Chapter-10, Verse 2

Ashtavakra Gita Verse 10.2

स्वप्नेन्द्रजालवत् पश्य दिनानि त्रीणि पञ्च वा। मित्रक्षेत्रधनागारदारदायादिसम्पदः॥२॥

2. Look upon friends, lands, wealth, houses, wives, presents, and other such objects of fortune as a dream or as a magician's show, lasting only a few days – just three or five. 

As a means of rising above the habitual mental fascinations to live in the pursuit of the traditional ‘goals of life’, hinted in the above verse, here Aṣṭāvakra helps the student in re-educating his view of life. 

In this new understanding, the student can independently come to recognise the hollowness of his generally accepted ‘aims of existence’, of his relations, of wealth and of all other objects with which we try to enrich our lives and build up our security in existence. All are really illusions of the mind, as insubstantial and false as the dream objects or as the world of apparent fantasies created by a magician’s wand! They have only a temporary existence. The ephemeral nature of the world of plurality is indicated here by saying: ‘Lasting only a few days – just three or five’. 

Constantly keeping this view of the fields of experiences, the ego shall cultivate a larger amount of ‘dispassion’ (vairāgya) for these uncertain factors and their insignificant rewards. The more the student recognises the transitoriness of the joys of achievements in the world of plurality, the stronger shall grow in him his ‘dispassion’ for them.