Aṣṭāvakra Saṃhitā
A Dialogue on Self-realization
Chapter 9, Verse 1
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Ashtavakra Gita 9.1 -
नवमोऽध्याय: –
अष्टावक्र उवाच ।
कृताकृते च द्वन्द्वानि कदा शान्तानि कस्य वा ।
एवं ज्ञात्वेह निर्वेदाद्भव त्यागपरोऽव्रती
navamo’dhyāyaḥ –
aṣṭāvakra uvāca ..
kṛtākṛte ca dvandvāni kadā śāntāni kasya vā .
evaṃ jñātveha nirvedād-bhava tyāga-paro’vratī .. 9-1..
Ashtavakra said: Will duties performed and not, as well as pairs of opposites, ever end and for whom? Knowing that this is so, be desire-free here and resort to renunciation by dint of indifference.
Commentary by Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha
The world, however external, gross and various, is our experience. Hence it is of, in and by the mind. Mind evidently is not a part of the body, though associated with it. Electrical power passing through conductors, is not part of the wire. Thus, the mind too is alike, though is pervasive.
How can the subtle inner mind produce an external, gross world? The entire phenomenon is notional, like thoughts and emotions, surfacing and subsiding mystically in the mind. Yes, the world is a vanishing display. The Knower admits no reality to it. As an experience, it is un-negatable, but when examined it fails, falls. So, the enlightened attitude towards it is ‘indifference, nirveda’, as Mundakopanishad declares (1.2.12 ).
If in our nearly sixteen wakeful hours of the day the world is, it is not in our eight sleeping hours. Can it then be authentic? Such an illusory world brings the sense of duty and non-duty, right and wrong, life and death, and other dvandva notions.
When will this end? So, drop all desire, as it is all for fictitious things. Will you chase an object or scene perceived in dream? Utter indifference to objects of the world is verily renunciation!
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