संत साहित्य · Aṣṭāvakra · Verse by verse
Chapter 14 — Natural Peace of Mind
Verse by verse
जनक उवाच॥
प्रकृत्या शून्यचित्तो यः प्रमादाद् भावभावनः।
निद्रितो बोधित इव क्षीणसंस्मरणो हि सः॥१४- १॥
janaka uvāca||
prakṛtyā śūnyacitto yaḥ pramādād bhāvabhāvanaḥ|
nidrito bodhita iva kṣīṇasamsmaraṇo hi saḥ||14- 1||
Janaka said: One whose mind, naturally empty, occasionally through inadvertence still conceives of things — he is like one just woken from sleep, whose memory of the dream is already fading.
Even the liberated citta (mind) may flicker with an old thought now and then; it leaves no more trace than a dream leaves on someone freshly awake — it doesn't reconstitute the dreamer.
When an old anxious thought resurfaces after you've made peace with something, let it pass like the last wisp of a dream instead of chasing it as new evidence of a problem.
क्व धनानि क्व मित्राणि क्व मे विषयदस्यवः।
क्व शास्त्रं क्व च विज्ञानं यदा मे गलिता स्पृहा॥१४- २॥
kva dhanāni kva mitrāṇi kva me viṣayadasyavaḥ|
kva śāstram kva ca vijñānam yadā me galitā spṛhā||14- 2||
Where now are riches, where are friends, where are the thieves that were my sense-objects? Where is scripture, where is knowledge — now that my longing has drained away?
Once spṛhā (craving) itself dissolves, the entire scaffolding built to satisfy it — wealth, relationships, defenses against loss, even the pursuit of learning — simply becomes irrelevant, not renounced but outgrown.
Notice how much of your to-do list exists only to feed a craving; when the craving genuinely quiets, let the task quietly drop rather than forcing yourself to keep doing it.
विज्ञाते साक्षिपुरुषे परमात्मनि चेश्वरे।
नैराश्ये बंधमोक्षे च न चिंता मुक्तये मम॥१४- ३॥
vijñāte sākṣipuruṣe paramātmani ceśvare|
nairāśye bamdhamokṣe ca na cimtā muktaye mama||14- 3||
Having recognized the witness-person, the supreme Self, the Lord, I am free of all expectation; bondage and liberation no longer concern me — I have no anxiety left even about being freed.
Once the sākṣī (witness) is recognized as one's own identity, even the project of 'getting liberated' collapses, since bondage and liberation were both only ever ideas held by the mind, not conditions of the Self.
Stop treating your own spiritual progress as one more goal to anxiously track — the striving to become free can be its own form of bondage.
अंतर्विकल्पशून्यस्य बहिः स्वच्छन्दचारिणः।
भ्रान्तस्येव दशास्तास्तास्तादृशा एव जानते॥१४- ४॥
amtarvikalpaśūnyasya bahiḥ svacchandacāriṇaḥ|
bhrāntasyeva daśāstāstāstādṛśā eva jānate||14- 4||
For one inwardly empty of mental constructs, wandering outwardly as he pleases, his various states are recognized as strange only by those who are themselves as if deluded.
From the outside, a mind with no fixed agenda looks erratic or even a little mad; but that judgment says more about the onlooker's need for predictable behavior than about the person actually being free.
Don't measure your own peace of mind by whether your choices look consistent or explicable to people who are still running on old habits and expectations.