Aṣṭāvakra Saṃhitā
A Dialogue on Self-realization
Chapter 14, Verse 2
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Ashtavakra Gita 14.2 -
क्व धनानि क्व मित्राणि क्व मे विषयदस्यव: ।
क्व शास्त्रं क्व च विज्ञानं यदा मे गलिता स्पृहा
kva dhanāni kva mitrāṇi kva me viṣaya-dasyavaḥ .
kva śāstraṃ kva ca vijñānaṃ yadā me galitā spṛhā .. 14-2..
When desire has fallen off, where are riches, where are friends, where are the sense-robbers, where is the scripture, where is spiritual wisdom? All these are of no avail!
Commentary by Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha
What a wonderful denunciation, revelation! Our mind is the sole focus in spiritual pursuit. By habit, the mind is agitated and discontented. To redress the plight, the seeker takes up spiritual pursuit. He first reads the scriptures, practises restraints as also meditative absorption. As a result, when mind becomes free from attraction, repulsion and fear, it begins to rest naturally in the Self.
Earlier sensory objects alone had occupied the mind, triggering endless desires. As the seeker becomes clearer about the Self-presence and world’s fictitious nature, mind drops its fascinations and gains a state of freedom from desires and other emotional entanglements. As it got involved earlier, so it now becomes free too!
In such a state of freedom, Janaka says, one feels no concern for riches and luxury. He has no yearning for friends. His senses are no more unfriendly. Sense objects do not attract or repel him, even when interacting with them. The quest for spiritual wisdom ceases, like one reaching his destination, stops walking further. All his effort ceases, as he has attained what is ultimately needed!
As Amritabindu Upanishad exhorts (śloka 18 ): “Learn scriptures well, realizing their essence. Then abandon them all.” Only in the holy land of India, this kind of exhortation has been made. Of the various desires, deluding the mind, love for learning the scriptures can also be delusive. What an amazing revelation!
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