Ashtavakra Gita 18.69 -

True, philosophers relate a long succession of entities constituting the phenomenal world around us. Their list commences from Mahat, Cosmic intelligence, which evolves ego, mind and the five senses; from them the fine elements (tan-mātras); and next the gross ones – earth, water, air, fire and space (pañca-bhūtas). But all these fall under one category called the visible.

In our interaction, visible is the ‘witnessed’. Man is the ‘witness’. Witness never becomes the witnessed, nor vice versa. Witness alone is changeless, and witnessed is changeful, hence unreal, an illusion, imposed upon the witness. Where is phenomenalism then at all in reality? It is only in name, merely a reference.

What is there for the Self-knower as duty? Will one think of getting his dream daughter married upon waking? Can a trader think of marketing hare horns as a rare product, at great cost?

So, no worldly or secular duty can be ascribed to one who has known the Self and is abiding in its splendour. His only role, if at all, is to bask in that experience, exposing the treasure to as many as he can, a mission he alone can do best. Right from the beginning, our culture has held sannyasa, renunciation, as the fourth purushārtha, the other three – celibacy, household life and anchorite – leading to it. What a precious order and ideal!