Chapter-3, Verse 13

Ashtavakra Gita Verse 3.13

स्वभावादेव जानानो दृश्यमेतन्न किञ्चन। इदं ग्राह्यमिदं त्याज्यं स किं पश्यति धीरधीः॥१३॥

13. Why should that wise minded man, who knows that the perceived world in its own nature, has no substance, consider one thing acceptable and another unacceptable? 

He who has awakened to the higher plane of Consciousness, to him, from his eminence, the illusory world of objects is already lifted. It is only the individualised ego perceiving the world of plurality, through its intellect, evaluates each object as pleasant and unpleasant and on the basis of it, rejects or accepts the available field in front of it. 

All these processes are possible only under an assumption that the perceived world is Real. Man of Wisdom also sees the world of objects, but this viewing the objects is distinctly different from the ways of the worldly man. We view the scenes around us through the web of our own vāsanās and, therefore, we cannot hold ourselves back from our utilitarian point of view! 

The Man of Perfection perceives the world without rejecting or accepting it and, in fact, he sees things as they are and not as interpreted by his own vāsanās. Having recognised a seashell, as it is, who will stoop down to pick it up, even though, it may continue shining as a piece of silver? 

In Mahopaniṣad we find a similar sentiment expressed in a lyrical verse. In the eternal homogeneous Brahman, which is the substratum, the illusions created by imagination can have no existence. It remains the same as ever before, here and there, the same. May you be therefore ever calm and serene:’

tate brahmaghane nitye saṃbhavanti na kalpanāḥ | vicchittayaḥ payorāśau yathā rāma na sanmayāḥ || 40 || 

"There can be no distinction, Rama, in the everlasting and all extensive plenum of Brahma; as there is no difference in the whole body of water of the wide extended ocean."