Chapter-11, Verse 3

Ashtavakra Gita Verse 11.3

आपदः सम्पदः काले दैवादेवेति निश्चयी। तृप्तः स्वस्थेन्द्रियो नित्यं न वाञ्छति न शोचति॥३॥

3. He who has understood with certitude that misfortune and fortune come in their own time, through the effects of past actions, becomes ever contented and has all his senses well under control. He neither desires nor grieves. 

It is all a question of our understanding. Even amidst good fortunes there are people who are in the habit of worrying and growing anxious. There are others who even in the midst of calamitous days of repeated misfortune discover an inner peace born out of unshaken faith. 

Fortune and misfortune that happen today in our lives are connected to our own past actions. When this is understood with certitude, man learns to live in contentment, heroically facing whatsoever happens to him in life. He no longer strives or plans for his sense gratifications; his senses are ever held in check. He desires nothing. He knows not how to grieve over things that had perished in his embrace. 

Desire is for what is not attained and grief is generally over what is lost. Both these are happenings according to the rhythm set by our own actions in the past. In this knowledge he discovers an undisturbed peace and unperturbed contentment. 

This is aptly expressed in Yogavāsiṣṭha as follows: ‘Let misfortune come or good fortune come. A true Sage never leaves his divine peaceful Nature (Self). Just as the milky ocean, in spite of being churned by the Mandāra mountain, still retains its white colour.’ (athāpadaṁ prāpya susaṁpadaṁ vā mahāmatiḥ svaprakṛtaṁ svabhāvam, jahāti no mandaravellito'pi śauklyaṁ yathā kṣīramayāmburāśiḥ.  ~Yogavāsiṣṭha-5.93.98)

By lifting the mind to a higher vision alone can we withdraw it from its natural habitat consisting of sense objects. This is the exercise advised by the Bhagavad-Gītā also: ‘Little by little let him attain quietude by the intellect held in firmness; having made the mind established in Self, let him not think of anything.’ (śanaiḥ śanair ūparamedbuddhyā dhṛtigṛhītayā, ātmasaṁsthaṁ manaḥ kṛtvā na kiñcidapi cintayet. ~Bhagavad-Gītā-6.25)

Kaṭhopaniṣad reinforces this idea when it declares: ‘When all the desires in the heart are emptied, then the mortal man gains immortality and therein apprehends Brahman.’ (yadā sarve paramucyante kāmā ye'sya hṛdi śritāḥ, atha martyo'mṛto bhavatyatra brahma samaśnute. ~Kaṭhopaniṣad-2.3.14)