Chapter-10: An Introduction

Chapter-10: Dispassion

Introduction 

In Chapter 8, still hearing too much “I” in Janaka’s language, Ashtavakra instructs him in the subtleties of attachment and bondage. In Chapter-9, Ashtavakra continues to describe the way of true detachment. In the following Chapter-10, Ashtavakra hammers away at the folly of desire - no matter how elevated or subtle. Thus all three chapters are inextricably linked and form the core of ideas to fathom for a true Spiritual Seeker: Attachment & Bondage >> True Detachment >> Folly of Desires. 

Without leaving none can reach; all progress is leaving the present state and moving to reach a greater goal, to attain a greater purpose. If ignorance is not left behind, into knowledge we cannot enter. Where the emotion of anger has left, there alone calmness can reach. In short, without renunciation of the false we cannot attain the real. 

Therefore, in Vedānta, from the Vaidika texts onward we find the Teachers emphasising the need for the spirit of renunciation (vairāgya). It is the desires and passions that propel a mind towards the world, around it and make that mind a slave to its own environments. Therefore, the principle of renunciation is indicated by a significant term ‘vairāgya’, literally meaning ‘dispassion’. Where our attachments to body, mind and intellect have ended through vairāgya, there we are in the Self. 

The previous chapter discussed an emotional attitude of ‘indifference’ to fields of experiences of our limited ego. There the emphasis was upon the world of objects. In this section defining and exploring the significance and spirit of dispassion, Aṣṭāvakra is placing all emphasis upon the seeker’s intellect and its attitude towards the world around him. 

The joys or the destinies of the world are impermanent. A consummate sense of contentment can reach only a bosom emptied of all its desires and passions. Ultimately, we must give up even our anxiety to fulfil the traditionally accepted and recommended great ‘ends of human life’ such as piety (dharma), wealth (artha), desires (kāma) and anxiety for Liberation (mokṣa). 

The Self alone is Real; the universe is false, as false as a magician’s show. All activities in the pursuit of piety, wealth and desires are also unreal. The very anxiety for Liberation is an illusion; therefore, all these are to be renounced. This is the state of supreme dispassion (parama vairāgya). The ‘Awareness’ in us that illumines the very ‘ignorance’ in us and makes us conscious of it, is the supreme Self. Therefore, earlier it was also indicated that even ‘ignorance’ is unreal, an illusion.