Ashtavakra Gita 18.73 -

World, worldliness is not a changeless presence, hence not real. It is the inscrutable power called Māyā of Brahman, the Self, that brings about ceaseless transforming-ness. Once the seeker realizes this fact, will he feel like possessing anything and clinging to it? Will you be attracted to a house reflected in a mirror, wanting to possess it and reside in it? Or will you persuade your mind to understand its fallacy and remain unshaken?

Likewise, the feeling of ahaṅkāra, ego, that ‘I am the cause, am the doer, enjoyer and sufferer’ also becomes irrelevant in our life in the world, as long as one knows that what he sees and feels is but an illusion. When the fallacy of possessiveness as well as ego becomes clear, the enlightened will not also have any desire for anything at all. What is there to be desired, striven for and gained? Where is the scope for fostering desire at all? Will not any such desire be for the illusory objects around?

You may wonder whether such an illusory display can be there. It is to clarify matters and enlighten us that we have in addition to the waking state, our individual dream state too. Our life of experience is not exhausted by wakefulness. It consists also of the daily sleep and the occasional dream.

It is undeniable that the proof for any existence or prevalence is our experience of it. In sleep the entire wakeful world including one’s body ceases to be. But the one who experiences the world, the experiencer, does continue to be. What more? He cooks up a parallel world all by himself. Keeping the body intact on the cot, the sleeper produces another body and interacts with the dream world, which may have dream timespan of days, weeks, decades and even more; only to break the state while waking up to find that it was all an illusion.

The potential, power to bring about such a delusion is in the sleeper, his Consciousness, whch is nonetheless the same that remained awake earlier and will still be so subsequently. Is it not clear from the dream state then that the Consciousness in every one holds this inscrutable power, māyā, to project the illusory dream world, dream interactions and all the results and outcomes it brings?

It is this finding that makes the enlightened one shed all his possessiveness, mamatā, ego, ‘I’ness, and desire. Knowledge of the supreme truth certainly makes one leave abruptly the untruth and feel absolutely free, peaceful and harmonious with himself.

Yes, such a one alone shines as a human, with the right evaluation about the world we all are living in. He, however, allows the body and senses to do what they will, harmlessly and beneficially, without any undue control or interference.

At the same time, the Knower does not allow the whole process to instil anything like doership and the like in him. This is the real spiritual safeguard, not the least denial or withdrawal from activity. Self-realization is the epitome of perennial contentment, harmony and fulfilment, dissolving all kinds of conflict and contradiction.