were playing.
So, as we reflect on Janaka’s profound realization, ask yourself: If this is what it feels like to truly know yourself, how much of your current “reality” is just an illusion you’ve been believing?
