Just renounce what you don't have | Ashtavakra Gita

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The Ashtavakra Gita. In the previous video in this series, we covered the mechanism of suffering. What it is that causes psychological pain. Tentatively we called it desire.

The mental tug that takes over the mind with ideas of self and its needs and wants. Desire is wanting what you do not have. What needs be renounced is not possessions or relationships, or any actual thing or entity, but simply this want for what is not here at present. This is an inner renunciation.

Just renounce what you don't have. Freed of wants for what is not yours, the mind can recede into quietude. And in that calm you find the clarity of what is truly You and Yours. Chapter 10.

Quietude. Ashtavakra said:

"Give up desire which is the enemy.

Give up prosperity which is born of mischief and good works.

Be indifferent.

Look upon friends, lands, wealth, houses, wives, gifts, and all apparent good fortune, as a passing show, as a dream lasting three to five days.

Where there is desire, there is the world.

Be firm in non-attachment.

Be free of desire.

Be happy.

Bondage and desire are the same.

Destroy desire and be free.

Only by detaching from the world does one joyfully realize Self.

You are One — Awareness itself.

The universe is neither aware nor does it exist.

Even ignorance is unreal.

What is left to know?

Attached as you have been to kingdoms, sons, wives, bodies, pleasures, life after life, still they are now lost forever.

Prosperity, pleasure, pious deeds... enough!

In the dreary forest of the world, the mind finds no rest.

For how many lifetimes have you done hard and painful labor with body, mind, and speech?

It is time to stop."

What is being described here is not an ideal or a way of life. It is not a prescription on what you should do. But this is how a Sage arrives at the realization of what the Self is. If you are interested, then you follow what is being said here.

This is how Self-inquiry is performed — By stepping aside from the pursuit that governs this mind, that drives this whole species, life itself.

"Give up desire, which is the enemy.

Give up prosperity, which is born of mischief and good works.

Be indifferent.

Look upon friends, lands, wealth, houses, wives, gifts, and all apparent good fortune, as a passing show, as a dream lasting 3 to 5 days."

This is the state in which the mind becomes receptive to the truth. See that all you consider yours is just passing by. The friendships you thought would last a lifetime have almost all moved on.

The goals you were hellbent on in your youth have all changed. Keep that in mind. See how all your concerns are focused on this 3 to 5 day window. Whatever happened recently, is anticipated shortly, what you can accomplish today, maybe tomorrow, or over the weekend.

Before and after that are just hazy fantasies. And any longer term memories are just what's been stirred up by recent events. It's like you're amidst a dream lasting 3 to 5 days. Where is all this going?

What is this pursuit about when the goalposts keep moving,

"Where there is desire, there is the world.

Be firm in non-attachment.

Be free of desire.

Be happy."

When there is desire for holding on to all these events, experiences passing by, then there is the illusion of a separate world, time, events yet to come.

When there is non-attachment, there is no separate world, and no separate self to be found. There is the One-Awareness. You don't have to give up your relationships or possessions. Only give up what you don't have.

Free of desire. You don't have to give it up for years or decades to understand the truth. You just give it up in the instant. And free of desire you are instantly at peace.

This is not an injunction on how to live life, how to stop doing what you're doing. It is not setting some ideal. This is just describing how you can know the mind of a Sage. This is the way to realize what made King Janaka come begging.

"Bondage and desire are the same.

Destroy desire and be free.

Only by detaching from the world does one joyfully realize Self."

Do you want to be free of the mind?

Just give up that temptation of what you don't have in the moment. Stop looking for that future state. That deeper realization. Truth can only be found in what is yours in this moment. What is truly you?

Desire takes you away. The idea of progression takes you away. There is no time required here.

"You are One — Awareness itself.

The universe is neither aware nor does it exist.

Even ignorance is unreal.

What is left to know?"

The universe is neither aware nor real.

This universe in which you are living out this life, in which you see the stars at night, in which you've seen pictures of the earth from space, of galaxies — This universe is entirely subjective. It is only as seen from a relative point in space and time. Seen through the apparatus of this human body and the corresponding mind's capacity. This universe is not aware.

There's nothing in it that can be said to be aware. Neither is it real. It exists only as these perceptions in Awareness. So what is most real here?

If you are scientifically bent, you may say the quantum realm is the real universe. But that quantum realm in which no solid object has ever existed, the movements of that realm are appearing as these perceptions. Why? Because that realm is in contact with That which is aware.

If it were not so, there would be no relation between the quantum realm and this subjective phenomenal world. That which is aware is inseparable from the most fundamental Reality. But beyond that, Awareness is real in a way that is most immediate and intimate. Because Awareness is another name for you.

It is just a term to try to describe what you are with a bit more precision. You are That which is aware. The Aware-ness. The One-Awareness.

Because there can never be two. There cannot be a blue awareness and a red awareness, or a male awareness and a female awareness, or your awareness and my awareness. The Self is nondual; indivisible — this Awareness. So what is left to know?

What realization could you possibly have in the future? What knowledge could you gain that is not being pointed out right now? The pull that says there must be more, that is the allure of desire. To fall for it is ignorance.

But even that ignorance is unreal because You, as Awareness, remain ever aware.

"Attached as you have been to kingdoms, sons, wives, bodies, pleasures, life after life, still they are now lost forever."

Now do you see what all the talk of past lives is really about? Memories come and go, but there is the one Self.

Life after life, and all lives in parallel. Each life a seeming island, but it is all joined in this constant factor — the Awareness. All desire is futile. Everything is passing by. Everything must go.

But the saving grace is this one realization of what the Self is, of what is truly you and yours. Timelessly.

"Prosperity, pleasure, pious deeds... enough!

In the dreary forest of the world, the mind finds no rest.

For how many lifetimes have you done hard and painful labor with body, mind, and speech?

It is time to stop."

Stop this futile search, this never ending pursuit of happiness, and stand still Here. Notice what is yours.

What is it like to be you regardless of all else? You. That peace you feel in the absence of desire, what does it depend on except for the fact of you being present and aware? Stay Here.

Take your stand in the Absolute. Thus you arrive at wisdom. Chapter 11: Wisdom. Ashtavakra said:

"Existence, non-existence, change — this is the nature of things.

Realizing this, stillness, serenity, and bliss naturally follow.

One who knows for certain that 'Self creates all and is alone' becomes still, desireless, unattached.

One who knows for certain that adversity and success come and go in obedience to destiny becomes content. He neither desires nor grieves.

One who knows for certain that birth and death, happiness, and misery, come and go in obedience to destiny sees nothing to accomplish. He engages in non-action, and in action remains unattached.

One who has realized that only by caring is misery caused in the world becomes free, happy, serene, desireless.

I am not the body nor is the body my possession.

I am Awareness itself.

One who realizes this for certain has no memory of things done or left undone. There is only the Absolute.

From Brahma to the last blade of grass, I alone exist.

One who knows this for certain becomes immaculate, serene, unconflicted. Attainment has no meaning.

One who knows for certain that this manifold and wonderful universe is nothing, becomes desireless awareness and abides in the stillness of No-thing."