Chapter-10, Verse 1

Ashtavakra Gita Verse 10.1

अष्टावक्र उवाच विहाय वैरिणं काममर्थं चानर्थसङ्कुलम्। धर्ममप्येतयोर्हेतुं सर्वत्रानादरं कुरु॥१॥

1. Having given up ‘desire’ (kāma) which is the enemy, ‘wealth’ (artha – worldly prosperity) which is attended with mischief, and ‘piety’ (dharma – performance of good deeds) which is the cause of these two, cultivate indifference to everything. 

In the traditional Indian scheme of life, the Rishis found out four distinct destinations enroute to the final achievement of life, one’s total spiritual emancipation. These four way side stations are piety, wealth, desires and Liberation; the interpretation of these four goals at the level of a new initiate in a Hindu family is that he must be rooted in righteousness (piety) and without contradicting this dharma he must seek, serve and procure the necessary ‘wealth’ (artha) with which he must learn to fulfil his honest and just ‘desires’ (kāma). By thus living a steady life of spiritual discipline he shall become fit for the study of scriptures and enter into deeper meditation which would ultimately take him to his final destination, freedom or Liberation (mokṣa). 

Aṣṭāvakra is advising here a student, who is on his way to the portal of Liberation. As the student enters the higher state of meditation, the Teacher wants the student to give up all these limited goals of life which, of course, had their initial blessings to contribute in helping the student to the present state of his awakening. But, in the last lap of the journey, he cannot accomplish the great leap, unless he gets tired of all his mental preoccupations with the ideas and values which were certainly valid in earlier levels of his ego-consciousness. 

To a student of Vedānta, ‘passion’ is his enemy, inasmuch as they will distract his mind towards sense objects and thus obstruct his final plunge into deeper meditation, ‘Wealth’ is accompanied by mental anxieties, both in its acquisition and its preservation. And ‘piety’, here meaning good and noble acts, both secular and sacred, also is to be given up because they are the cause for conferring upon him more worldly wealth and sense enjoyments. Later on, we will be told how even the anxiety for Liberation (mokṣa) is also to be given up. 

This is the state of highest dispassion (vairāgya) which is to be lived in the meditation seat while transcending the mind, rather than in the world while communicating with the other members of the community. This attitude of ‘total-dispassion’ is not a mere physical act of running away from the enjoyments of objects. This is an attitude that the student discovers in himself as a result of a healthier understanding of the world around him.