Chapter 10 ( verses)

CHAPTER TEN

अष्टावक्र उवाच​

Ashtaavakra spoke

{GET RID OF ‘TRSHNAA’, THE THIRST FOR PLEASURES}

विहाय वैरिणं काममर्थं चानर्थसंकुलम् ।

धर्ममप्येतयोर्हेतुं सर्वत्रादरं कुरु ॥१०-१॥

Get rid of the enemy called ‘Desire’.

Renounce also the desire for acquiring excessive wealth

which brings about much harm.

Accept the discipline for getting rid of them everywhere (at all times),

so as to be free of them.

स्वप्नेन्द्रजालवत्पश्य दिनानि त्रीणि पञ्च वा ।

मित्रक्षेत्रधनागारदारदायादिसंपदः ॥१०-२॥

Look at friends, fields (lands), money-bank, wife, relatives and wealth,

as illusory objects seen in the dream, or magic show;

 and lasting for just three or five days only.

(Nothing stays as it is, in this ever-changing pattern of the perceived.

World is like the momentary grandeur of objects presented by a magician on a stage.)

यत्र यत्र भवेत्तृष्णा संसारं विद्धि तत्र वै ।

प्रौढवैराग्यमाश्रित्य वीततृष्णः सुखीभव ॥१०-३॥

Wherever there is thirst for pleasures,

understand that alone to be the worldly existence (that is trapping you).

Take shelter in mature dispassion.

Be free of thirst for pleasures; and be happy.

(Dispassion in the mind, though experiencing the sense objects, is the mature practice. Outwardly keeping away the objects, and thinking of them in the mind is hypocrisy.)

तृष्णात्मको बन्धस्तन्नाशो मोक्ष उच्यते ।

 भवासंसक्तिमात्रेण प्राप्तितुष्टिर्मुहुर्मुहुः ॥१०-४॥

Thirst for pleasures alone is bondage.

Destruction of that is said to be the liberation.

Only through a detachment attitude

towards the world and the objects of the world,

 can the ever continuous bliss be obtained. 

त्वमेकश्चेतनः शुद्धो जडं विश्वमसत्तथा।

अविद्यापि न किंचित्सा का बुभुत्सा तथापि ते ॥१०-५॥

You are one, the conscious principle, and pure.

The world with its objects is inert and unreal.

Avidyaa is not there at all for you.

How can the eager nature to enjoy pleasures be there for you?

(How can Knowledge have ‘absence of Knowledge’ (Avidyaa)?

How can the bliss-source of the world ever want bliss from the emptiness of the world?)

राज्यं सुताः कलत्राणि शरीराणि सुखानि च ।

संसक्तस्यापि नष्टानि तव जन्मनि जन्मनि ॥१०-६॥

Due to the attachment for the kingdoms, sons, wives, bodies, and pleasures,

you have wasted countless lives.

(Do you want to waste more lives, still seeking them?

Even after enjoying these pleasures in so many lives, you have not attained any satisfaction yet. How can you alleviate your thirst in the mirage waters ever?)

अलमर्थेन कामेन सुकृतेनापि कर्मणा ।

एभ्यः संसारकान्तारे न विश्रान्तमभून्मनः ॥१०-७॥

Enough of hoarding wealth and enjoying pleasures! 

Enough of doing meritorious actions to get the very same pleasures!

  The mind did not find rest in this wilderness of the world, through these!

कृतं न कति जन्मानि कायेन मनसा गिरा ।

दुःखमायास​दं कर्म तदद्याप्युपरयताम् ॥१०-८॥

How many lives have passed already,

engaged in doing the same tiresome works with the body, mind and word!

At least now give them all up.