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Aṣṭāvakra Saṃhitā
A Dialogue on Self-realization
Poojya Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha
Chapter 17, Verse 17
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Ashtavakra Gita 17.17 -

न मुक्तो विषयद्वेष्टा न वा विषयलोलुप ॥: ।
असंसक्तमना नित्यं प्राप्ताप्राप्तमुपाश्नुते

na mukto viṣaya-dveṣṭā na vā viṣaya-lolupaḥ .
asaṃsakta-manā nityaṃ prāptāprāptam-upāśnute .. 17-17..

The liberated soul hates not the sensory objects, nor does he indulge in them. With a mind free from delusional clinging, he enjoys whatever the passage of time brings or brings not.

Commentary by Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha

Here is another way of saying how the Seer follows his life, like a boat gliding over the sea of waves. His is a way of non-involvement in anything – action, non-action, event or otherwise.

He is liberated, filled with his inner elixir. But on that ground he is not hateful or intolerant about sense objects. Nor does he indulge in them. The Knower’s uniqueness is in realizing the uninvolved nature of the Self in anything whatever, and expressing this neutral and transcendental majesty everywhere.

He has no concern about how his life will transpire and by what means. Like all other denizens of the earth, the mobile and immobile creation, his embodiment is also one. What is there special to be concerned about it? Specialty is only when one plays to the tune of the fictitious ego.

Existence is not limited to a single being or its group. Survival is a grand affair involving millions and trillions of beings – plants, trees, creepers, reptiles, animals, birds and human beings. Do not all of them survive with their respective needs and potentials?

To dissociate individual life from all the rest, and feel responsible for it is sheer ignorance, delusion.

He breathes as long as air is there. Rest of the activity also will follow. Thus he enjoys whatever nature brings and brings not. Both are equally pleasing to him – a life of fullness and freedom!

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