Avadhuta Gita

The Avadhuta Gita (“Song of the Free”) is a Sanskrit text of radical non-dualism sung by the avadhuta Dattatreya. Of all the Advaita texts it speaks in the most absolute register — the Self is never bound, and no path is needed to return what never left.

Content

Across eight chapters of vigorous verse, the avadhuta denies distinction after distinction: “The sage sees the Self in all; how then can he speak of purity or impurity, of meditation or its object?” The text’s grammar of negation — it concedes nothing to body, caste, scripture, or even to Vedanta’s own method — marks its kinship with the Ashtavakra Gita. Where the Ashtavakra Gita instructs a king, the Avadhuta Gita proclaims; its tone is the freedom it describes.

Significance

The text is the scriptural touchstone of the avadhuta ideal — the saint beyond all social measure — honored in the Datta, Nath, and Vedanta traditions alike. Modern teachers from Ramakrishna’s circle to the present quote it as the self-description of jivanmukti.

Verification notes

• Date and authorship are unknown; scholarly estimates range widely (early centuries CE to medieval).
• Audited against Wikipedia (September 2026).