Chapter
17
Ashtavakta
He
who is content, with purified senses, and
always enjoys solitude, has gained the
fruit of knowledge and the fruit of the
practice of yoga too. 17.1
The
knower of truth is never distressed in
this world, for the whole round world is
full of himself alone. 17.2
None
of these senses please a man who has found
satisfaction within, just as Nimba leaves
do not please the elephant that has a
taste for Sallaki leaves. 17.3
Not
attached to the things he has enjoyed, and
not hankering after the things he has not
enjoyed, such a man is hard to find. 17.4
Those
who desire pleasure and those who desire
liberation are both found in samsara, but
the great soul man who desires neither
pleasure nor liberation is rare indeed.
17.5
It
is only the noble minded who is free from
attraction or repulsion to religion,
wealth, sensuality, and life and death
too. 17.6
He
feels no desire for the elimination of all
this, nor anger at its continuing, so the
lucky man lives happily with whatever
means of sustenance presents itself. 17.7
Thus
fulfilled through this knowledge,
contented and with the thinking mind
emptied, he lives happily just seeing,
hearing, feeling, smelling and tasting.
17.8
In
him for whom the ocean of samsara has
dried up, there is neither attachment or
aversion. His gaze is vacant, his
behaviour purposeless, and his senses
inactive. 17.9
Surely
the supreme state is everywhere for the
liberated mind. He is neither awake or
asleep, and neither opens or closes his
eyes. 17.10
The
liberated man is resplendent everywhere,
free from all desires. Everywhere he
appears self-possessed and pure of heart.
17.11
Seeing,
hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting,
speaking and walking about, the great
soul man who is freed from trying to
achieve or avoid anything is free indeed.
17.12
The
liberated man is free from desires
everywhere. He does not blame, does not
praise, does not rejoice, is not
disappointed, and neither gives nor takes.
17.13
When
a great soul one is equally unperturbed
in mind and self-possessed at the sight of
a woman full of desire and at approaching
death, he is truly liberated. 17.14
There
is no distinction between pleasure and
pain, man and woman, success and failure
for the wise man who looks on everything
as equal. 17.15
There
is no aggression or compassion, no pride
or humility, no wonder or confusion for
the man whose days of running about are
over. 17.16
The
liberated man is not averse to the senses
and nor is he attached to them. He enjoys
himself continually with an unattached
mind in both achievement and
non-achievement. 17.17
One
established in the Absolute state with an
empty mind does not know the alternatives
of inner stillness and lack of stillness,
and of good and evil. 17.18
Free
of 'me' and 'mine' and of a sense of
responsibility, aware that 'Nothing
exists', with all desires extinguished
within, a man does not act even in acting.
17.19
He
whose thinking mind is dissolved achieves
the indescribable state and is free from
the mental display of delusion, dream and
ignorance. 17.20
Swami Veet Chintan T'Zorba-Krsna
Jyotish
Shastracharya
& Vedic Astrologer of India
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