Author Description

Ashtavakra Gita is the most instructive spiritual text ever written and should be read and re-read by any sincere seeker of Self-Realization. It gets to the heart of Truth and True Nature more directly and concisely than anything else I've encountered, and I agree with its last words: "No more can be said." I call this the "bootleg version" because a PDF of my first draft of this translation, which I gave to a small group of friends, made its way onto the internet and subsequently was downloaded and read by a sizeable number of people, judging by the emails I've received thanking me for doing it, or requesting permission to translate it into their language-despite having no contact information in the PDF. Several years later I included a slightly revised version in my book, The Perennial Way, which judging by book sales has not reached nearly the same number of people. And so I thought I'd publish the original version separately as a paperback and e-book, on the theory that maybe it had its own mojo for some reason, and might find its way into the hands of a few folks who have not otherwise encountered it. The Translator's Preface and Introduction are also from the original viral PDF.