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Aṣṭāvakra Saṃhitā
A Dialogue on Self-realization
Poojya Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha
Chapter 17, Verse 16
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Ashtavakra Gita 17.16 -

न हिंसा नैव कारुण्यं नौद्धत्यं न च दीनता ।
नाश्चर्यं नैव च क्षोभ: क्षीणसंसरणेऽनरे

na hiṃsā naiva kāruṇyaṃ nauddhatyaṃ na ca dīnatā .
nāścaryaṃ naiva ca kṣobhaḥ kṣīṇa-saṃsaraṇe’nare..

Neither harmfulness nor compassion, neither insolence nor undue humility, neither wonder nor agitation befalls the wise in whom worldliness is exhausted and human-hood transcended.

Commentary by Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha

True, there is a widespread cry in all ages to cultivate virtues like goodness, gentleness and compassion, and eschew vices like pride, hate and harmfulness. Vices are destructive, and virtues are ennobling. But all these are relevant to the world of dvandvas. Can the seeker be restricted by such man-made divisions and constraints, and denied the embrace of the Supreme, the Truth?

To fulfil his quest, he is determined to leave everything and trek any height or depth. Thus he outlives the objectude and steps into the inner abode of indivisible fullness, as into sleep. He is the singular Subject, different from all objects. To cling to objects and hence abide by conventional norms will still be for him to indulge in illusoriness, of which he is at best the witness.

Clinging to the fictitious, should he gloat over the so called virtues, or straight go to the supreme, sovereign abode of the Subject and be free? This is how he transcends the world as well as the conventional human-hood.

Yet he will be superbly good and noble, stupefying even the noble-hearted. Krishna in his last message to Uddhava says: The Knower, the superb devotee, becomes ubhaya-atīta, transcends the two, dvandvas. He does not refrain from bad seeing evil in it, nor does he do good seeing virtue in it. He lives and moves like a child, harming none and delighting all (Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 11.7.11 )!

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