संत साहित्य · Aṣṭāvakra · Verse by verse
Chapter 10 — Dispassion
Verse by verse
अष्टावक्र उवाच॥
विहाय वैरिणं काममर्थं चानर्थसंकुलं।
धर्ममप्येतयोर्हेतुं सर्वत्रादरं कुरु॥१०- १॥
aṣṭāvakra uvāca||
vihāya vairiṇam kāmamartham cānarthasamkulam|
dharmamapyetayorhetum sarvatrādaram kuru||10- 1||
Aṣṭāvakra said: Give up desire, the enemy; wealth, full of misfortune; and duty too, the cause of both — hold everything everywhere with equal indifference.
The three usual goals of life — pleasure (kāma), wealth (artha), and even duty (dharma), which merely produces the other two — are all worth releasing equally; none of them can deliver what's actually sought, which is the peace already present in awareness.
Notice today which of pleasure, money, or "doing the right thing" you're using to try to feel okay — and try feeling okay without it, just once.
स्वप्नेन्द्रजालवत् पश्य दिनानि त्रीणि पंच वा।
मित्रक्षेत्रधनागारदारदायादिसंपदः॥१०- २॥
svapnendrajālavat paśya dināni trīṇi pamca vā|
mitrakṣetradhanāgāradāradāyādisampadaḥ||10- 2||
See friends, land, wealth, house, wife, and inheritance as nothing more than a dream or a magician's illusion lasting three or five days.
Friends, property, wealth, home, spouse, and inheritance are all as fleeting as a dream that lasts three or five days — vivid while it lasts, but with no more permanence than any other dream.
Look at your possessions and relationships today as things you're visiting, not things you own forever.
यत्र यत्र भवेत्तृष्णा संसारं विद्धि तत्र वै।
प्रौढवैराग्यमाश्रित्य वीततृष्णः सुखी भव॥१०- ३॥
yatra yatra bhavettṛṣṇā samsāram viddhi tatra vai|
prauḍhavairāgyamāśritya vītatṛṣṇaḥ sukhī bhava||10- 3||
Wherever craving arises, know that saṃsāra is right there; taking refuge in mature dispassion, become free of craving and be happy.
Craving (tṛṣṇā) is the actual location of saṃsāra — wherever it shows up, that's where the wheel of suffering is turning; mature dispassion (vairāgya), not more acquisition, is what actually ends it.
The next time you feel a strong "I need this," locate it precisely — that feeling itself is the whole problem, not the thing it's pointing at.
तृष्णामात्रात्मको बन्धस्तन्नाशो मोक्ष उच्यते।
भवासंसक्तिमात्रेण प्राप्तितुष्टिर्मुहुर्मुहुः॥१०- ४॥
tṛṣṇāmātrātmako bandhastannāśo mokṣa ucyate|
bhavāsamsaktimātreṇa prāptituṣṭirmuhurmuhuḥ||10- 4||
Bondage consists of nothing but craving; its destruction is called liberation. Simply by non-attachment to worldly existence, contentment with what is attained arises again and again.
Bondage is made entirely of craving, nothing else, so its cessation is liberation; and simply by not clinging to whatever life brings, contentment (tuṣṭi) keeps arising on its own, over and over, without needing to be manufactured.
Instead of chasing your next satisfaction, try just not gripping the last thing you got — watch contentment show up uninvited.
त्वमेकश्चेतनः शुद्धो जडं विश्वमसत्तथा।
अविद्यापि न किंचित्सा का बुभुत्सा तथापि ते॥१०- ५॥
tvamekaścetanaḥ śuddho jaḍam viśvamasattathā|
avidyāpi na kimcitsā kā bubhutsā tathāpi te||10- 5||
You alone are consciousness, pure; the world is insentient and unreal — even ignorance is nothing at all. So what is this desire to know that still remains in you?
You are pure consciousness alone; the world is inert matter, and even the concept of "ignorance" (avidyā) supposedly obscuring this has no independent reality — so what is left to seek or know?
Stop treating enlightenment as one more item to acquire — the seeking itself may be the last habit to drop.
राज्यं सुताः कलत्राणि शरीराणि सुखानि च।
संसक्तस्यापि नष्टानि तव जन्मनि जन्मनि॥१०- ६॥
rājyam sutāḥ kalatrāṇi śarīrāṇi sukhāni ca|
samsaktasyāpi naṣṭāni tava janmani janmani||10- 6||
Kingdom, sons, wives, bodies, and pleasures — even for one who was attached to them, they have all been lost, birth after birth.
Even for someone deeply attached to kingdom, children, spouses, bodies, and pleasures, all of it has already been lost countless times across countless lifetimes — attachment never once made any of it permanent.
Hold what you love today a little more loosely, remembering it was always going to be temporary regardless of how tightly you held it.
अलमर्थेन कामेन सुकृतेनापि कर्मणा।
एभ्यः संसारकान्तारे न विश्रान्तमभून् मनः॥१०- ७॥
alamarthena kāmena sukṛtenāpi karmaṇā|
ebhyaḥ samsārakāntāre na viśrāntamabhūn manaḥ||10- 7||
Enough of wealth, desire, and even virtuous action — through these, in the wilderness of saṃsāra, the mind has never found rest.
Wealth, desire, and even good deeds (sukṛta karma) — none of these has ever actually settled the restless mind wandering the wilderness (kāntāra) of worldly existence; the search itself needs to stop, not be redirected to a "better" object.
If your latest achievement didn't bring lasting rest, don't assume the next one will — question the search itself.
कृतं न कति जन्मानि कायेन मनसा गिरा।
दुःखमायासदं कर्म तदद्याप्युपरम्यताम्॥१०- ८॥
kṛtam na kati janmāni kāyena manasā girā|
duḥkhamāyāsadam karma tadadyāpyuparamyatām||10- 8||
In how many births has action, painful and wearisome, been performed by body, mind, and speech? Let it now, today, finally cease.
Across who knows how many births, action performed through body, mind, and speech has produced nothing but wearying suffering — let that whole pattern of compulsive doing finally rest, today.
Give yourself explicit permission, right now, to stop striving for just one hour and see what's still here.