अष्टावक्र गीता is a 20-chapter dialogue of direct अद्वैत that repeatedly turns attention from changing experiences to the changeless witness. Its verses are short, but they aim at something practical: ending the inner compulsion to grasp, resist, and constantly defend an identity. When that compulsion drops, life is still lived - but lived with far less fear, comparison, and self-made suffering.
In the previous chapters, the dialogue has steadily refined what freedom means. Chapters 1-4 establish the witness standpoint (साक्षी) and show that dispassion is not dryness but freedom from addiction to विषयs. Chapters 5-15 keep dissolving doership and mental fixation: the teacher warns against craving and status, and then points to a growing ease where effort, inner argument, and even spiritual ambition fall away.
Seen as a whole, Chapter 17 is a portrait of the "ordinary miracle" of freedom: a mind that is not pushed around by pleasure and fear, praise and blame, gain and loss. It does not say the wise become inactive; it says their actions are no longer fueled by craving, and their reactions no longer build a self-story.
अष्टावक्र उवाच ॥
तेन ज्ञानफलं प्राप्तं योगाभ्यासफलं तथा ।
तृप्तः स्वच्छेन्द्रियो नित्यमेकाकी रमते तु यः ॥ 17-1॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
The one who is content, with clear senses and an inward solitude, naturally delights. For such a one, the true fruits of knowledge and practice are already attained.
न कदाचिज्जगत्यस्मिन् तत्त्वज्ञो हन्त खिद्यति ।
यत एकेन तेनेदं पूर्णं ब्रह्माण्डमण्डलम् ॥ 17-2॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
The knower of truth is never inwardly distressed in this world, because they see the entire universe as pervaded and completed by the One reality.
न जातु विषयाः केऽपि स्वारामं हर्षयन्त्यमी ।
सल्लकीपल्लवप्रीतमिवेभं निम्बपल्लवाः ॥ 17-3॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
Sense-objects can never truly delight the one who delights in the Self. It is like offering neem leaves to an elephant that enjoys more tender shoots.
यस्तु भोगेषु भुक्तेषु न भवत्यधिवासितः ।
अभुक्तेषु निराकाङ्क्षी तादृशो भवदुर्लभः ॥ 17-4॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
Rare is the person who is not inwardly "stained" by pleasures after enjoying them, and who does not crave the pleasures not yet enjoyed.
बुभुक्षुरिह संसारे मुमुक्षुरपि दृश्यते ।
भोगमोक्षनिराकाङ्क्षी विरलो हि महाशयः ॥ 17-5॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
In this world we can see seekers of pleasure and seekers of liberation. But rare indeed is the great-souled one who craves neither enjoyment nor liberation.
धर्मार्थकाममोक्षेषु जीविते मरणे तथा ।
कस्याप्युदारचित्तस्य हेयोपादेयता न हि ॥ 17-6॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
For the noble-minded one, there is no compulsive "accept this / reject that" even regarding duty, gain, pleasure, liberation, life, or death.
वाञ्छा न विश्वविलये न द्वेषस्तस्य च स्थितौ ।
यथा जीविकया तस्माद् धन्य आस्ते यथा सुखम् ॥ 17-7॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
He does not long for the world to disappear, nor does he hate it for continuing. Therefore the blessed one lives at ease, sustaining life in whatever simple way.
कृतार्थोऽनेन ज्ञानेनेत्येवं गलितधीः कृती ।
पश्यन् शृण्वन् स्पृशन् जिघ्रन्न्
अश्नन्नास्ते यथा सुखम् ॥ 17-8॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
Fulfilled by this knowledge and with the intellect's rigidity dissolved, the accomplished one lives at ease - seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating - simply as life happens.
शून्या दृष्टिर्वृथा चेष्टा विकलानीन्द्रियाणि च ।
न स्पृहा न विरक्तिर्वा क्षीणसंसारसागरे ॥ 17-9॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
For one whose ocean of bondage has dried up, the gaze becomes empty of seeking, activity loses personal agenda, the senses become quiet, and there is neither craving nor even a need to cultivate dispassion.
न जागर्ति न निद्राति नोन्मीलति न मीलति ।
अहो परदशा क्वापि वर्तते मुक्तचेतसः ॥ 17-10॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
He is neither awake nor asleep, neither opening nor closing. What an extraordinary state this is of the liberated mind!
सर्वत्र दृश्यते स्वस्थः सर्वत्र विमलाशयः ।
समस्तवासना मुक्तो मुक्तः सर्वत्र राजते ॥ 17-11॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
Wherever he is, he is seen as steady and clear. Freed from all latent cravings and conditioning, the liberated one shines everywhere.
पश्यन् शृण्वन् स्पृशन् जिघ्रन्न् अश्नन्
गृह्णन् वदन् व्रजन् ।
ईहितानीहितैर्मुक्तो मुक्त एव महाशयः ॥ 17-12॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
Even while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, receiving, speaking, and moving, the great-souled one remains free of the psychological knot of "I did this" and "I did not do that" - truly free.
न निन्दति न च स्तौति न हृष्यति न कुप्यति ।
न ददाति न गृह्णाति मुक्तः सर्वत्र नीरसः ॥ 17-13॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
He does not condemn or flatter, does not exult or rage. He is not trapped in the ego-stories of giving and taking. Liberated, he moves everywhere without personal agenda.
सानुरागां स्त्रियं दृष्ट्वा मृत्युं वा समुपस्थितम् ।
अविह्वलमनाः स्वस्थो मुक्त एव महाशयः ॥ 17-14॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
Whether seeing strong attraction or seeing death close at hand, the great-souled one remains unshaken and steady - truly free.
सुखे दुःखे नरे नार्यां सम्पत्सु च विपत्सु च ।
विशेषो नैव धीरस्य सर्वत्र समदर्शिनः ॥ 17-15॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
For the steady one with equal vision, there is no inner partiality based on pleasure and pain, man and woman, success and setback.
न हिंसा नैव कारुण्यं नौद्धत्यं न च दीनता ।
नाश्चर्यं नैव च क्षोभः क्षीणसंसरणे नरे ॥ 17-16॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
In the person whose bondage has worn out, there is neither cruelty nor sentimental pity, neither arrogance nor self-pity, neither amazement nor agitation.
न मुक्तो विषयद्वेष्टा न वा विषयलोलुपः ।
असंसक्तमना नित्यं प्राप्ताप्राप्तमुपाश्नुते ॥ 17-17॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
Liberation is not hatred of objects and not greedy chasing of them. With an unattached mind, one simply meets what comes - and does not suffer over what does not.
समाधानासमाधानहिताहितविकल्पनाः ।
शून्यचित्तो न जानाति कैवल्यमिव संस्थितः ॥ 17-18॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
With the mind empty of conceptual dividing, he does not live by categories like composure and disturbance, good and bad. He abides as though in complete freedom.
निर्ममो निरहङ्कारो न किञ्चिदिति निश्चितः ।
अन्तर्गलितसर्वाशः कुर्वन्नपि करोति न ॥ 17-19॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
Free of possessiveness and ego, established in the certainty of "nothing belongs to me", with all expectation dissolved within, he may act - yet inwardly he does not feel "I am doing."
मनःप्रकाशसम्मोहस्वप्नजाड्यविवर्जितः ।
दशां कामपि सम्प्राप्तो भवेद् गलितमानसः ॥ 17-20॥
Translation (भावार्थ):
Free from the mind's games of "brightness" and confusion, from dreaminess and dullness, the one whose mind has dissolved can be in any state without bondage.
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