Chapter 1 · Verse 15
देहं प्राणं च बुद्धिं च नाहं कर्ता न भोक्ता
dehaṃ prāṇaṃ ca buddhiṃ ca nāhaṃ kartā na bhoktā
Three layers of embodiment — body (deha), breath (prāṇa), and intellect (buddhi) — are denied, along with the two fundamental roles of embodied life: the doer (kartā) and the enjoyer (bhoktā). Together, these constitute the entire mechanism of saṃsāra: a body that acts, a mind that experiences, and the sense of being both. By denying all of them, Aṣṭāvakra collapses the entire structure. What remains is the Supreme Knower (parama-jña), always free (sadā mukta), always one (sadā eka). The freedom asserted here is not future or conditional — it is the eternal present of awareness itself.