Krishjan

Chapter 16 — Svasthya

Ashtavakra Gita

11 Shloka • Translation Only

Aṣṭāvakra said: Dear child, you may teach, or you may listen to countless scriptures again and again. Yet, apart from the complete letting go of all mental accumulations and memories, you will not attain true peace and repose in the Self.

You may engage in enjoyment, perform actions, or practice Samādhi, O wise one. Yet only that state in which the mind is free from all desires and expectations will be deeply satisfying to you.

Through striving and exertion, everyone becomes burdened by suffering. Yet hardly anyone understands this. By this teaching alone, the blessed one attains perfect peace and fulfillment.

One who feels wearied even by the activity of opening and closing the eyes, who is supremely free from all impulse toward activity, such a one alone enjoys true happiness— and no one else.

When the mind becomes free from the duality of "This has been done" and "This has not been done," then it becomes indifferent even to Dharma, Artha, Kāma, and Mokṣa.

One who is detached often becomes a hater of sense-objects. One who is attached becomes eager and restless for them. But one who is free from both grasping and rejection is neither detached nor attached.

The notions of rejection and acceptance are the very sprouts of the tree of Saṃsāra. They continue to exist so long as desire (Spṛhā) remains alive, even in one who has reached a state beyond conceptual thought.

From engagement in activity arises attachment. From withdrawal from activity arises aversion. But the wise one, free from all dualities, remains established like a child—natural, simple, and unaffected.

One who is still attached wishes to abandon Saṃsāra in order to escape suffering. But one who is free from attachment is already free from suffering. Therefore, even while remaining amidst Saṃsāra, he is not troubled by it.

One who takes pride even in Liberation, and who still possesses a sense of ownership toward the body, is neither a Jñānī nor a Yogī. Such a person is merely a participant in suffering.

Even if Śiva (Hara) were your teacher, or Hari (Viṣṇu), or even Brahmā (Kamalaja) himself, still you would not attain true peace and repose in the Self without the complete letting go of all mental accumulations and memories.