अष्टावक्र गीता is a 20-chapter dialogue of direct अद्वैत that keeps cutting through the same illusion: taking the body-mind to be the Self. It does not try to decorate life with new beliefs; it tries to remove the deeper misunderstanding that makes life feel like a constant struggle for security.
So far the dialogue has moved through a clear arc. Chapter 1 answers जनक's questions about ज्ञान, मुक्ति, and वैराग्य by warning against compulsive attachment to विषयs while pointing to the witness. Chapters 2-4 express recognition and then mature it into lived freedom.
Seen as a whole, Chapter 10 is a chapter of "enough." It repeats a single medicine: recognize what has never truly satisfied, stop fueling it, and let the mind rest. तृष्णा (craving-thirst) is named as the essence of bondage, and the chapter says that rest comes not by rearranging the world again, but by ending the compulsion that keeps you rearranging.
अष्टावक्र उवाच ॥
विहाय वैरिणं काममर्थं चानर्थसंकुलम् ।
धर्ममप्येतयोर्हेतुं सर्वत्रानादरं कुरु ॥ 10-1॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
Ashtavakra said: Abandon craving, the enemy, and abandon wealth that is entangled with harm. Even धर्म, when treated as a means for craving and wealth, do not treat as your ultimate. Practice non-importance toward these everywhere.
स्वप्नेंद्रजालवत् पश्य दिनानि त्रीणि पंच वा ।
मित्रक्षेत्रधनागारदारदायादिसंपदः ॥ 10-2॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
See possessions and supports as dreamlike or like a magic show - lasting only a few days (three, five, or so). Friends, land, wealth, houses, spouses, heirs, and related prosperities are not lasting refuges.
यत्र यत्र भवेत्तृष्णा संसारं विद्धि तत्र वै ।
प्रौढवैराग्यमाश्रित्य वीततृष्णः सुखी भव ॥ 10-3॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
Wherever craving arises, know that bondage is there. Taking refuge in mature dispassion, be free of craving and be at ease.
तृष्णामात्रात्मको बंधस्तन्नाशो मोक्ष उच्यते ।
भवासंसक्तिमात्रेण प्राप्तितुष्टिर्मुहुर्मुहुः ॥ 10-4॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
Bondage is nothing but craving; the ending of that craving is called liberation. Merely by non-attachment to worldly becoming, contentment with what comes arises again and again.
त्वमेकश्चेतनः शुद्धो जडं विश्वमसत्तथा ।
अविद्यापि न किंचित्सा का बुभुत्सा तथापि ते ॥ 10-5॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
You alone are pure consciousness; the world is inert and has no independent reality. Even ignorance is nothing - then what is there to know? Yet even so, you still have the urge to know.
राज्यं सुताः कलत्राणि शरीराणि सुखानि च ।
संसक्तस्यापि नष्टानि तव जन्मनि जन्मनि ॥ 10-6॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
Kingdoms, children, spouses, bodies, and pleasures - even when you were attached to them - have been lost by you, birth after birth.
अलमर्थेन कामेन सुकृतेनापि कर्मणा ।
एभ्यः संसारकांतारे न विश्रांतमभून् मनः ॥ 10-7॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
Enough of wealth and pleasure, and even of merit-making action. In this wilderness of saMsAra, the mind has found no rest from these.
कृतं न कति जन्मानि कायेन मनसा गिरा ।
दुःखमायासदं कर्म तदद्याप्युपरम्यताम् ॥ 10-8॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
In how many lifetimes have you not done exhausting, pain-giving actions by body, mind, and speech? Let that compulsive labor stop, even now.
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