Avadhuta Gita
The Chant of The Enlightened One
by Shri Dattatreya
The Avadhuta Gita is a sacred text attributed to Shri Dattatreya and can be considered the principal work of the Dattatreya-Avadhuta tradition. The text offers a crystalline vision of the pure, non-dual, and non-relative goal of the Avadhuta Path: the state of the Perfect Avadhuta - the Enlightened One. The central theme is the knowledge of union attained through mystical vision, the knowledge of the eternal Self. This knowledge is not confined to mystics of a single cultural tradition but is universal among those who have achieved the mystical vision. Men and women from all lands and religious traditions have directly experienced the eternal Reality and realised it as their essential identity. The legendary
Guru Dattatreya
of ancient mythology is said to have been an incarnation of Vishnu, born to the sage Atri and his chaste wife Anasuya. According to legend, Dattatreya received the appellation "Avadhuta" when he renounced his royal inheritance to become a wandering ascetic, living naked and free, away from the distractions of worldly men.
The word "Avadhuta" has become a generic term for all those homeless ascetics and yogis of India who live the life of total renunciation, uninterested in the world and its "civilised" conventions, in order to remain focused and identified with the eternal Self. For those who seek the ultimate meaning of existence, which even institutionalised religions fail to satisfy as they are subject to the same dynamics of an apparent duality, this Chant of the Enlightened One provides great comfort: whatever one's condition, they are an essential part of an undivided and indivisible Whole, unlimited and present everywhere and in everyone. No action or penance is necessary, no effort, no path. The being is the same universal Self. In this pure simplicity, every conflict disappears. English and Transliteration from Sanskrit.